CLEMSON – With Will Shipley and Phil Mafah now in the NFL, it is a new era for Clemson running backs.

Last year’s leading rusher and workhorse for the Tigers, Mafah was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in April. Shipley, of course, was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Things are now a little different in the running back room.

“The last four years, you always knew you had Will Shipley or Phil Mafah,” running backs coach and Clemson great C.J. Spiller said at Clemson Football’s annual Media Outing. “This year, the big question is who is going to fill those guys. Both of those guys are awesome, but I’m not looking for this group to try to fill those guys’ shoes, because you have to be your own player.”

Adam Randall, who switched to running back after showing his talents at running the football at the tail end of last season, is the eldest in the running back room. While possibly the first in line, head coach Dabo Swinney and his staff are looking to have him as a variable piece in the offense.

“Adam is the wild card,” Swinney said. “I really think that he’ll be one of the great college football stories this year.”

Randall caught 16 passes for 155 yards in 2024, but he wanted to make a change. The Tigers noticed his speed and the ability he could have as a running back, and with the departure of Mafah, they saw it fit to help grow him into a running back.

With experience as a quarterback and running back growing up, he has the ability to be great.

“He’s a senior, he’s a leader, and he’s dynamic,” Swinney said. “He checks a lot of boxes for us, but he has to go and do it.”

Another upperclassman who is expected to get a lot of time on the ground is Keith Adams Jr., who carried the ball only 30 times last year. Swinney credits him for his angry runs and high motor, and he believes that he has something different from the others in the group. 

Alongside Randall and Adams are multiple talented rushers, including the sophomore pair of Jay Haynes and Jarvis Green. Though Hayes will be limited in camp, as he returns from a torn ACL suffered in the last year’s ACC Championship Game.

“These are two highly accomplished high school football players who have both made plays at the collegiate level,” Swinney said. “They’ve had to deal with Shipley and Mafah, but now it’s their time. That’s why you recruit these guys. This is their time, and we’ll find out if we were right or we were wrong.”

Two freshmen have a highlight on them, and those are David Eziomume and Gideon Davidson.  Eziomume or “EZE”, as Swinney calls him, redshirted last year after playing 36 snaps, while Gideon came to Clemson in January and participated in spring drills.

“You have to have a great appreciation for each guy’s role,” Spiller said. “They all bring something totally different to the group, and that’s appealing to me. They are all hard workers, and they’re competitive, and I think they showed that this spring.”

Regardless of who ends up getting onto the field first or earning the most minutes, the importance of this new running back group is being focused on the entire group, creating competition, developing each other, and filling in their role.

Spiller was passionate when he shared his mindset on his position group.

“At the end of the day, it just comes down to a brotherhood,” he said. “You have to have a brotherhood. You can’t have what I call ‘pillow talk.’ I think if those guys really gel together, really come together, and really have a great appreciation for each and every guy’s role, I think we’ll have a very successful season.”

Clemson opens fall camp on July 31.