What they said: Reactions to Texas QB prospect Mike Hawkins Jr.'s Frisco Emerson eligibility ruling

On Tuesday morning, the Texas high school District 3-5A executive committee met in Frisco to hold an eligibility hearing for Mike Hawkins Jr. — a four-star recruit and the top-rated uncommitted Class of 2024 QB prospect in Texas high school football — and his younger brother, sophomore defensive back Maliek Hawkins.

The District 3-5A executive committee voted 5-1 in favor of granting the Hawkins brothers both immediate eligibility, allowing them to play varsity football at Emerson next fall.

The Hawkins brothers announced their plans to transfer to Frisco Emerson and away from Allen High School in January after the family’s home was targeted with racist graffiti in late December.

After discovering a racial epithet spray-painted across the garage door of their house in Allen, the Hawkins family opted to move away from the DFW suburb and transfer to a new school in the North Texas area, which soon set off concerns regarding the football future of the Hawkins brothers.

Mike and Maliek Hawkins, who were each varsity starters for the Eagles last football season, were called in front of the 3-5A district executive committee Tuesday morning to explain their decision to leave Allen for Frisco Emerson.

Here’s what Mike Hawkins, Allen head football coach Lee Wiginton, former NFL cornerback Mike Hawkins Sr. and members of the 3-5A district executive committee had to say about the four-star QB’s clarified eligibility status on Tuesday.

Kendall Miller, Frisco Emerson head football coach/athletic director

Miller, who’s in the midst of his first year as Frisco Emerson’s AD and head football coach, praised Mike and Maliek Hawkins’ character after meeting the brothers days after their transfer from Allen High School took effect in early January.

“They’ve been as upstanding as anyone,” Miller told Dallas Morning News reporter Shawn McFarland.

Mike Hawkins Jr., Frisco Emerson junior quarterback

When Hawkins spoke in front of the District 3-5A executive committee Tuesday morning, he stressed the jarring impact that the targeted racist vandalism has had on his family in the weeks since, especially his younger siblings.

“I would never think that me and my brother and sister would have to go through something this crazy and racial and hateful,” Hawkins told the Morning News. “It just blows my mind.”

He also pointed to previous incidents during his time at Allen when he received hateful messages following on-field setbacks for the Eagles, like before a 2021 matchup against McKinney Boyd.

The 3-5A district executive committee asked Hawkins about a Snapchat screenshot from Dec. 7 that read "New home Duncanville," which predates the racist graffiti spray-painted on the side of his family’s home.

Hawkins, however, denied that it came from him and responded, “I’m enrolled at (Frisco) Emerson),” according to The Dallas Morning News.

Lee Wiginton, Allen head football coach/athletic director 

Wiginton, another first-year AD and head football coach at Allen, indicated that there was conflict and pre-existing friction between Hawkins Sr. and the Eagles’ coaching staff.

He indicated that Hawkins and the Allen coaching staff didn’t see eye to eye following the team’s 43-18 loss to Lewisville in the bi-district round of the Class 6A Division I Texas high school football playoffs.

“How can you let this happen? How can you expect people not to move out,” Wiginton said, according to The Dallas Morning News, paraphrasing Hawkins.

However, Wiginton was quick to point out that he didn’t believe the Hawkins brothers’ decision to transfer away from Allen was related in any way to internal background disagreements between their father and Wiginton’s coaching staff.

“The move is not a reaction to the dissatisfaction,” he said, echoing Hawkins’ sentiments that the decision was spurred on primarily by the racist graffiti incident and not solely by athletic considerations."

Mike Hawkins Sr., former NFL and Oklahoma Sooners cornerback

Hawkins Sr., a former cornerback at Oklahoma who played in the NFL, spoke at the hearing and with The Dallas Morning News after the ruling.

“This is not the position that I ever imagined I’d be in,” Hawkins Sr. said in an opening statement at Tuesday’s District 3-5A executive committee hearing. “I’ve been a part of the Allen community and a part of that football program since 2011.”

Hawkins brought up other incidents that occurred during his son’s two-year tenure as Allen’s starting quarterback, pointing to a theme of persistently negative feedback following setbacks on the football field.

“When Allen lost to Atascocita (in September 2021)... you wouldn’t believe the messages (my son) received,” he said, according to the newspaper. “You wouldn’t believe the way the community treated my son.”

In regard to the racial epithet spray-painted on the side of his family’s home, Hawkins said that if Allen’s coaching staff and administration had been more responsive, then the family would have likely stayed in Allen and his sons would likely still be wearing Eagles uniforms.

“There wasn’t a sense of urgency from (Allen’s coaches),” he said. “Nobody ever reached out to me and said, ‘Hey Mike, let’s build a plan.’”

Argyle head football coach/athletic director Todd Rodgers

Rodgers asked Hawkins Sr. if he had any concerns regarding the proximity of Allen to Frisco given their recent experiences, but Mike and Maliek Hawkins’ father responded that it wasn’t a personal concern for him and cited their familiarity with the Frisco area as a prime motivation in their decision-making process.

Then when he was asked how his family would respond if a similar racist incident occurred in Frisco, Hawkins elaborated.

“I would do the same thing,” he said. “There’s no limit to the resources of protecting your family.”

Rodgers represented the lone dissenting vote in the District 3-5A executive committee's 5-1 vote to grant immediate varsity eligibility to the Hawkins brothers at Frisco Emerson.