A New Year and a New RB1
The 2025 Clemson Tigers enter the season with the highest expectations since the Trevor Lawrence era, but many fans are likely exercising cautious optimism after four straight seasons of falling short of elite status, though still securing two ACC championships and two bowl victories during that span. One of the biggest question marks entering this season is how the running back position will take shape after losing veteran lead backs Will Shipley in 2023 and Phil Mafah after last season.
Clemson’s
lack of depth at running back reared its ugly head last season once Phil Mafah’s injured shoulder reached a point that made him a shell of his formidable prior self. Just when Jay Haynes appeared to be finding his way into a prominent role, he tore his ACL early in the ACC Championship Game. The staff shifted WR Adam Randall to running back ahead of the playoff matchup with Texas. He ripped off a long run, but he had a lot to learn about the position and that has reportedly been happening during the preseason. Randall now projects at RB1 for the LSU game.
This is the first time in my memory Clemson would be starting a new RB with almost zero experience in game 1. Randall is a physical specimen that for whatever reason couldn’t fully bloom at WR but might be Clemson’s version of last year’s running back star at SMU Brashard Smith who converted from WR and had a 1,300+ yard season last year. I wouldn’t expect Randall to shoulder the load that Smith did to get to that number, but this conversion will be very interesting to watch and would be a great story for a truly “All-In” student athlete like Randall.
After Randall, there are even more unknowns and unproven commodities. Jay Haynes is coming back from ACL surgery and realistically shouldn’t be considered a real factor until a few games into the season at the earliest. Perhaps the two most physically talented pure running backs on the roster are redshirt freshman David Eziomume and true freshman Gideon Davidson. Fall camp reports have pointed to Eziomume blossoming and looking like the RB2 for game 1, but none of these guys have been on a stage like the LSU game will provide, so projecting is difficult. Some guys really take off and some guys can’t get over a mental hurdle of real game pressure.
No matter who ends up being the feature back or backs for this year’s team, the Tigers have to find a way to be more consistent with the running game if reaching a national championship game is realistic. Position coach CJ Spiller is working with a stable of his own recruits (and Randall). Phil Mafah was the last of the Tony Elliott era backs. While Spiller has done a good job producing some of the best PFF graded offensive players since taking over, it remains to be seen if his recruiting holds up the way Elliot’s did.
Normally, I would include stats for the returning players in this preview, but really only Haynes has stats that even begin to register in the RB room. He is the leading returning RB with just 43 carries for 295 yards (6.9 ypc). Much of that lofty ypc number was from his performance against The Citadel, so it has to be somewhat taken with a grain of salt.
The other “veteran” in the room is Keith Adams, Jr. Adams is a role player who brings physicality and know-how but lacks some of the attributes to realistically be counted on as a feature back. Adams will likely find a role with some short yardage and perhaps fullback-type action if the Tigers ever use two-backs in a formation. Clemson certainly needs to improve on the short yardage run game after being stuffed in several critical moments last season, most notably at Texas when the team could have made it a one score game.
Swinney-era Clemson had to replace the vast majority of its RB production back in 2013, 2014, 2017, and 2021. Each of those seasons saw the true alpha emerge by the midpoint of the season with uneven returns prior to that point except for 2013 when Hot Rod McDowell had a great senior season after being a backup with limited opportunities to Andre Ellington and Jamie Harper the previous seasons. 2014 saw Wayne Gallman emerge as RB1 after beginning the season behind guys like C.J. Davidson and D.J. Howard. 2017 saw Travis Etienne take the reins after backing up Tavien Feaster, Adam Choice, and C.J. Fuller. 2021 was the one true season that you could say “running back by committee” lasted the entire season after supposed RB1 Lyn J Dixon was supplanted by the freshman trio of Will Shipley, Kobe (Pryor) Pace, and Phil Mafah.
There is no way to really know how things are going to shake out in comparison (or contrast) to those seasons listed above. In the end, you just don’t want issues at running back leading to a loss because somebody couldn’t hold onto the ball or pick up a blitz in a key moment. Clemson finished 2024 with 173.4 yards per game rushing and 5.1 per carry, but the team was on pace for around 200 yards per game and closer to 6.1 per carry before Mafah’s injury really hindered him. Clemson had little to no running game outside of Cade Klubnik versus Pittsburgh, South Carolina, SMU, and Texas. Fans have to hope that the Tigers have better depth to maintain running back production even if someone gets hurt. The unit has already lost Jarvis Green, who did not project to be a threat to start but did supply a TD reception in the Texas game.
Speaking of TD receptions, the Tigers are looking for more pass catching production from this position than they got last year. Phil Mafah was a great back when healthy, but even then did not supply much in the way of a receiving threat as Will Shipley did or Travis Etienne learned to do in his final seasons. You would have to think Randall will be a threat as a converted WR, and we’ve seen some wheel route concepts used in the spring game and from reports from the fall scrimmages that makes you think it will be more of a feature in the playbook this season. The Tigers could benefit from having a more effective screen game to combat aggressive defenses looking to come after Cade Klubnik.
I’ll take a stab at projection just because that is part of what we normally try to do with these previews. I’ll either have gotten very lucky or I’ll be laughing at how wrong I was at season’s end.
RB1: Adam Randall: Count me aboard the Randall train and I say he holds this all season. I’ll put him in the 2021 Will Shipley range of around 150 carries for 800 yards and around 5.3 a carry.
RB2: David Eziomume: EZ-E as he is called surprises to hold off Gideon Davidson and Jay Haynes for most of the year as RB2 and finishes with around 85 carries for 400 yards and 4.7 a carry.
RB3: Gideon Davidson/Jay Haynes: Haynes is a big wild card coming back from the ACL but having the most real experience in the room. He could very well ascend to RB1 or RB2 status based on how his recovery goes. Davidson is probably the most gifted RB in the room but will no doubt get eased into the season unless forced into earlier action due to attrition. However, I’ll give him the nod for best ypc when he takes advantage of some of the garbage time and lighter opposition moments he will get the way we saw Haynes do last season. If Davidson ascends the way Gallman and Etienne did their freshman years, it will be because his talent becomes too undeniable to not play and/or the older backs underwhelm. The staff certainly hopes they have the luxury of bringing him along slowly. We certainly saw Will Shipley struggle when he was thrust into action at the very beginning of the 2021 season before settling in midseason.
Ultimately, this season will look at lot like 2014 and 2021 did in terms of running back production distributed across around three running backs versus having one guy shouldering the vast majority of the load.
