UTEP Football 2018 Signee Brayden Hawkins Leaves the Program
While the Miners are out in Ruidoso, N.M., to wrap up their summer camp, one former UTEP signee chose to pursue another direction.
Class of 2018 Myers Park (North Carolina) quarterback Brayden Hawkins left the Miners to become a walk-on addition for the Maryland Terrapins. Hawkins is already practicing with the Terps, sources tell Tom Loy of 247Sports. He will be the second walk-on quarterback for Maryland, joining sophomore quarterback Legend Brumbaugh.
With Myers Park, Hawkins emerged as a strong pro-style passer through the high school ranks. He threw 54 touchdowns to only 12 interceptions and rushed for 10 scores in 28 career high school varsity games played. Hawkins was ranked a two-star prospect by 247Sports after throwing for 2,878 yards on 227-of-375 passing (61 percent) with 23 touchdowns and seven picks in 2017.
On the other hand, the Miners had seven quarterbacks on their roster with Hawkins, including Ryan Metz, Kai Locksley, Mark Torrez, Calvin Brownholtz, Alex Fernandes and newly transferred JUCO product Brandon Jones.
The starting position battle this summer has narrowed to Metz and Locksley, with room for Jones and Torrez to make some noise in the mix. Assuming Locksley stays with the Miners, he would probably be the favored candidate to take the starting reigns next season.
“[UTEP] is a great school and the reason why I picked UTEP was because of coach [Mike] Canales,” said Hawkins. “He is a great man and a great coach. I am going to miss not getting to play for him.”
Hawkins said his reasoning behind leaving was he did not “want to sit out for two years,” but reemphasized his strong admiration for Canales.
“It’s not coach Canales. I would have loved to play for him,” he said.
The starting quarterback battle at Maryland is vastly different than at UTEP. Redshirt sophomore Tyrell Pigrome and redshirt freshman Kasim Hill are battling out for the starting job, but both might have shorter leashes. Maybe Hawkins sees a future in the Terps' system, or, at best, a gateway to transferring elsewhere to get an opportunity to play.
With the news of UTEP landing a commitment from class of 2019 quarterback TJ Goodwin, a three-star pro-style quarterback out of the Houston area, the future of Miners quarterbacks is in good hands.