He’s still here: Wake Forest’s veteran RB Justice Ellison is poised to make a difference
Each day, when Justice Ellison steps onto the field for training camp at Wake Forest, he thinks of two things at which he can get better.
Whether it’s working on pass-pro or sustaining long runs out of the backfield, his mind is set on improving the tools in his toolbox while simultaneously adding new ones.
“It doesn’t mean I’m gonna be perfect at it, I’m still human,” Ellison said. “But every time I come out here I let the other guys know that there’s no difference between me and you.”
As Ellison begins his second year as the Demon Deacons’ starting running back, a lot of the external noise surrounding the team has focused on its missing players — namely quarterback Sam Hartman, who transferred to Notre Dame.
But Ellison, Wake Forest’s leading rusher, is still here, a leader in an otherwise young running back room. A junior, Ellison became the oldest back on the team when Christian Turner, a redshirt junior, transferred to Indiana at the end of the 2022 season. Additionally, Quinton Cooley, the third member of Wake’s 2022 three-running back rotation, transferred to Liberty for his junior season.
Ellison has more on his plate this year than in years past, but he also has high personal standards that keep his day-to-day preparation in check.
“I still keep the pressure on myself in a way where it doesn’t make me freak out and do the things that’s out of the ordinary,” Ellison said. “But, I have the pressure like knowing that I want to always be better than I was before, I want to always do better than I did before.”
Part of a committee last season with Turner and Cooley, Ellison started all 10 games in which he played and rushed for a team-high 707 yards, scoring six touchdowns. He earned a spot on the 2022 Doak Walker Award Watch List and finished the year as a Third Team All-ACC member.
In his fourth year on the team, including the 2020 COVID year, he’s been through his fair share of fall camps. With more experience, Ellison is recognizing changes in how he sees the game now from before.
“The maturity of my game and experience I have on the field has helped me to where I’m in practice, the game is so slow that I can be able to do things at 100 miles per hour and make the decisions that I couldn’t make freshman year,” Ellison said. “And I just continue to keep adding on to that.”
Ellison said he’s working on being more explosive and driving for longer runs. He’s also working on making guys miss — leading the safety, corner or linebacker the wrong way before cutting in and making a run.
Recruited as a three-star wide receiver out of the Flint Hill School, the Ashburn, Virginia, native also has experience at other positions from high school that helped him build on his versatile skill set. Quarterback Mitch Griffis emphasized Ellison’s versatility.
“I cannot say enough good things about Justice Ellison,” Griffis said. “He’s one of my best friends. He’s our Swiss Army knife for our football team. He does it all. He’s selfless. He works his tail off, a great leader in that room.”
He was the last player to be offered in his class at Wake Forest, and Wake was the only Power Five school that reached out to him throughout his process. It’s his home, he said, and he views his performance on the field as a way to give back.
“They really believed in me from the get-go,” Ellison said. “I want them to know that this guy right here, he’s giving his all every day even when he doesn’t want to. So my mindset is like, this could be my last year or one more year after this, but I’m gonna give it my all and just know that I left it all out there for Wake Forest.”
Ellison said he also makes an extra effort to get to know his classmates, because, he said, everyone is part of the “Wake Forest culture.”
The offense, the defense and special teams players hang out frequently, spending quality time together to build a sense of family they hope to carry over to the field.
“Our team camaraderie is coming together,” Ellison said. “And I just look forward to, being able to be at the end of the season and be like, ‘I don’t want this year to end.’”
Ellison said he often thinks about what his opening run of the season will look like, replaying it over and over in his head, willing it to come sooner. With fewer experienced options out of the backfield than last year, Ellison hopes his rushing numbers will exceed those of 2022, and the same goes for the number of rushing yards the team itself can accumulate.
“I just want to be able to show that this year, all the work that we’ve put in,” Ellison said. “I just do my job. I can’t be Superman, but all I can do is promise I’m trying to do my job.”
