Everything From Virginia Tech RB Marcellous Hawkins After Wednesday's Practice

Marcellous Hawkins, a senior transfer from Central Missouri, met with media members following Wednesday's practice. Here is everything he had to say.

On practices leading up to South Carolina:

"I feel like it went pretty good, and hearing up for them, it's just about getting better every day as a whole."

On competitive running back room:

"It's progressed a lot. Day by day, it gets harder. Everybody's getting in their groove, but I love competition."

Q: What does that room look like? Three of you guys are transfers coming in. How have you gelled since you got here?

"I feel like we're a pretty locked-in group. I mean, we hang out every day. We help each other out on every play we make. Every play we come back to the sideline, we're helping each other."

Q: Is that rapport pretty good already? I think there's a video of you guys interviewing each other. It seems like you and [Terion] Stewart go back and forth with each other a little bit.

"Yeah, that's my guy. Both of those, [running back Braydon Bennett] and Terion, those are my guys. Every day we always chatting it up, always hanging out together."

Q: So you're always joking about his height, and it looked like he was joking about your age. What was that like?

"Anything we could joke on, we would joke on for sure."

On why he chose Virginia Tech:

"You could tell by Coach Brooks' eyes, like, you can tell what he wants. And I just wanted to come into a program like that where everyone's kind of, like, got the same aggression to the game, you know.

Q: What has been like learning from Coach Brooks so far?

"He's been great, man. He's a veteran of a coach. He knows a lot that I didn't know. So, like, every day he's teaching me something new. "

Q: Can you take us through your path in college? How did you get to Central Missouri? What was that whole experience like?

"So coming out of high school, I think I had a few D2 offers. Them and Pitt State was like one of my more bigger ones. So I was choosing out of them two. Ended up wanting to play running back in college. I always wanted to do that. And UCM kind of saw that. So I kind of like went with it. Went up there, had some good time there. And now I'm here."

On picking between quarterback and running back in high school:

"What made you think that running back was your future? Well, it just got to the point in high school I just always wanted the ball in my hand. So, you know, it was something like that."

Q: So you played how many years at Central Missouri?

"I played three years at Central Missouri."

Q: Your big one was 2023. Were you dealing with injuries last year? What was that like?

"Yeah, I had a slight little bone bruise, but it came back good."

Q: When you're transferring after a year where you've been injured like that, what does that do to your interest once you get to the portal?

"It was still pretty good. I was getting calls from a lot of different schools. It was kind of like the same thing. I really wouldn't know how it would be if I would jump in 2023. Just control what I can control, you know?"

Q: Who else was a serious contender when you got in the transfer portal?

"It was a few other schools. I didn't do much take any other visits, though. After I came here, I kind of knew what I wanted. Kind of checked off the boxes that I was looking for, and I didn't need to go see everything else."

Q: What does that do when you're going to a school and they have had a Bhayshul Tuten the previous year? Do you see what he does? I know it's a new offense, but do you see what he does at a school like this and be like, hey, that could be something I could do in a place like that?

"Oh, yeah, 100%. Whenever I came up for the visit, kind of seeing the run form that they had. I loved it. I'm like, yeah, let's do it. We're ready to go."

Q: Did the run form stay the same with the new offense?

"It kind of changed up a little bit, but, you know, you got to adapt or die."

Q: Who else did you see on your visit?

"JJ and Coach Brooks."

Q: What do you feel like has stood out about just this offense as a whole and some of the weapons on the outside and how it's all coming together?

"Yeah, it's just weapons everywhere. It's kind of what I see almost every practice. You can kind of see it's like someone new doing something crazy. Just seeing that we've got a lot of weapons on the offense is kind of making me smile every time I go out there."

Q: Everybody?

"Yeah, it's kind of everybody. You never know, like, come in one day, you feel me? He's going to get some good work in, you feel me? Just kind of everybody."

Q: Did you have goals about, like, weight-wise, what you wanted to be at after the offseason, something you maybe trimmed up a little bit or attempted to through the summer?

"Yeah, probably not more so worried about the weight, just kind of getting comfortable with where I want to move at, honestly."

Q: Coach Pry mentioned you kind of dinged up early in the spring. Is that still? So are you recovering from the bone bruise or something else happened?

"Yeah, it was a little bit of everything, just getting back into football, you know."

Q: Was there a point during spring where it didn't start clicking and you started getting back into the groove?

"Yeah, really just getting back behind the offensive line, just getting back into the groove, you know. Kind of had to sit out a few of those games last year, so coming in, you know, had to get back used to going."

Q: Is that a clock tattoo on your arm? What's the significance of that?

"Really just God's timing, man. I kind of like to go up, like the time, stuff like that. They say lost time is never found again. It's kind of dark right now, but lost time is never found again. It's kind of how I like it."

Q: Is that a one session tattoo? How long does it take to get something like that done?

"Actually, it kind of just got finished, for real, for real. I had got a few of these, like, whenever I was younger. Some last year, some a few months ago."

Q: Where's the inspiration come from, lost time and stuff like that?

"Just kind of my journey, for real, for real. I done been through a lot of trials and tribulations. I could have gave up, but you just got to know it's God's time."

Q: Are there any places where you felt like you wanted to give up, and what made you keep going and keep fighting?

"I always kind of try to keep a good, positive thought in my head, so I never really try to think about giving up. So that's one of my things."

Q: Coach Pry praised your energy. Where does that come from?

"How you do anything is how you do everything. So I just kind of like to give energy, like a lot of energy to the stuff I love."