Louisville football: 3 players who could follow the same path as Javian Hawkins
By Jacob Lane
How Javian Hawkins laid the blueprint from emerging from little known player to star, and three players who could follow in his footsteps for Louisville football in 2020.
For you to wind up here means you’re interested in figuring out why someone might be asking if there’s another “Javian Hawkins” on a Louisville football roster that already has a Javian Hawkins.
An interesting concept that probably has you thinking I’m an idiot. Understood. But just hear me out before you click on somewhere else.
When I ask this question I don’t specifically mean is there another running back on the roster who is capable of stepping into the starting role and having a record-breaking season. Instead, what I’m referring to is more of the story behind Hawkins rise from a relatively unknown player to being the most productive running back in decades for Louisville football.
Last season entering spring practice it was all but a lock that rising sophomore Hassan Hall was going to step into the role of the lead back for Scott Satterfield and be the next star running back for the Cards. The assumption that Hall would be the starting tailback was one held by the entire fanbase and all of those who cover the Cards. Hall had emerged late in 2018 as a true freshman, finishing the season as the team’s leading rusher at the running back position with 303 yards and three touchdowns.
Knowing Satterfield’s offenses were built on the run game and had produced 1,050-yard rushers year-in-and-year-out, Hall was set to be the guy. But apparently no one told that to redshirt freshman Javian Hawkins.
The undersized redshirt freshman used spring practice and the reps that became available after Hall got dinged up to show the staff that he in fact was the running back who could give them everything they wanted.
Scott Satterfield, Dwayne Ledford, and running back’s coach Norval McKenzie all praised Hawkins’s effort and abilities and seemed welcome to the idea of open competition.
“He had our most explosive run during spring ball,” McKenzie said. “He brings a lot to the table for our offense.”
After showing his potential, Hawkins used that momentum to have a big summer and fall camp, where he emerged into the star for Louisville finishing the season third in total rushing yards in the ACC and was named second-team All-ACC and first-team Freshman.
That’s a long-winded way of asking this question; Is there the potential to have another player emerge in a similar fashion to Hawkins this spring?
With Satterfield and his staff entering their second season leading the Louisville football program, there is still a lot of things they have yet to see. One of them being how players on the roster transition and grow in between year one and year two.
The staff continues to throw heaps of praise on their team’s ability to lead themselves and working hard on improving ahead of spring practice, which is a great sign for the wellbeing of the program. Players wanting to improve and wanting to reach their potential will become the backbone of this program, and as we head into spring it will be fun to watch who becomes that next emerging star.
We take a look at three players who could go from unknown/relatively unknown to a player who emerges as a potential starter or maybe even star in 2020 much like Hawkins did for the Cards last season.