Louisville football: 5 players to watch against Western Kentucky
Javian Hawkins
Running back
How about Javian Hawkins? When the depth chart for the 2019 season was first released, a lot of people were wondering who the guy was at the top of the depth chart at RB, over Hassan Hall and Dae Williams. Javian Hawkins has made the coaches look brilliant for this call, Hall has remained involved and Dae Williams has chosen to go elsewhere.
https://twitter.com/AllDae25/status/1171127684245725184
Hawkins has been rolling since we first kicked this season off. He had 129 rushing yards against EKU, coming on only 11 carries. All but 11 of those rushing yards actually came in only one quarter against the Colonels. And it wasn’t just against EKU. He ran for 122 yards against a stout Notre Dame front seven. So far we’ve only seen a high level of speed & success from Javian through two games.
He’s the first UofL freshman with back to back games of more than 100 yards rushing since this guy named Lamar Jackson. His immediate success has made this season more fun to watch and makes the next few seasons seem like they’re going to be infinitely better than this past season.
It’s weird being able to rely on the running game after last season when it seemed so ineffective… but that’s exactly what is happening in the Ville.
Louisville's leading rusher (excluding QBs) Hassan Hall totaled 303 yards in 12 games in 2018.
— Chris Person (@RivalsChris) September 11, 2019
Through 2 games in 2019, Javian Hawkins has 245 yards.
But now defenses are going to be keying on Hawkins, he may be the one guy WKU decides they will not let beat them on Saturday. This is going to make things tougher on Javian, but I have a feeling he’s going to be up to the challenge in Nashville.