By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

CLEMSON — Quietly Andre Ellington has gone about his business at Clemson, and quietly he has become one of the greatest running backs the school has ever had.

Nearly a year after making the decision to come back to Clemson to finish out his senior year, the Moncks Corner, S.C., native has become only the fourth player and only third running back in Clemson history to go over 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons.

“I have worked hard to get where I’m at,” Ellington said.

And he has. Ellington’s rise up the rushing chart at Clemson did not come as easy as maybe it did for those before him. When he came to Clemson in 2008, he came in with heralded recruit Jamie Harper out of Jacksonville, Fla. A future NFL star by the name of C.J. Spiller was also playing in front of him, as too was Clemson’s second all-time leading rusher James Davis, who finished his career with 3,881 yards.

Ellington was redshirted his freshman year, but he did not pout. Instead he paid attention. He watched how Davis and Spiller handled things. He watched how they acted around their teammates and how they responded to questions and pressures that came from their coaches and the media alike.

On the football field, he paid attention to the way they played the game, how hard they ran the football and how they were willing to throw their bodies in harm’s way in pass blocking situations.

“James and C.J., they were leaders,” Ellington said. “I got to see early in my career how you are supposed to act and how you are supposed to handle things. I learned a lot from them.”

After spending his second year at Clemson behind Spiller and watching one of the greatest individual seasons ever in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Ellington finally got his shot to be the man in 2010. But a foot injury in the eighth game cut his season short.

Though he rushed for 1,178 yards as a junior, injuries again plagued the running back, causing some to question his durability. It was one of the reasons why he came back to Clemson.

Heading into the Chick-fil-A Bowl against No. 7 LSU on New Year’s Eve, the senior has rushed for 1,031 yards, while scoring eight touchdowns. He has also caught 13 passes for 197 more yards and another score. He did all of this while playing and starting in all 12 games.

His only setback was a tweak of his hamstring after breaking off a 26-yard run to start the game at Duke. Though he was cleared to play the rest of the game, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney decided to sit him out the rest of the night considering the Tigers rushed for 334 yards without his services.

Ellington came back the next week and rushed for 55 yards and scored a touchdown on 13 carries. He did it all in one half of play due to another blowout victory over Maryland.

“It has been fun to watch him grow,” Swinney said.

Ellington, who was named to the All-ACC First-Team for a second straight year earlier this month, closed out the regular season with 124 yards against NC State and then with 72 yards on 15 carries against South Carolina.

Heading into the Chick-fil-A Bowl, his 3,386 career yards rank fourth all-time in Clemson history, as does his 36 career touchdowns. As mentioned, he is just the fourth player in Clemson history with two 1,000-yard seasons, joining Raymond Priester, Woody Dantzler and his old mentor – James Davis.

They are remarkable numbers and remarkable accomplishments for a guy that has quietly gone about his business. Now as his career at Clemson comes to a close, Ellington says he is going to sit back and enjoy the next few weeks and then he will get ready for the next chapter in his life.

“I’m going to enjoy every day,” he said. “There is going to be a new step that I’m going to have to be prepared for. It’s not going to be like college. So I’m going to be out with my brothers the next few days, and I’m going to enjoy it.”