CLEMSON — The Clemson running back room is featured by Will Shipley, but his righthand man is proving to be a commodity for the Tigers. Junior Phil Mafah is stacking strong tape through for games and he delivered such against Florida State, but wasn’t given opportunities late.

In the loss, Mafah had 10 carries for 69 yards while adding three catches for 32 yards. The running game struggled in the first half with just 36 yards, but Clemson started churning with 110 yards on the ground after halftime.

A majority of that was Mafah, including a 46-yard scamper that was overshadowed by a fumble touchdown on the next play for the Seminoles. After the game, Mafah gave credit to Florida State and how they finished the game.

“Have to give credit to Florida State. They made one more play than we did and in the end, they finished so all we can do is come back on Monday and get ready for Syracuse. Learn from our mistakes and keep going,” Mafah said.

Shipley finished the game with 3.7 yards per carry compared to Mafah’s 6.6. I’ve gone to bat for Shipley getting more touches, but the latter was the hot hand who wasn’t given chances to help his team in the end.

This becomes a larger concern when Clemson abandoned the run in overtime and it became their demise. However you want to spin it, the Tigers averaged 4.8 yards per carry in the second half and didn’t lean on it in the end.

Mafah might not be earning of the starting job, but C.J. Spiller and this staff need to go with whoever’s working, because it can win or lose them games.