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Michael Hawkins’ hard path to Oklahoma prepared QB for historic start vs. No. 1 Texas

The Frisco Emerson product will become the first true freshman QB to ever start for Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry vs. No. 1 Texas at the Cotton Bowl.

Update:
This story originally published on Oct. 9, 2024.

Michael Hawkins Jr. chose the hard path. Or, at least in this era of college football, the path that often ends with a trip to the transfer portal and a fresh start elsewhere. If not the path of most resistance, it was the path of least guarantees.

Oklahoma, at the time that Hawkins committed to the program in April of last year, had Denton Guyer five-star recruit Jackson Arnold signed and in line to replace Dillon Gabriel and extend the Sooners’ run of excellent quarterback play that’s included Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts and Caleb Williams.

“Why would you go to Oklahoma?” one college coach asked Hawkins, according to his father Mike Hawkins Sr., who played at Oklahoma in 2002. “They’ve got Jackson there.”

Fair question, right? Why Oklahoma? Why not somewhere with considerably less high-level competition? Why not somewhere that, theoretically, could provide a faster route to the field?

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“That was the worst thing he could’ve said to Mike,” Mike Hawkins Sr. said. “When you hear somebody tell you over and over and over, ‘Why would you go there? Why would you do this? Why would you do that?’ Eventually the kid’s going to be like, ‘I’m going to show you better than I can tell you.’”

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Consider it shown.

Hawkins, a freshman from Frisco Emerson, replaced Arnold at quarterback in Oklahoma’s Week 4 loss to nationally-ranked Tennessee, helped lead the No. 18 Sooners (4-1) to a road win against Auburn in Week 5 and will become the first true freshman quarterback to ever start for Oklahoma in the century-long history of the Red River Rivalry game vs. No. 1 Texas on Saturday in his home city at the Cotton Bowl.

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“I’ve got faith,” Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said Tuesday during his weekly media availability. “He’s an easy guy to bet on, just from a maturity [standpoint], [he’s] process driven, consistency, who he is, how he handles tough moments. He’s got a lot of really good qualities that maybe sometimes a younger player doesn’t have.”

That led to Hawkins’ initial bump up the depth chart. Arnold — who was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year at Guyer in 2023 — began the season as Oklahoma’s heir apparent to Dillon Gabriel and started the Sooners’ first four games. But, in the second quarter of Oklahoma’s game vs. Tennessee on Sep. 21, Venables benched Arnold for Hawkins when the Sooners were down 19-3 with less than two minutes before halftime.

Hawkins saw limited playing time at the end of Oklahoma’s blowout win vs. Temple in Week 1. His next opportunity came on prime-time television against an SEC foe.

“When you have a guy that can play or is ready, you always know it can happen,” said Mike Hawkins Sr., who attends each of his son’s games. “But at that moment, it’s like I couldn’t catch my breath. Me and my wife [Anabelle] were sitting there and I was just holding my breath. Like, man, this is really happening.”

Emerson High School quarterback Michael Hawkins (4) throws a pass during the first half as...
Emerson High School quarterback Michael Hawkins (4) throws a pass during the first half as Emerson High School hosted Colleyville Heritage High School in a Class 5A, Division II, Region I final playoff game at The Ford Center in Frisco on Friday, December 1, 2023. (Stewart F. House/Special Contributor)(Stewart F. House / Special Contributor)

Hawkins completed 11 of his 18 pass attempts for 132 yards and a touchdown in Oklahoma’s 25-15 loss to the Volunteers. He tried to scramble for a touchdown on third-and-goal late in the fourth quarter and was tackled midair as he attempted to fling his body over the goal line. The play was initially ruled a touchdown, but after a review, Hawkins was called down at the 1-yard line.

“When the game’s on the line, I have no other choice to,” Hawkins told reporters during Oklahoma’s bye week. “I just try to make a play for the team and sacrifice my body for them because they do the same for me.”

Venables classified Hawkins as a “playmaker” and acknowledged there’s a need to balance a scripted game plan without handcuffing Oklahoma’s mobile quarterback. Hawkins, a three-star recruit in high school who chose the Sooners over TCU, compiled 7,879 passing yards, 2,266 rushing yards and 107 total touchdowns in three seasons as a varsity starter at Allen and Frisco Emerson. He spent his first three seasons at Allen — Murray’s alma mater and a five-time state champion — before he and his brother Maliek transferred to Emerson after racist vandalism at the family’s Allen home.

“I think what Michael Hawkins does,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday, “he does provide that element of, ‘They can throw it, they can run it with designed runs.’ But his first touchdown there against Auburn was pass that he tucked it and took off and ran. That’s where we’ve got to be really cognizant of him in the pocket.”

About that touchdown against Auburn: Hawkins dropped back on third-and-5 early in the first quarter, stepped up in the pocket when the Tigers’ pass rush came and then outran the secondary for a 48-yard touchdown. He finished with 161 passing yards and 69 rushing yards in Oklahoma’s bounce-back road win.

“The run that he had against Auburn,” Mike Hawkins Sr. said. “He’s been doing that since he was 5 or 6-years-old in Little League.”

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Which, really, was where Hawkins’ football-playing father first worked to instill a “QB1″ mind-set in his son. Mike Hawkins Sr. played one season at Oklahoma in 2002 before he left college for the Arena Football League and, eventually, the NFL draft. Venables was the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach during Hawkins’ one-year tenure. Safeties coach Brandon Hall was a graduate assistant on staff during Mike Hawkins Sr.’s tenure. Jerry Schmidt — the Sooners’ director of strength and conditioning — held a similar role in the early 2000s.

“I told Mike, ‘You’ve got to win over Schmidty with your hard work and dedication,” Mike Hawkins Sr. said. “And Mike embraced that. It was a point of his to do everything he could to win over Schmidty and those guys in the weight room with the way he worked.”

Hawkins understood he’d need to compete for reps and the starting job at Oklahoma. Former Sooners offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, who left Norman to coach at Mississippi State this offseason, sold Hawkins during his recruiting period on an opportunity to win playing time with the caveat that nothing was guaranteed. That honesty, Mike Hawkins Sr. said, carried more weight than often-empty promises of a day one starting role that other programs had pitched.

It fit the path that the Hawkins had followed for years, too.

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“Those conversations started in high school,” Mike Hawkins Sr. said. “When he was in high school, he was working to be the starter at whatever college he was at. That’s always been the mind-set. That’s why when he got there I was already prepared. I played at OU, I knew what the expectation was ... that’s the way we’ve been working and training him his whole life. It’s really not a surprise; we’ve always had a plan to train this way and operate this way.”

That way led back home to the Cotton Bowl and one of college football’s most prestigious rivalries. Mike Hawkins Sr., a freshman on Oklahoma when it beat Texas 35-24 in 2002, brought his son to two or three installments of the game when Hawkins was a child. They might’ve had time to attend more if Hawkins’ youth football schedule wasn’t so often packed on fall weekends.

It seemed to work out just fine.

This was the plan anyways.

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“It means a lot,” Mike Hawkins Jr. said. “Just knowing I’m going into a big stage, it’s my first time playing in this stadium and against this team too. It is a big moment for me, just try and take advantage of it and maximize the opportunity I have.”

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