Hawkins outruns adversity

 
It’s been a challenging season for senior wide receiver Charles Hawkins who had to deal with a number of trials this season.
Hawkins, a 5-foot-8 walk-on from New Orleans, had a season that would have made other players be a non-factor and liability on their roster.
In his first game of his senior season against New Mexico Hawkins had a productive game, six receptions for 80 yards and a touchdown, but in the game he pulled his hamstring.
His road to recovery was trying. Hawkins had to sit out the next two games and slowly work his way back to the starting line up.
A week after the New Mexico game he had to cope with the loss of his 19-year old cousin Daniel Brown of New Orleans.
“I did have doubts but I just persevered. I kept dreaming and I kept thinking and I kept working hard and I went to rehab everyday and I got better with coach Fingers.” Hawkins said.
That hard work paid off. Seven weeks after pulling his hamstring Hawkins had five receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown in a loss to Prairie View A&M.
Two weeks later in Hawkins’ last game in A.W. Mumford against Alabama State, he returned the kickoff 99-yards for a touchdown- something that he has never done in his college career.
He garnered five receptions for 94 yards and another touchdown against Alabama State.
That performance landed him and his fellow Jaguar and quarterback Dray Joseph Southwestern Athletic Conference Players of the Week.
The Hawkins and Joseph collaboration goes beyond the playing field.
“Charles Hawkins is my best buddy here,” Joseph said in a postgame interview against Alabama State. “Him and Lee Doss… we are together all day everyday, you can’t separate us.”
The connection between the two was apparent in the 39^th annual State Farm Bayou Classic where Joseph connected to Hawkins six times for 99 yards and of those six connections three of them went for touchdowns earning a career high for Hawkins.
“This whole season was very emotional for me,” Hawkins said. “I lost my cousin and pulled my hamstring and in the last two games of my career I went out with a bang. I scored five touchdowns in two games and this Bayou Classic win is one of the best things to ever happen to me.”
You couldn’t have scripted a better ending for a player going out and playing the best game of your career in your home town, in front of your family and friends in the biggest arena possible.
Hawkins said he dedicated this season to his cousin and his grandmother.