70 DAYS TO 2026 KICKOFF: Gus Hawkins

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MANHATTAN, KS - AUGUST 30: Kansas State Wildcats offensive lineman Gus Hawkins (70) before a college football game between the North Dakota Fighting Hawks and Kansas State Wildcats on August 30, 2025 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, KS. (Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

#70 Gus Hawkins​

Redshirt Sophomore | 6-7 | 314 lbs. | Shawnee, Kansas​

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• Position: Offensive Line
• Previous College: None
• Projection: Co-Starter
• Status: On Scholarship

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Gus Hawkins (b. May 21, 2005) is a physically imposing offensive tackle who is majoring in civil engineering.

Although Hawkins already was sufficiently sized to play in the Big 12 Conference in 2024, he redshirted in order to add a whopping 44 pounds to his already imposing frame. And he still earned his first career playing time against Cincinnati, seeing action on three offensive snaps, as he retained his redshirt.

Last year, Hawkins played in seven games — including his first career start against Army — before an injury cut his season short. He appeared on 123 offensive snaps, including a career-high 31 snaps against UCF.

Hawkins was part of an offensive line unit that saw the Wildcats rank 10th nationally in sacks allowed (1.08 per game), while K-State finished fifth in school history in rushing yards per carry (5.09).

The Wildcats also had three rushes of at least 70 yards on the season, their most in school history and tied for the second most in the nation during the 2025 season.

Hawkins played his final two prep seasons under head coach Joel Applebee at Mill Valley High School, while he spent his first two years in high school at Scott City.

He was regarded as the 52nd-best overall player in the Class of 2024 by On3, while the organization rated him as the sixth-best offensive tackle in the nation and top overall prospect in the state of Kansas.

Hawkins also ranked No. 245 nationally and No. 24 among offensive tackles by 247Sports.

He was voted to the Top 11 team among all classes in the state of Kansas, and was an all-state honoree by the Kansas Football Coaches Association and KSHSAA Covered. He also was on the Top 11 team and a first-team all-state honoree in 2023 by The Wichita Eagle.

Hawkins was named the 2023 Sports in Kansas Offensive Lineman of the Year among big classes, in addition to being voted as a Top 11 player and a first-team all-state honoree by the organization, and was the 2023 Kansas Sports Central Offensive Lineman of the Year.

He earned first-team all-state honors as a junior from the Eagle after winning two state championships with the Jaguars, part of the school’s five straight titles.

At Mill Valley, Hawkins prepped with three current K-State players: safeties Mikey Bergeron and Blake Jay and offensive lineman Lamarcus Barber (plus former Wildcats Truman Griffith, Sam Hecht and Chris Tennant).

He also competed in basketball and track for the Jaguars, and was the first member of K-State’s 2024 class, committing all the way back in December 2022.

Hawkins picked K-State over a competing offer from Ole Miss, as well as interest from Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and North Dakota State. His primary recruiter was his former position coach, Conor Riley, who had this to say about him in 2024:

Especially coming out of a bye week, you’re starting to see guys who are developing more and more this past week, and for the past few weeks. I can speak to myself, I’ll start there — Gus Hawkins is doing a really, really good job. Navarro Schunke, both guys who have taken some of those reps during our developmental stuff last week, where I really thought those guys did some fantastic things.

Coming off the Farm O’Geddon loss in Ireland, former head coach Chris Klieman quickly called Hawkins up:

We will play Gus Hawkins. It maybe didn’t fit the game with how far we were backed up early in the game of wanting to put a redshirt freshman out there. (But) Gus needs to play and will play for us this week.

I expect Hawkins to rotate with George Fitzpatrick at the starting right tackle position during the 2026 season.

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