WATCH: RB Hollywood Smothers Talks With the Media During Week 1 of NC State’s 2025 Spring Practice (with Transcript)

Redshirt Sophomore Running Back Hollywood Smothers met with the media yesterday during the 1st week of NC State’s Spring Practice. Smothers rushed for 571 yards and 6 touchdowns in his first year in Raleigh last year, and also had 263 receiving yards and 2 touchdown receptions. He averaged 6.42 yards per carry as a Redshirt Freshman, which is the 6th best single-season average in NC State history.

You can watch his press conference above, and read the transcript below.

Relationship with new Offensive Coordinator Kurt Roper.

It’s dope for me, honestly, especially because he was somebody that recruited me to come to out of high school, and somebody that brings the right energy to the scene and that’s firing on the offensive side of the ball.

So it’s a great thing, I’m excited.

What’s kind of the motivation of changing your jersey number?

So I got a tattoo of a number three on me, too, by the way. I was born on the 3rd of February. I’m a third child.

My zodiac is Aquarius, which looks like number three. I figured that out when I was nine years old and I always wore it growing up.

As far as last year was concerned, obviously, you’d love to have more success as a team, but what was that like for you from a confidence standpoint going into year two with this program?

I want to say it was a good learning experience. Just a lot of games we lost, probably six games on one possession and stuff like that. I didn’t really play towards till the back end of the season.

So just knowing what it took and knowing what we needed, especially from me playing a role in the background, being a third back and seeing a transition, and what it takes to try to win games, or get in a better position, or what the things we weren’t doing right. So I think it was a great year and we’re pretty young. I feel very confident going into this year.

I had a good couple of games to finish out to get more comfortable with the game, and the game speed, so I’m excited for this year.

Where do you feel like are the biggest areas where you’re trying to grow this offseason leading up to this season?

I want to say discipline, pre-snap reads, I can be quick with my reads, recognizing blitzes faster and stuff like that, reading coverages. I want to be more so like a quarterback beside the quarterback.

So read defense, and know the whole offense, so I can be used all over the field.

How important is it to have your expected starting QB be the same as the one that you ended the previous season with?

It’s great, and everybody knows how special CJ (Bailey) is, and he’s going to be even better this year.

He was just throwing fire early last year, and now he’s getting more confidence, and you can see it out there. He always had the intangibles and now, it’s his show now, it’s all about him.

I’m excited, and I know what I see from him every day, and I’m just ready for the world to see.

The last three years, you’ve had to embrace a lot of change. What has that been like for you?

It’s been good. I think coming out of high school, just going away from home, I had to be uncomfortable for a while. I think everything happens for a reason. The few changes, I always just had to adjust, and figure out what was best for me, and just really just figure it out, and just be on my feet about it, honestly. Just trust the process. Sometimes change is good. It gives us a new state of mind, honestly.

How’s the line looking this year? How do you think they’re going to do this year?

I think they’re going to be great. I love the whole line so far.

As far as being your second year at NC State, how good is it to be with the same program for second straight year, as opposed to you change high schools after your senior year, and then go into Oklahoma, and now being back here for a second year?

Oklahoma was great, honestly.

I just got to learn how things were, just like similar to my freshman year, like learn tradition here, and the culture, and get closer to my teammates. So going into this year, I’ve built bonds throughout this past year with a lot of guys, so I feel like this year is going to be a great year for me. I’m stepping more inside the leadership role, because I’ve been here this past year, and I got to learn a lot from last year.