By Will Vandervort

When Andre Ellington went out with an injury in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, the Clemson coaching staff did not hesitate to send in Roderick McDowell. The junior, who was perhaps the most improved player on the Tigers’ 11-2 football team last fall, did not disappoint his coaches.

McDowell carried the ball seven times for 26 yards, most of which came in the second half in helping Clemson rally for a 25-24 victory. He also picked up a blitzing LSU linebacker on the now famous fourth-and-16 play that gave quarterback Tajh Boyd enough time to find DeAndre Hopkins open 26 yards down the field.

The Tigers went onto drive down the field after that, setting up Chandler Catanzaro for the game-winning kick as time expired.

With Ellington playing in his last game, the coaching staff’s confidence in McDowell was obvious, proving he will be Clemson’s first string running back when the Tigers open spring practice next Wednesday.

“It’s like what you saw in the bowl game. We had no problem handing that ball to Rod McDowell against LSU,” Swinney said. “He performed at a high level for us when we needed him. I think he was one of the real positive stories from our team last year. I tell guys all the time. Players develop differently. As long as the guy is working and competing and has the right skill set, he will develop.”

McDowell developed to be the third leading rusher on the team last year, rushing for 450 yards at 5.4 yards per carry. He had 14 runs of 10-plus yards and six of at least 20 yards. He scored five touchdowns and had a long of 32 yards.

“I think Hot Rod is going to be a great leader for us,” Swinney said. “He is not a guy that can do it by himself, but he is going to be a great leader and is going to have a tremendous senior year.”

Here is a closer look at Clemson’s depth chart at the running back position heading into the spring

Rod McDowell, 5-9, 195, Sr.: McDowell has worked hard over the last three years to earn playing time. After coming to Clemson at 170 pounds, he has put on more than 20 pounds, while becoming a little faster at the same time. Like Ellington, he has good vision and hits small holes and lanes with great acceleration which allows him to get to the second level faster than most running backs. Surprisingly, despite his size, he runs well between the tackles. He has improved a great deal in pass blocking, but he still needs to work on his pass catching skills out of the backfield.

“Rod McDowell has been a guy that has had to develop,” Swinney said. “He has put on 20 something pounds since he came to Clemson. Physically, he has had to do lot of preparation and transforming. He has done that. He is 195 pounds and is strong as a bull. With that development, his confidence has grown and because of his confidence he has had success on the field.”

D.J. Howard, 5-11, 195, Jr.: Howard rushed for 138 yards and scored two touchdowns in 2012. He missed two games early in the season due to injury and when he finally got healthy, he came in and rushed 13 times for 65 yards against Duke, but again an injury slowed him down. He had just six more carries the rest of the season. Besides staying healthy, Howard also has to improve on his pass blocking and become a more effective route runner and pass catcher out of the backfield.

“D.J. Howard is a guy that won the backup job going into last season and we felt very good about him, but he was just hurt all year,” Swinney said. “He could not stay healthy, but hopefully he will be able to avoid that injury bug this year. He is a very fast player and is a different style runner, but we feel very good about where he is both mentally and physically.”

Zac Brooks, 6-1, 185, So.: Brooks has the ability to be one of the best running backs Clemson has had. He is a shifty runner that has very good speed. He also has very soft hands and his running style reminds many of former Clemson running back Travis Zachery, who became the first Clemson running back to rush for 3,000 yards and catch for another 1,000 during his career. Brooks still needs to get stronger and gain more muscle mass. He more than likely needs to get up to at least 200 pounds. He also needs to improve as a pass blocker this spring. If he could do those things, he will have an opportunity to become the No. 1 running back on the team.

“Zac Brooks was one of those guys we would have loved to have redshirted, but we couldn’t,” Swinney said. “However, because of the experience he got with his offensive opportunities and his special teams play, he is a different guy right now. It’s the same thing. He is 185 pounds, getting very fast and is now a much more confident guy going into spring practice than where he was last year.”

The rest of the bunch according to Swinney:

“Those three guys are who we have and we have one walk-on kid here that I’m excited about,” he said. “C.J. Davidson, I’m anxious to see him this spring. I think he has the ability to make a little bit of noise. He is a very talented player from Daniel High School (Central, SC) and actually signed here on a track scholarship, but decided he wanted to play football and gave up his scholarship to come out. He joined us late in the fall. He is a guy that had legit speed and is a very gifted guy physically.

“We will see where those guys are, and obviously, we have two that we think are special backs joining us this summer in (Wayne) Gallman and (Tyson) Dye. They are two different guys from what we have. They are big, strong and physically developed players that will have a chance to get in the mix as well.”