QB Kelvin Hopkins’ Rise to Stardom

At Army West Point, teamwork gets more credit for team success than do individual performances, but notwithstanding that emphasis on brotherhood, individuals can still rise to stardom. Kelvin Hopkins earned that status while leading the Black Knight offense to a Top 25 rating in 2018. In this article we briefly trace his rise from a virtual unknown to establishing himself as one of the top quarterbacks in Army history.

2015-2016 Hopkins Joins the Army Team

A product of North Carolina, Hopkins entered West Point via USMAPS, where he learned the triple option offense as the prep team quarterback in 2015. The following year he was relegated to the status of an observer, watching Ahmad Bradshaw lead the Army offense to an 8-5 winning season and a trip to the Armed Forces Bowl. Hopkins saw no playing time as a plebe, a situation that has become common in recent years.

2017 Season - Our First look at Hopkins

We had our first look at quarterback in his yearling year, when he played a total of 41 snaps as one of the two backups to Bradshaw. Offensive Coordinator Brent Davis recognized that Hopkins was a much better passer than Bradshaw; so he sent Hopkins in during obvious passing situations. On most of those occasions, the opponent defenses recognized that Hopkins was in the game to pass the ball, and they were able to thwart his attempts. Hopkins completed just 6 of his 18 pass attempts, and he ran the ball 7 times for a total of 40 yards in 2017, hardly the kind of statistics that get the media to take notice.

But we got our first real glimpse of his potential and what would in the Temple game that year.

With 1:31 left on the game clock, Army was trailing Temple by 7-points, and Monken knew that he’d have to go to the air to have any chance of a win. Hopkins was sent in at quarterback and led the team on a 58 yard scoring drive, capped by a 16 yard pass to Jermaine Adams with just one second left on the clock. Army went on to win the game with a successful field goal in overtime.

2018 Season - Hopkins Leads Army to an 11-2 Record

The graduation of Ahmad Bradshaw left Army fans debating about who would replace him at quarterback. Hopkins was clearly in contention for the job, but the position was still up for grabs at the end of spring practice that year. Hopkins had demonstrated that he was a better passing quarterback than Bradshaw, but his ability to lead the run-oriented triple option offense was largely untested at the start of the 2018 season. When we subtract the 15 snaps he had in the Temple game and his cameo appearances in 5 other passing situations, we had only seen him run the normal offense on 21 downs, not enough to get a definitive reading on his ability to guide the triple option offense.

It didn’t take long for Hopkins to establish his credibility, however. The team got off to a rocky start against a good Duke team in Durham. The Blue Devils were well prepared to defend the triple option, and Army was held to just 14 points and 187 yards rushing for the game. Hopkins passed for 197 yards on 10 completions in 21 attempts, about half as many completions as Bradshaw threw in the entire 2107 season. It was a preview of a slightly more balanced offense that Army would run that season.

The following week, the Army offense reverted its normal game plan against Liberty, gaining 454 yards on the ground, with Hopkins completing 2 of his 7 passing attempts. Then against Hawaii, Hopkins once again demonstrated his ability to pass the ball well under pressure, as he completed 6 of his 10 attempts for 162 yards to balance the 304 yards gained on the ground.

It was the following game in Norman, Oklahoma that gained national attention for the Black Knight offense led by Hopkins. Army West Point controlled the ball for 45 minutes against the mighty Sooners of Oklahoma, forcing the game into overtime. It was the relentless running attack that ate up the clock, with Hopkins converting on a few key downs with his passing arm.

From that point on, the Black Knights went undefeated, posting wins over service academy rivals Air Force and Navy and utterly destroying Houston in the Armed Forces bowl by the score of 70-14 to finish with an academy record 11 wins and a place in the Top 25. We are not about to claim that it was all due to Hopkins, but he was clearly one of the major contributors to the team’s success.

2019 - Hopkins is Elected Team Captain

It was clear going into spring training this year that Hopkins had a virtual lock on the starting quarterback position, and it didn’t surprise anyone to find out that he was elected one of the three team captains for 2019 at the close of spring practice. Being elected team captain is one of the highest honors a football player can receive, and it recognizes Hopkins as a leader at the premier leadership institution in the United States.

What More is in Store for Hopkins?

In the next few months we’ll see players selected to various watch lists, and we would certainly expect Hopkins to be selected on a few of those lists. Can a triple option quarterback playing for a team that emphasizes team over individual compete for those awards.

We will address that issue in an upcoming GoBlackKnights.com article.

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