Louisville football: 3 players who could follow the same path as Javian Hawkins

Justin Marshall – WR

Redshirt junior

Career stats: 6 receptions, 135 yards, 0 TD

I don’t really know if you can compare redshirt junior Justin Marshall to Javian Hawkins when talking about a potential emergence, considering that Marshall has been a guy that has excited the fans for quite some time.

Even with a ton of hype entering the program as a four-star recruit, Marshall never got much of a chance to prove what he could do on the field under Bobby Petrino. But in his first season playing for Scott Satterfield, Louisville fans finally got to see the potential on the field that they had heard about for so long.

Entering 2019 Marshall had accrued exactly zero catches for zero yards and zero touchdowns. That changed fairly quickly.

While playing behind multi-year starters Dez Fitzpatrick, Seth Dawkins, and Tutu Atwell, Marshall’s chances were limited but when the ball came his way he typically made the most of it. Marshall finished the season with 135 yards on six receptions, which made him the fifth-leading receiver on the team.

Louisville will still have a ton of depth at the position, but with Seth Dawkins graduating and moving on, Marshall should be the most logical option to step into that role. Marshall showed his big-play ability last season, leading the team with 22.5 yards per catch, including five catches of 20 or more yeards.

There are questions about whether Marshall will be able to play consistently enough to be a starter as well as how he’ll fare playing 12 or more games, considering he appeared in just five last season. However, with Dawkins gone the opportunity is there and Marshall has every bit of talent needed to play a big role in the offense.

If Micale Cunningham is able to take the step as a quarterback this spring and summer, I envision the offense passing more than they did last season – which would be huge for Marshall. As long as Marshall is productive in spring and proves he can play at a higher level than he did last season, it’s not unrealistic to see him ending up with similar or better numbers than Dawkins last year. And if for some reason Louisville’s offense is able to become a more prolific passing attack behind the ever-improving Cunningham, maybe getting to 700-800 yards could be a possibility.

In his fourth year at Louisville, the time is now or never for Marshall.