Newly hired South Carolina assistant takes pride in being more than just a running backs coach
If you take one look at Marquel Blackwell’s Twitter/X account, the only words you’ll see in his profile are “Ball Coach.” After listening to the newly hired South Carolina running backs coach on Friday during his introductory press conference, it’s clear why.
“I always take pride in being a ball coach, not just a specific coach,” said Blackwell. “I’ve been fortunate enough to coach a lot of positions. I grew up a quarterback so the biggest thing with that is letting them see the game through the quarterback’s eyes from a standpoint of knowing what everybody’s doing. It’s amazing, some places guys just know how to run the ball. But if you know you run the ball and you know what everybody’s doing that tends to translate into really good things.”
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A dual-threat quarterback during his playing days at South Florida, Blackwell spent four seasons playing professional football between the NFL, CFL, and Arena Football League. He began his coaching career in the high school ranks in Florida in 2006 and has 13 years of experience of coaching collegiate football.
“I’m all ball. I’m trying to make sure we do the right thing in recruiting in getting caught up on that. The relationship part of my room is making sure I’m there and that we’re talking and communicating. I mean, my wife and kids won’t be here probably until May so I’ll be all ball and all about the players.”
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In a room that will feature nine running backs, four of the six scholarship backs will be entering their first year with South Carolina. Blackwell stressed the importance of building relationships with his room over time.
“The biggest thing is trust. Being around those guys, they have to trust you. The next thing is being honest and upfront. Owning the standard. Understanding the standard and holding everybody accountable to the standard. The next thing is communication. We must communicate. I went through it with a couple of those guys and that’s a big thing with me. I’m not a guy that’s just gonna sit back and, ‘Hey, this is the only way how you do things.’ You have a lot of different guys that come from a lot of different places and you have to relate in a lot of different ways.”
