Hopkins Heats Up

Barley’s/BPR player of week delivers delivers top passing performance this season

Maryville sophomore Dylan Hopkins scampers to the end zone for a touchdown in the Dobyns-Bennett game. Photos by Wallace Bowden

He didn’t start for the first time until the season’s sixth game.

Dylan Hopkins

Even then Dylan Hopkins, the Barley’s/Blount Press Row Player of the Week, split time at quarterback.

The Maryville High School sophomore isn’t splitting time anymore, and, in the No. 1-ranked Rebels 35-7 win at Hardin Valley on Friday, Hopkins delivered the finest passing performance from a Blount County quarterback this season.

Hopkins ripped the Hawks for 14-of-17 passing for 367 yards and four touchdowns as Maryville (10-0, 7-0 Region 1-6A) finished the regular season unbeaten and secured home field throughout the Class 6A playoffs.

The 6-foot, 185-pound Hopkins had touchdown passes to running back and older brother Joel for 8 yards, flanker Brian Tillery for 45 yards, fellow sophomore Isaiah Cobb for 10 yards and wide out Kelby Brock for 93 yards. A 60-yard Hopkins to Brock connection also set up a 2-yard Joel Hopkins touchdown run.

This wasn’t simply a hot game. Hopkins got his first start in a 41-0 win at Bearden in Week 6. Until then, he’d been largely a running threat for the Rebels at quarterback, with junior Austin Ensley doing much of the passing.

Joel Hopkins (43) is lifted in celebration after a touchdown catch from younger brother, Dylan (1), at right.

Hopkins finished fourth in the 100 meters at the 2015 Blount County Track and Field Championships.

Ensley was dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules prior to an Oct. 1 Dobyns-Bennett visit to Maryville. Hopkins hasn’t missed a beat, concluding the regular season last week with numbers that are pretty close to amazing, sophomore or otherwise.

Through 10 games, he’s completed 70 of 102 passes for 1,182 yards and nine touchdowns without an interception. Through five games, Hopkins had passed for only 217 yards. He threw his first two touchdown passes of the season in the Bearden win.

Hopkins is out front in the Rebel running game as well, with Joel in hot pursuit. Dylan leads with 480 yards and seven touchdowns on 48 carries. It’s easy math to see that’s 10.0 yards per carry. Joel Hopkins is right there with 456 yards and 10 touchdowns on 68 carries, averaging 6.7 yards per pop.