If Ahmad Bradshaw had been able to throw the ball as well as he could run it, most fans would never have noticed Kelvin Hopkins in his yearling season at Army West Point. Oh, he had made brief appearances in 7 games and rushed for 40 yards, but his claim to fame that year came in the last 91 seconds of the Temple game.

With the Black Knights trailing by 7 and the ball on the Army 21, Head Coach Jeff Monken needed to do something he seldom likes to do, pass the ball; so he sent in the QB that offensive coordinator Brent Davis had trained for the two minute offense, Kelvin Hopkins. No one would have mistaken him for Tom Brady that day as he completed just 5 of his 12 pass attempts, but he marched the Black Knights down the field for the tying touchdown with 1 second left on the clock.

Despite that heroic effort, Hopkins was not considered a lock for the starting job in 2018, but he made it clear in his first start against Duke, that the forward pass would augment the Army running game in 2018. As the season progressed, Hopkins went to the air to preserve drives in key situations, and he gained national recognition in the game against Oklahoma, when he led the Black Knight offense on three long scoring drives that took 45 minutes off the game clock and sent the game into overtime against the 5th ranked Sooners.

Hopkins finished the season with 1078 yards rushing and 1026 yards passing to become the first quarterback in Army history to run and pass for 1,000 yards each, and the media recognized his significant contribution to the 11-2 season and a spot in the Top 25 of the AP and Coaches polls. His 5 rushing touchdowns against Houston set a new record for the Armed Forces Bowl.

With the 2019 season approaching, the various college football award committees are beginning to compile their initial watch lists, and we were not surprise to note that Kelvin has been selected for a couple of the most prestigious awards already.

The Maxwell Trophy is awarded by the Maxwell Football Club to the “College Football Player of the Year.” There are 18 quarterbacks on the initial watch list published this week, but Kelvin Hopkins is not one of those 18. He was selected as a running back.

The Davy O’Brien Award is given to the best college quarterback each year, and Hopkins made the initial list of 30 quarterbacks based on his performance in 2018.

There will be additional watch lists published in coming weeks, and additional names added to watch lists already published. We will not be surprised to see Kelvin’s name come up again.

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