How Caleb Hawkins Went from Overlooked to the Nation’s Best Back

STILLWATER — Caleb Hawkins led the nation with 29 total touchdowns scored last season.

Not only is that 11 more than the entire 2025 team scored, but the only Cowboy to ever score more in a single season is Barry Sanders. In fact, had Hawkins done that at Oklahoma State, he would need only 10 more scores to tie for the eighth most all-time in program history.

“Nobody knew who the hell Caleb Hawkins was from Shawnee, Oklahoma,” coach Eric Morris said. “Had one offer, and we found him in camp.”

Hawkins didn’t receive his first FBS offer until mid-September of his senior season at North Rock Creek High School in Shawnee. This offseason, both On3 and 247Sports ranked him as the top running back in the portal while respectively ranking him 11th and 23rd overall.

While getting him the first time was viewed as a no-brainer, bringing him to Stillwater was viewed as a major victory, one Morris spoke about on Wednesday.

“Trust is one of the most important things that you’ll ever have in a football program,” Morris said. “And I think you need trust. Starts within the coaching staff and whether we trust one another, and then I think it goes onto coach to player. Do you trust one another?”

Hawkins clearly earned the trust of UNT’s coaching staff quickly. The freshman out-touched the returning No. 2 back from 2024, Makenzie McGill, for the first time in game five, and he never looked back.

Hawkins racked up 36, 28, 21 and 27 touches in games during the month of November as he elevated from lead back to true workhorse status.

“This kid finally got his opportunity last year, and he ran with it,” Morris said. “My answer to that is we built trust, and those kids, we didn’t recruit them because they were four and five-star kids out of high school. We recruited them because we believed in them first and foremost. Then they came in, they bought into what we were doing as a program, and they were rewarded on the field and obviously had a lot of production.”

On Wednesday, Morris was asked about his early impressions of running back KD Jones, a freshman from Jenks.

“He has a really, really high ceiling, I think,” Morris said. “I mean, a really athletic kid. … One thing that struck me so early about KD is just the maturity and the way he stepped in.”

Although he was asked about the true freshman, Morris quickly turned back to Hawkins.

“The way that Caleb Hawkins handles his business every day is KD gets a front seat to that,” Morris said. “And he gets to see the way that Caleb comes in early, and he takes care of his body with maintenance, and he’s in the training room.

“He’s in there early for lift. He’s already stretched out. The intensity that he does lift with, that he runs with, you’re going to fall behind in a hurry if you don’t just look and learn and see what made Caleb so successful.”