8/7/2019 football Edit

Zonovan Knight is not resting on his spring performance

Matt Carter • TheWolfpackCentral

Editor

NC State freshman running back Zonovan Knight is aiming to be one of the primary ball carriers this fall. (Ken Martin/The Wolfpacker)

The last time NC State fans saw freshman running back Zonovan Knight, he was running wild in the Kay Yow Spring Game in April.

Knight finished the scrimmage with 139 rushing yards, highlighted by a 73-yard touchdown run. It did not take long for his family, friends and others to take notice of the performance.

This was on the heels of a huge senior season at Southern Nash High in Bailey, N.C., when he averaged 16.6 yards per rush and tallied a school-record 2,054 yards. He carried for 26 touchdowns in 11 games. That led to a selection to the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas All-Star Game in December in Spartanburg, S.C., where Knight ran for 148 yards, including a 61-yard touchdown, to be named North Carolina’s Offensive MVP.

Rivals.com bumped Knight up to a four-star recruit after all that.

“Even my teammates here, everybody started calling me ‘Superstar,’” Knight noted.

His response though shows the maturity that sometimes belies a true freshman who had enrolled early, and just finished his first semester of college.

“It’s just the spring game,” was Knight's response to teammates and others. “That’s not actually like people I’m going to be playing against. Those were my teammates, not Clemson. It’s not Florida State.

“I haven’t made my mark yet.”

Knight did not have to remind himself of that either because he knows another fact about the spring game.

“I know it’s a lot of rotation,” he noted. “I know that was not truly all starters that I was going against. It was a mix. Especially when I start playing these other teams, they are going to have their best players.”

That is not to say that Knight didn’t take anything away from the spring game. It did give him some valuable confidence that he is on the right trajectory to play this fall.

“I used that as a mark to see if I’ll be ready for the season,” he explained. “I used that to determine whether or not the coach would see the potential for me to play as a true freshman or not, and I think I did pretty well.”

Knight is almost surely going to get some action this fall, and although players can now play up to four games and maintain their redshirts, odds are good that Knight will burn through that.

Playing early was a motivating factor for Knight when he arrived in January. To that end he had worked hard off the field in the weight room and learning the playbook. His efforts are paying dividends.

Knight said he arrived around 185 pounds and just recently he hit the 200-pound mark.

“I feel like I have the same speed,” he added, alluding to his calling card.

He acknowledged that he was lost at times in the spring, too, when it came to the offense.

“Now everything comes easier for me, so it makes practice that much easier,” Knight said.

There is still more for Knight to learn. He’s getting one of those lessons in the early days of fall camp.

“In spring, it was morning practice, that was it for the day,” he noted. “Now it’s every day, all day. It’s been a big adjustment. It takes its toll on your body.”