SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State wide receiver
Ashtyn Hawkins and quarterback
Malik Hornsby were named to the East-West Shrine Bowl's 2024 Shrine Bowl 1,000 List, which was released on Monday.
The list of college football's top all-star game eligible players featured the two Bobcats among its 36 players from the Sun Belt Conference. The Bobcats were one of the nine teams from the conference with multiple players on the list.
Hawkins, one of the key returners on the offense, is coming off a breakout season in which he was named All-Sun Belt Honorable Mention and had a team-leading 56 catches for 587 yards and seven touchdowns in nine games. While his season was cut short due to injury, he still finished 12th in the Sun Belt in receptions and 19th in the country in receptions per game. The DeSoto, Texas product's 56 catches were tied for the 10th-most in program history and third-most in the program's FBS history.
The junior has already garnered preseason accolades from several publications, including All-Sun Belt as a punt returner and wide receiver.
Hornsby, one of the 50+ newcomers on the Texas State roster under first-year head coach GJ Kinne, joins the Bobcats after spending the first three years of his collegiate career at Arkansas. The dual-threat quarterback played in 16 career games for the Razorbacks and totaled 314 passing yards and 307 rushing yards. Last season, he played in eight games, including one start, and accumulated 440 total yards of offense.
Hornsby was a four-star prospect coming out of Fort Bend Marshall High School (TX) and helped lead the team to back-to-back state championship games in 2018 and 2019. He was 25-3 as a starting quarterback and totaled more than 5,000 yards of offense and 82 touchdowns in his prep career.
Hawkins and Hornsby are aiming to be among the approximately 130 players from 100 universities who will compete in the 2024 East-West Shrine Bowl and showcase their skills to NFL and pro football scouts.
The 99th edition of the East-West Shrine Bowl will be played on February 1, 2024 at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco Texas, the headquarters and training facility of the Dallas Cowboys. The game will be televised on NFL Network.
