Former Clemson running back Travis Etienne met with the media earlier this week following the Jacksonville Jaguars’ OTAs and spoke about how his brother and teammates push him to be the best he can be in the game of football.
Etienne’s younger brother, Trevor, is a rising sophomore running back at the University of Florida who finished his freshman season in 2022 with 719 yards and six touchdowns on 118 carries to go with nine catches for 66 yards. He also returned 17 kicks for 421 yards.
Travis said he and Trevor, who earned Freshman All-SEC honors last year, have a “healthy competition” as they motivate each other to maximize their potential.
“It’s not really a competition, it’s more of just we know what we want to be in life and when we look back on our football careers, we know what we set out for us – we want to be the best players that we can be, and it just goes hand in hand. Seeing my little brother motivates me, him seeing me motivates him, and we both want to be the best at our position,” Travis said.
“So, I feel like it’s a healthy competition. He’s obviously doing great at what he does in Florida right now. I play on Sundays, so watching my little brother on Saturday just gets me ready for my game, gets me fired up. I see what he did, see him run through people and stuff like that, and now I’m trying to go out there and imitate things that he’s done and just elevate my game. So, we just keep inspiring each other to be better each and every week.”
After being selected by the Jaguars in the first round (25th overall) of the 2021 NFL Draft, Travis suffered a Lisfranc injury in the 2021 preseason that caused him to miss all of his rookie campaign. But he came back strong in 2022, rushing for 1,125 yards and five touchdowns as the team’s primary running back.
It was an impressive campaign for Travis, though ball security is an area of his game that he’s working to improve upon ahead of the 2023 season after losing five fumbles a year ago.
Travis said he’s “very confident” that those ball security issues are behind him.
“I’ve been playing football my whole life,” he said. “All great running backs put the ball on the ground sometimes, but it’s on us to just keep getting better and better and better and being aware of the little situations. I feel like my teammates believe in me, so as long as I got their belief, we good.”
Offseason workouts this year have been less stressful for Travis, as unlike last offseason, he doesn’t have to be concerned about returning to the field from a significant injury.
“Last year was more about getting healthy and getting back,” he said. “This year, I didn’t have to worry about my foot. It’s great. So I’m able to work on football.”
You can check out Travis’ media availability this week below:
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