What's Keeping Caleb Hawkins from Being Big 12’s Top College Football 27 RB?
In this story:
One of the most intriguing stories in the Big 12 and 2026 is watching how new Oklahoma State running back Caleb Hawkins acclimates to a new conference.
Hawkins knows the Cowboys well. He grew up in Shawnee, Okla., so transferring from North Texas after a massive true freshman season with the Mean Green only seemed natural, especially when his head coach, Eric Morris, took the head coaching job in Stillwater.
If last year was proving to the programs that passed on him that they missed, then this season is showing all of college football that he fits in a big-time conference. EA College Football 27 already sees him as tied for the second-best back in the Big 12. But what’s holding him back from being the best? It may be two categories.
Caleb Hawkins in EA College Football 27
The top-rated Big 12 back in the game is BYU’s LJ Martin, an experienced Big 12 back who is coming off a big season for the Cougars, who nearly qualified for the College Football Playoff. But he’s only rated at an overall score of 92. Hawkins, along with another transfer, West Virginia’s Cam Cook (from Jax State) are at 91. The margins must be small right?
In the game, players get an overall rating score, plus they receive six individual ratings scores — speed, strength, agility, awareness, change of direction, injury and awareness. There are other factors that go into the overall score as well. Here are the category scores for Martin and Hawkins:
Player | SPD | STR | AGI | COD | INJ | AWR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Martin | 89 | 84 | 85 | 84 | 94 | 97 |
Hawkins | 91 | 72 | 92 | 91 | 91 | 85 |
Two categories really stick out here. The first is strength. Martin is 12 ratings points better than Hawkins. Martin is 6-2, 220. Hawkins is 6-2, 200. Do those extra 20 points buy Martin 12 ratings points? Hard to say. This is where his body of work could play a factor. Martin is entering his fourth year of college football. Hawkins is in just his second. His experience could skew the rating.
The other is awareness. Again, that’s 12 ratings points between Martin and Hawkins and that could be experience, too. Martin has nearly 500 game reps in the backfield carrying the football — not including catching passes and blitz pickups. Hawkins carried the ball 231 times last season.
The areas where Hawkins is rated higher than Martin — speed, agility and change of direction — rely less on experience and more on pure athletic ability. Both have it, but Hawkins appears to have a bit more of it. But game experience matters less when rating those areas.
The fact is both are great backs. Martin rushed for more than 1,300 yards last year. Hawkins rushed for 1,434 yards and set a freshman record for touchdowns. The schedule denies us the chance to see them on the field at the same time this season, as both are so closely ranked it would be a show.
But that’s what video games are for, right? The chance to pit players against one another than the schedule-makers have otherwise overlooked?
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Matthew Postins is the publisher of Oklahoma State on SI. He is an award-winning sports journalist who was formerly the editor of the College Football America Yearbook and covers the Big 12 Conference for Heartland College Sports.
Follow PostinsPostcard