By Ed McGranahan.

Starting with a new quarterback, a repurposed line and a slew of largely untested talent at the skill spots, Dabo Swinney and Chad Morris were confident that Clemson could eventually strike a better balance than last season when Rod McDowell cobbled together a 1,000-yard senior year and quarterback Tajh Boyd was the dominant threat in short yardage. 

Run production through four games has been modest. The 268 yards againstS.C.Statecan be largely discounted. In the other three Clemson has totaled 281–2.2 yards per carry. 

“We’re not nearly as effective in the run game as we need to be,” Chad Morris conceded. 

What Clemson can expect defensively today fromN.C.Statemay be a little UNC and a dash ofGeorgia. Dabo Swinney believes his team is in the process of evolution, but there’s some questions about whether the run will mature this season. 

“I think C.J. Davidson has been pretty consistent,” Swinney said. “D.J. (Howard) is our steady guy. He’s the veteran. We’re very comfortable with him as far as knowing that he’s going to do exactly what we need him to do protection-wise especially. We’re going to have to throw the ball a bunch.” 

Ideally Adam Choice and Wayne Gallman would be the horses. 

“Those are two guys that really we think have great futures for us, and we’ve just got to put them in situations where they can be successful,” Swinney said. Tyshon Dye could be a nice late-season addition, but Swinney doesn’t know if or when. 

In defense of the numbers there’s a subtle quirk in accounting for offensive yardage. That little inside flip to a player in motion is counted as a forward pass rather than a run. Morris and Swinney want more. 

“Our line has got to be able to knock some people off the line a little bit,” Morris said. “Our backs have got to be able to find the holes. 

“We have to be effective running the football,” he said, “but we have to be smart with it.” 

Missing has been production from the tight ends. An injury to senior Sam Cooper minutes before theGeorgiagame has been costly. Sophomore Jay Jay McCullough has been the most physical, but Morris needs more from them all. 

Hope and confidence that the evolution has begun can be linked directly to quarterback Deshaun Watson, whose head, eyes and feet are at least as valuable as his arm. Now that they’ve seen him, few defenses are going to try selling out to stop the run as UNC tried. 

“We were probably a little stubborn,” said Swinney. “We probably should have attacked them a little more.  

“We missed some opportunities, and we weren’t as efficient as we needed to be.”  

Watson could emerge as big a breakaway threat as any back on the roster. A barely negligible false start penalty last week cost Watson a potentially long touchdown run, but it reinforced Morris’ growing confidence in his ability with zone reads. 

“I thought the week before atFloridaStateI thought Deshaun was predetermining his reads and was pulling most of them,” Morris said. “There were several of those where he made some bad reads and pulled when he should have given it.” 

Against UNC he read the keys, Morris said, hence the huge hole. 

“I feel very comfortable running the zone read with him,” Morris said. “I think he’s very comfortable with it. I just think you’ve got to be smart with it and understand our backs have got to get involved with this thing.” 

A couple additional factors layer their confidence. Cooper was cleared to play today.  Choice was cleared after sustaining a deep thigh bruise on a kickoff last week. Gallman is still learning to follow his blocks rather than run by them. And confidence in Watson has soared. 

“I think you’re going to see some different structure as we move through the season,” he said. “It’ll all shake itself out, I think, by the end of the year.” 

One additional setback this week was the emergency appendectomy on tackle Joe Gore who could miss this game and the next. 

“We’ve got a good system and a good plan in place,” Swinney said. “We need to get these guys going that we’ve got.”