Texas Football: 3 problematic UTEP Miners for Longhorns in Week 1

2) Problematic Miners for Texas football: Deion Hankins, RB

While it looked like UTEP was going to thrive on the ground by way of senior running back Quadraiz Wadley this year, but he is likely to miss the game this weekend with a nagging toe injury. Wadley missed all of last season with an injury, so that’s still an ongoing problem for him to round out his college career.

Two seasons ago, Wadley registered 627 rushing yards, seven rushing touchdowns, more than five yards per carry, 91 receiving yards, and one touchdown catch.

But a new emerging talent looks to be making waves in the UTEP backfield early in the 2020 season. That new emerging talent is former Parkland High School running back product and redshirt freshman Deion Hankins. In UTEP’s season opener against SFA last weekend, Hankins led the way with 113 rushing yards on 17 carries, to go along with two scores on the ground.

He averaged 6.6 yards per carry and already topped his total for rushing yards from his true freshman campaign. Hankins was also one of the more highly touted skill position recruits for the Miners in recent memory. He held offers from the likes of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, Arkansas Razorbacks, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Utah Utes, and SMU Mustangs, among others, coming out of high school.

Hankins is a sizable back that runs hard downhill. Texas is going to get an early taste of a good rising talent out of the backfield that can get them ready for the speedy skill position weapons that the Texas Tech offense will boast on Sep. 26.