Everything South Carolina running backs coach Marquel Blackwell said about spring ball

South Carolina second-year running backs coach Marquel Blackwell met with the media Tuesday to discuss the progress of his room after three practices.

Below is a transcript of what Blackwell had to say.

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Impressions of the Group

We got a ways to go. There’s a lot of good things, a lot of things we need to get better at. It’s practice three, so we got a couple more to go. I’m just looking forward to those guys. They’ve done a good job of preparing themselves and getting ready to go every day. We just got to continue to progress, especially with the young guys.

Intensity from South Carolina Running Backs

This is the first day of pads, so they got a couple more days to do that. A bit more of just making sure we’re aligning the right way. We’re doing our assignments. We execute the plays with great fundamentals. It’s the first day of pads, so we’re going to go look at practice. You know how this first day sometimes is. You got to clean things and look at some things just a little different. Physical, everybody got a lot of juice. For the most part, I’m pretty pleased with the progress so far. We got a ways to go.

Running Style of Oscar and Rahsul

A little different. Oscar’s done a great job of getting better. He’s gotten better. You can see the improvements from last year to three practices we’ve had so far. Sul, just continue to learn him, continue to watch him grow. He’s played a lot of football. Some things come to him. Some things come to him natural. But those two guys are doing a really good job.

Observations on Matthew Fuller

You know, Matt’s got all the tools. He’s young. He’s still developing. He’s still young. He’s still dealing with certain things. But when it’s good, it’s good now. But just trying to make sure he understands consistency. It’s one thing to go out and have an unpadded practice, and then go out and have a padded practice, and let alone go out and play the game. Just to continuously lock in your focus and do the things that you need to do to continue to get better. Appreciate his effort, appreciate his commitment. He’s on the right track, so we just gotta continue to progress him and get him better.

As Practices Intensify

Yeah, no doubt, with it being open right now, the job is wide open for anybody. You want to have some consistency, you want to have the ability to make a play. But at the end of the day, we gotta protect the football and protect the quarterback. That’s a lot of moving parts with that, but that’s a big emphasis. Obviously the physicality of it, but you still got guys that are still learning, the expectation of what we’re trying to do. So as we continue to progress day to day, it’s gonna be important.

Plans for Running Back Utilization

Well, obviously, if you got an alpha, it makes it all easy, right? I’ve been around a lot of different (situations). I’ve been around a, you have an alpha, you have two guys, you have three guys, and however that works. Ultimately, we’re gonna need three to four guys in this conference, and just making sure that we have consistent play and those guys competing with each other, day in and day out, and making sure they prepare themselves for it. So that’s the topic every day in our meetings. We just gotta continue to progress and stay in the moment, take it a day at a time. Get better at the things you need to get better at, and just keep moving forward.

Observations on Juwarn Howell

Juwarn’s got a lot of potential. I know you all from the outside see it, but he’s got to continue to progress. He’s still a young player, a lot of things that he got to get better at.

I told those guys, I always use this deal, man. I was fortunate and blessed enough to play with Curtis Martin when he was at the Jets, and he was in there for rookie minicamp. He was in there for minicamp. He was in there for training camp. He was in there, and you like Curtis, what? He said, I know the plays, but you can always get better at what a defense is, what your opponent do.

Even though some of these guys have played a lot, it’s still ways that you can get better, you know what I mean? Just making sure they’re staying in the moment, making sure they’re doing the things they need to do to continue to progress, and just taking this spring as learning, getting better, and focusing on moving forward.

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