VT Football: Catching up with Ryan Williams, Darren Evans ...

When the Hokies started spring football practice yesterday, all three of their star tailbacks from 2010 were on the field. Unfortunately for Virginia Tech, Ryan Williams and Darren Evans were only there as spectators.

That duo, which combined for 4,251 yards and 52 touchdowns in just two seasons each for the Hokies, was back in town for a private workout with the Miami Dolphins. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor, cornerback Rashad Carmichael, tight end Andre Smith and defensive tackle John Graves – the other NFL hopefuls who’ve departed Tech’s team – also worked out for the Dolphins’ coaching staff on campus yesterday.

Afterward, Evans and Williams wandered over to Rector Fieldhouse, where the Hokies were holding their first spring practice under cover to avoid the rain. Both former Tech tailbacks seemed a little nostalgic watching their old teammates run through drills, but both also seemed very confident that their decisions to leave school early were the right move.

(Oh, and before I forget to mention it, there were at least two other big visitors at yesterday’s first practice. Top recruits Trey Edmunds and Joshua Holsey visited the Hokies, too. Edmunds is a linebacker from just outside Danville and Holsey is a defensive back from just outside Atlanta whose high school teammate, Davion Tookes, has already committed to Tech.)

Now here’s what Williams and Evans had to say about their life since leaving Virginia Tech in January – and what lies ahead ...

RB RYAN WILLIAMS

ON WHAT HE'S BEEN UP TO IN THE LAST 3-4 MONTHS: “Just training, trying to maintain. I had a workout with the Dolphins today that went well. I’ve had a couple workouts: the Ravens, the Patriots and now the Dolphins. I fly to Kansas City on Sunday and I have the Redskins on the 14th. And I think I’m setting up a visit to the Dolphins, too.”

ON HOW NERVOUS HE IS ABOUT THE NFL LOCKOUT: “There’s nothing to be nervous about, because I don’t have no control over it. I can be nervous about things I have control over, but I’m not in that meeting room. I’m not in those discussions about the season. So I just wait around to see what happens.”

ON WHETHER HE’LL GO TO NEW YORK FOR THE DRAFT: “I talked to the guy who invites people and he said that with the whole boycott thing, they haven’t really been inviting people yet. He said he hoped to call me when he starts inviting people. I’m not sure if that was a ‘yeah, you’re coming’ or ‘I just want to let you down easy because you’re not coming.’ So I’m just waiting around.”

ON WHAT KIND OF FEEDBACK HE’S GETTING ON HIS DRAFT SLOTTING: “I feel like if worst comes to worst, I won’t go past the early third round. That’s how I see it.”

ON HIS PRO DAY AT VT A COUPLE WEEKS AGO: “Pro day was good, productive. I ran my 4.4 like I wanted to. That was really the thing I wanted to accomplish, because skill- and drill-wise, that really comes easy and natural to me. That 40, I really had to crack down and run a good time. I heard (he ran at pro day) a 4.45 and I think my lowest was a 4.49.”

ON THAT 40 TIME BEING THE ONLY NEGATIVE FROM HIS COMBINE PERFORMANCE: “I didn’t feel good the whole time. I had the flu down there, but I still performed.”

ON WHETHER CERTAIN TEAMS SEEM MORE INTERESTED: “You’ve got the teams that seem interested and the teams that don’t. I talked to about 20 teams while I was there at the combine. I really don’t know what their intention was, but I met with a lot of people.”

ON WHETHER HE’S EVER HAD A MOMENT OF SECOND THOUGHT SINCE MAKING HIS DECISION: “Nope, not at all. I really miss playing for Virginia Tech. I’m going to miss playing here. But I wanted to play in the NFL since I was 7. I really didn’t know what college I was going to go to, but this has been the only dream that I’ve ever had, so I feel good about my decision.”

ON DAVID WILSON TAKING OVER VT’S TAILBACK DUTIES: “I think he’s going to have a breakout season. I can’t really call numbers out ... but with the tangibles he has, I think he’s going to do pretty well in this offense. I’m really expecting him to break my records. That’s what I’m expecting.”

ON THE HOKIES IN 2011 WITHOUT HIM, EVANS, TYROD, GRAVES, SMITH AND CARMICHAEL, ETC. “We’ve got great guys to replace us. Ty’s got Logan. Me and Darren got David Wilson. All the receivers are here. The whole O-line is here. We’re missing Andre, but we’ve got some guys that can replace Andre and block on the edge. It really isn’t a step off, for real.”

