Newcomer Profile: From a Young Age, Oklahoma QB Michael Hawkins Has Studied the Game of Football

After an incredible finish to his senior year, it's no surprise the Sooners' fabulous freshman quarterback has been impressive so far in spring practice.

Oklahoma's Michael Hawkins Jr. / SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY

NORMAN — Oklahoma freshman Michael Hawkins grew up around the game of football.

But even young Hawkins sometimes has to wrap his head around being a small boy roaming around the Dallas Cowboys’ locker room.

It was just a brief period that his dad, Mike Sr., wore the star for America’s Team — January to August, way back in 2009. After kicking around with three NFL teams over four years, he spent that offseason, mini camps and training camp with the Cowboys before a knee injury left him on the preseason cut list.

Still, those few months — longer than he was at Oklahoma as a true freshman defensive back in 2002 — forged a football scaffold on which his oldest son has built a promising career as a quarterback. 

“It was different just being in the locker room with them, seeing how they handle stuff, just how they have fun on the field with each other and then in the locker room,” Hawkins told SI Sooners last year. “It was pretty fun to be around those guys, all of those great players like Tony Romo and Jason Witten.”

Now that Hawkins is a Sooner himself, having arrived in Norman a semester early so he can compete with guys like Casey Thompson and General Booty and fellow freshman Brendan Zurbrugg to back up Jackson Arnold, he said some of those lessons from the Cowboys he learned at a very young age have stayed with him during his quarterback journey.

“Yes sir, just seeing how they lead their team, bring their players together and fight as a team,” Hawkins said.

It’s a big day for the Hawkins family, whose youngest footballer, Maliek Hawkins, also offered earlier Wednesday a verbal commitment to play for the Sooners as a defensive back in the 2025 recruiting class. His pledge comes almost exactly a year after his big brother’s, and Maliek told media that continuing to play with Michael in the future was one of his reasons for choosing Oklahoma.

“I’m excited,” Michael said in March. “I got a good feeling he’s gonna come to Norman and play with me. And if he does, that’ll be a really good experience for both of us, just keeping that going through high school too. So that’ll be fun. I’m excited for him.”

Michael Hawkins came to OU from Emerson High School in Frisco, TX, but has learned the nuances of playing quarterback under the likes of Chad Morris when he was at Allen, TX, and trained under renowned QB guru Kevin Murray — Kyler Murray’s dad and personal trainer.

But he’s also held firm to the lessons imparted by his own dad.

“I always look up to him,” Hawkins Jr. said at OU’s Spring Media Day. “He’s always giving me advice on the game since he’s been through it. So I just take everything and soak in all of it. I stay in touch with him every day, so it’s been good.

“He’s always taught me to be a leader growing up, lead by example and lead vocally.”

Mike Hawkins Sr. hails from the DFW, where he played at R.L Turner High School in Carrollton. From there, he spent half a semester at OU playing for Bob and Mike Stoops and Brent Venables in 2002. He played in five games, with the highlight a 45-yard interception return for a touchdown in a 68-0 victory over UTEP in Week 3. That came one week after the Sooners beat the Alabama Crimson Tide 37-27 in Norman.

Now, his first-born hopes to get his shot against Bama on Nov. 23 on the very same Owen Field.

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Mike Hawkins’ story goes far beyond football — he was homeless at one point during his high school days, sleeping in a park before Bob Stoops gave him a shot. Football provided a path out of hardship, and while he was still playing, he and his wife Annabelle raised three successful young athletes and citizens.

Everyone is fired up that Michael and now Maliek will be playing college football only a short drive from the Metroplex, but Mike is even more stoked that his boys will be playing for Venables and Oklahoma.

“I think (Venables) is going into a situation very similar to what Bob Stoops and those guys built during that national championship run, the glory days, those teams that always competed going to the national championship,” Mike told SI Sooners last year. “But I think Coach Venables has taken it a step further. They got the SOUL Mission, they got so many things for the support group around the players. He’s big in his faith. He talks about your purpose and keeping the main thing the main thing. 

“I mean, I think it’s just phenomenal what he’s doing. Obviously, he’s a defensive guru. He knows how to put it together, and I think he’s letting his guys that he hired do their part. And I think that’s the great benefit of having him there. He’s high energy, he’s high impact. He loves everything about football. He loves everything about family. And I love that. Everything to me is about family and respect, and that’s what I see about him.” 

Like so many other prospects nowadays, Michael graduated early so he could get a jump on his college career — and so far, he’s made an impression. 

“Mike Hawkins throws a great ball,” said Thompson, the seventh-year QB who started at both Texas and Nebraska.

“Mike Hawkins is definitely gonna become a franchise quarterback someday,” said freshman defensive end Danny Okoye.

By all accounts, Hawkins has surpassed expectations during spring practice with a powerful arm and electrifying legs. During OU’s open practice sessions this spring, Hawkins has also wowed the media, with several outlets predicting that he’ll challenge or even surpass Thompson when Thompson is fully cleared from his knee injury last year at Florida Atlantic.

READ MORE: A Powerful List of QB Influencers Put Michael Hawkins on the Right Path

Maybe that’ll happen. Maybe not. Either way, it’s no knock on Thompson. Hawkins has just been that good this spring, continuing the momentum he created during his senior year at Emerson, when he passed for 3,039 yards, completing 70 percent of his throws and tossing 41 touchdowns while also rushing for 1,172 yards, averaging 9.4 yards per carry and scoring 14 TDs and leading Emerson to the Class 5A-2 semifinals in just its fourth year in existence.

Hawkins said his strengths are “my ability to escape and move in the pocket and throw on the run, but also just being able to stay in the pocket and throw, which is — I’d say I’m a dual-threat quarterback. But everybody has different styles.”

New offensive coordinator Seth Littrell was previously the head coach at North Texas and has known the Hawkins family a long, long time. Hawkins said the switch from Jeff Lebby to Littrell “wasn’t really a big difference” in play callers. 

“Our relationship has always been good, even when he wasn’t the offensive coordinator,” Hawkins said. “So it wasn’t really a big transition just coming in and taking over that role. So it’s been a great deal. He’s a hard working coach. I love that about him. 

“I just love his tempo to the game. He likes to get the ball out quick. He gets the ball to guys in the open field and lets them make plays for the quarterback. So I love how he operates as an offensive coordinator.”

This semester, Hawkins’ mission is “diving into the playbook” as quickly as he can. It can be a lot all at once, but he’s getting more and more comfortable every day.

“It’s been good,” Hawkins said. “But it’s also been a little challenging. Something that helped me is just getting the signals down first and then getting on the board right after. That’s a big thing for me. I like to draw my plays up. So that’s helped me a lot getting the formations and concepts down.”

And whether it was from watching Romo at Valley Ranch, or studying under his own dad or Kyler Murray’s, or learning the finer points of the game from Morris, one thing has always stood out about playing quarterback is the commitment leadership.

It has come natural at times, but he’s also had to work at it. Now that high school is behind him and he’s a freshman in college — and possibly one snap away from leading the Sooners on a game-winning drive in the SEC — Hawkins is embracing the concept of being a leader more than ever. 

“I’d say getting the players’ respect on the field is the biggest thing first just coming in as a freshman,” he said. “Then building relationships with that is a big key. So the work you put in on the field will pay off from a leadership standpoint.”