Dabo Swinney shares Clemson's 'ideal situation' at running back

With the graduation of Phil Mafah this past offseason, running back is the one real uncertain spot on the Clemson roster this upcoming season. Still, Dabo Swinney expects, or at least hopes, that all of his options at the position will have great years.

Swinney spoke on where the Tigers’ depth chart stands at running back during a press conference amidst the start of their preseason practice. He said that, ideally, all of their names at that spot prove over the course of the next month that they could be a contributor for the Clemson backfield this Fall.

“I think an ideal situation for me is they all, they all, you know, show that they can do it, they all deserve to play,” Swinney said. “That’d be ideal for me, that we come out of camp going, ‘Geez, man. This is really, really hard’. That’s ideal for me.”

Clemson has as many as six options at running back for this upcoming season. Adam Randall, who has converted from wide receiver, along with Keith Adams Jr. (203 rushing yards, one touchdown), Jay Haynes (330 rushing yards, four touchdowns) coming off a torn ACL, and Jarvis Green (57 rushing yards) are the returners in the room. The Tigers are then bringing in a pair of four-star, Top-175 overall recruits, per Rivals’ 2025 Industry Ranking, in Gideon Davidson and Marquise Henderson as true freshman. That’s a lot of currently unproven names at a position that ha been held down for the past several years, most recently by Mafah, who improved over every season in rushing for 2,887 yards and 28 touchdowns in his career, and Will Shipley, who ran for 2,747 yards and 31 touchdowns as well.

Even without running back set yet, Clemson has one of best overall rosters projected for this season, which was highlighted on Thursday with nearly half of the spots on the 2025 Preseason All-ACC Team being Tigers. Finding a name or two in the backfield over the course of this camp the next month, though, would only make that team, which is already both a conference and national title contender, that much better.

‘You know, that’s kind of the unknown factor, I guess. But, we got some good players, some good guys right there,” said Swinney. “I think they’re going to do well.”