ON WHAT LOGAN THOMAS BRINGS TO THE TABLE AS VT’S NEW QB: “I think there’s one thing Tech fans don’t know about Logan: he’s very fast to be as big as he is. I don’t think he has the Tyrod escape/create-something-out-of-nothing ability, but he can still run and he can get out of the pocket and create something. So it’s really not going to be a big step off. It’s really not.”

RB DARREN EVANS

ON NOT BEING WITH THE HOKIES FOR PRACTICE: “The past four years, this is what I was doing. All that training stuff, that stuff gets old fast. This is what you want to do. You want to be out here practicing. That’s the only thing I’m missing right now.”

ON THE GRUELING TRAINING BEING THE ONLY THING HE’S BEEN DOING: “Just lifting and running and catching footballs. That stuff will get old fast.”

ON BEING HAPPY WITH HIS COMBINE PEFORMANCE: “I got some good feedback. I worked my butt off to run well and catch well and I did both of those pretty good. It’s pretty much out of my hands now, after I get done with these private workouts. It’s just about a team making a decision.”

ON NOT RUNNING AT THE VT PRO DAY: “I stuck on my combine numbers (in the 4.5s at 227 pounds). It’s faster than what I thought I was going to run. And talking to coaches, it was faster than what I told them I was going to run. So I was super happy about it.”

ON HOW HE GOT SO BIG: “I’ve always had that with me, but I lose it fast if I’m not (lifting) like I was training (in Indianapolis the last few months). That was two training sessions a day. Here, you get maybe one every other day.”

ON BEING A TRUE ‘POWER BACK’ AT THAT SIZE: “I feel like I’m a little bit more versatile. I have an opportunity to work on stuff. Here, in this offense, it kind of demanded one certain thing out of me. And the offense I came from in high school, it was about the same. We just ran the football. I never had a lot of opportunities to line up at receiver and run routes and stuff like that. I’ve just come from a running back ground and that’s what I’m good at and that’s where I shine.”

ON WORKING ON HIS HANDS IN TRAINING NOW: “Yeah, because I’m not in a situation where my main focus is looking at the first down lineman on inside zone right now. I’m not learning an offense, so I’m working on things that pertain to my game.”

ON WHICH NFL TEAMS HE’S WORKED OUT FOR: “I worked out for the Dolphins today and I’ve worked out for a few other teams. I don’t think they really want me to say. I’ve worked out for two others and I have another one after this.”

ON HIS NFL FEEDBACK: “I’m getting the same type of stuff. They just want to see me be more versatile, because everybody knows that I can run the football and I can take care of the football, break tackles, score the touchdown. They just want to see me be a little bit more of a pass-catcher. The game in the NFL, you’ve just got to be a little bit more versatile. That’s where you make your money. There’s nothing wrong with being a power back or whatever, it’s just you can be used a lot more ways if you can do a lot more things.”

ON WHAT HE’S HEARING ABOUT HIS DRAFT SLOTTING: “It just depends. I’ve heard as high as the third round and I’ve heard as low as the fifth round. It just depends on who else those teams are looking at and where they want to get a running back, what round.”

ON FEELING CONFIDENT HE WON’T GO PAST THE FIFTH ROUND: “Oh, yeah, because I’ve had a good number of teams say they like me and what I can do. And then in my private workouts, I’ve shown that I can catch the football. So hopefully I’m putting that to rest.”

ON WHETHER HE’S HAD ANY MOMENT OF DOUBT SINCE DECLARING FOR THE DRAFT: “No, not at all. The only thing, though, is I do miss this (looking out at VT practicing). I do miss being on the field with a helmet, and I might not get to do that for a couple more months. But I’m still excited to go and attack this challenge. I’m about to get my degree, so to be honest I feel like my time here was over and I was ready to make that jump. I don’t have any doubts.”

ON WORRIES ABOUT THE NFL LOCKOUT: “No, because there’s nothing I can do. I’m just on the outside looking in. That’s been my whole thing since I came out, just controlling what I control. That’s why I’ve been working as hard as I have, because that’s the only end I can control: how fast I run, how good I look when I make a cut, if I catch this ball. That’s all I’ve been worrying about.”

ON WHETHER DAVID WILSON IS ABOUT TO BE A STAR FOR VT: “Yeah. He was a star last year. With it just being in his hands, he’ll probably get that same type of treatment I got in 2008 and Ryan got in 2009. I’m pretty sure he’ll bust it out. Every VT back that’s had the stage by himself, that’s kind of the tradition. I’m pretty sure he’ll uphold it.”

* For instant updates on the Hokies, follow me at twitter.com/kyletuckerVP

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