NFL DRAFT CLASS OF 2021 INTERVIEW: BRENDEN KNOX | MARSHALL | RUNNING BACK

What have you learned about yourself in this process? I've learned to just kind of be true to yourself. Don't really try to be anything that you're not. Be who you are. Be honest and everything else will take care of itself.

What was your thinking on deciding to come out early? You could have had two more years. Honestly after 2019 I felt like I was physically ready to make that leap. Mentally there was some things I wanted to put on film and come back and prove. At the end of the season, I felt like both of those had come together well. So, it was kind of a no-brainer to make that jump from that point out.

Are you starting to see the fruits of your labor pay off? No doubt. A lot of times when you're growing up when you're kind of a freshman and a young guy, they just tell you work hard, be honest, be true, and everything else will take care of itself. When you're young, it's kind of hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But honestly once you put that hard work behind you and just grind, everything else will take care of itself. So, like you said, the fruits of the labor are starting to show up.

How highly anticipated of a day is your pro day? Is it a sigh of relief? Yeah. It's definitely not content. I'm never content. But you know it's here. Don't think too much into it. It's something you've been doing for years now. So, it's not really that big of a stage, but you definitely want to make an impression.

What do you need to improve on to break into pro football? Anybody that has watched my tape extensively, I would say maybe backend speed. But outside of that, what I kind of hear is to stay more downhill.

How have you adapted amid the lockdown to staying healthy and working out? That kind of is what it is. Just taking it as it comes. I mean, a lot of us don't have access to our own gyms or anything like that. So, honestly, it just comes down to phoning a friend at the end of the day. Garages, kids in the neighborhood, friends of the family, just kind of getting into whatever they have available to them and kind of just getting access to that however you can.

What is your plan beyond pro day to get the remainder of your workouts in? As you know, there's no private workouts or anything like that. We've been getting at it pretty extensively. Probably just kind of stick to field work. All of the combine stuff is out the window at that point. So, probably just fine-tune some field work stuff and just get some more position work in.

What kind of feedback have you gotten from the NFL? Just from people that I have spoken to, just little stuff that you can kind of keep in the back of your head going forward. The biggest thing would probably just be catching. That's a lot of stuff that I wasn't able to showcase here throughout my time. Just catching is something that I want people to see more. And that's probably the biggest consistent thing I've got back.

How much do you really have your market yourself in these times, especially coming from Marshall? Just getting into as many different platforms as you possibly can, whether that be podcasts, in front of a camera as often as possible, and just as many media outlets that have a good outreach. So, that's the biggest thing about a COVID year. So, that's pretty much it for me.

How truly difficult was it testing three times a week while being a student-athlete? Very difficult. It's never been done before. No one has had to go through that. So, most definitely difficult, but it just comes down to being able to navigate around that and being able to adjust on the fly.

What do you like about Ezekiel Elliott's game? Just how styled he is in every aspect of the game. I've been watching him since he was at Ohio State kind of being in my backyard, being a Columbus kid. He runs well. He catches and he embraces blitz protection. He's second to none when it comes to that. So, I like to model everything behind him with whatever he does on the field honestly because that is what greatness is currently.

Why didn't you fumble at Marshall much? Did you work on that? Were you coached on it? Coaching was a big aspect of that, especially with Pepe Pierson. That was one of the biggest things he drilled and instilled in us when we were freshman here. It just goes hand and hand in being able to pass protect, too. If you can't carry the rock and not be able to fumble it, and if you can't pick up the blitz, you're not going to play. It just comes down to the trust factor with the coaching staff.

What have your coaches at Marshall told you to expect during this process? Not really much on that. Just really be true to who you are and just work hard and everything else will take care of itself. Not really too much in that aspect.

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