Dabo Swinney believes Adam Randall will be one of the great stories in college football this season.
After spending his first three seasons at wide receiver, Randall has made the move to running back ahead of his senior campaign. Despite having a highly-rated, hyped up freshman in the room, Randall managed to hold on to the spot atop the depth chart through spring practice, and when fall camp started on Thursday, he was again at the front of the line, leading the drills.
It’s a move Randall was open to from the start, and if you’d have told him a year ago entering camp that he’d have a chance to be the starting running back when the Tigers open against LSU on August 30, the former wideout would have jumped at the opportunity.
“Sign me up. Shoot, we got a chance to win a national championship, sign me up,” Randall said.
“I didn’t want to go anywhere else in the country, and when that opportunity presented itself, I wanted to be here and make an impact. When it was said to me, I thought about it and I kind of took a pause, and I realized what I do best is run with the football.”
Randall sees himself as the consummate team player and will always put the goals of the team ahead of anything else. If playing running back gives the team the best chance at having success, that is all that matters.
“I have been a receiver for a long time, but it is just another position on the offensive side of the ball for me. I think I can play all of them at this point in my career, being in the system for three years,” Randall said. “Just having the opportunity to run out there and be one of those guys on the field, that’s what I look at. Doesn’t matter what position I’m at, just trying to make an impact the best I can.”
One of the biggest adjustments has been learning all of the pass protections. Protecting quarterback Cade Klubnik by picking up blitzes is a big part of the job, and Randall believes he’s made great strides in that area.
“Coach Luke and coach Spiller have been big contributors to that,” Randall added. “They have been taking me under their wing and helping me after practice. If I mess something up during a walk-through or during practice, they take me and show me the film and show me the correction. Hopefully, me being a fourth-year player, I don’t make that mistake over and over again. If they tell me one time, usually I get it corrected. Seeing those protections and getting more comfortable back there is what I am working on this camp and I feel like I have taken a major jump.”
Randall has actually been able to take some of the things he learned while playing receiver and apply them to some of the lessons he’s learned in picking up the pass protections at his new position.
“It’s all football at the end of the day,” he said. “When I was at receiver, I tried to be a knowledgeable receiver, just seeing coverages, seeing stances and postures from the linebackers and safeties. Just trying to understand who can come at what time. Making sure of who can come, where I need to be at, where my eyes need to be at certain times is really the biggest thing for me.”
Now that he is fully enveloped in playing running back, he hasn’t spent one single second looking back and thinking about what might have been. He’s more than happy in his new role and still able to take pride in every play the guys he used to share a room with make on the practice fields.
“I don’t miss anything, because I am out there every day with those guys,” Randall said. “It makes me smile when those guys make plays. Every one of those guys. It just makes me smile when they make plays because I was in that room with those guys last year and I know how hard they work.”
Photo courtesy of Bart Boatwright