Redshirt sophomore Javian Hawkins has started his 2020 season where he left off in 2019 as the Cardinals’ premier player.

Last season, Hawkins finished second in the ACC with 1,525 rushing yards— with eight 100-yard games — and highlighted a Louisville running attack that averaged 213 yards per game, 249 of them in the season-opening 35-17 loss to Notre Dame.

During the 1-3 start this season, Hawkins is ninth nationally in rushing with a 117.0 yards per game (just behind Notre Dame’s Kyren Williams at 119.7 to place No. 7). This 5-9, 196-pound bulldozer hit a good Miami defense for 164 rushing yards in week two amid a 47-34 defeat.

For second-year Cardinals head coach Scott Satterfield, his reliance on the rushing game breeds passing production. Under Satterfield — who came to Louisville last season after coaching at Appalachian State from 2013-18 — the Cardinals went from scoring 239 total points in 2018 to 430 last year.