Clemson Football Participation: Running Backs

Once again we are returning to an annual series by taking a look at the snap totals for Clemson football. We've broken down each position by snap totals based on players and class. All of the snap data can be found on the Clemson website in this handy little game notes pdf. A quick reminder that all of this data is only for snaps on offense or defense. It does not account for any snaps played on special teams. Today we are going to take a look at the running backs.

The big takeaway here is the emergence of Wayne Gallman. It took some time for the freshman to get a good number of snaps each game, but it was well earned. Though Tyshon Dye did some decent work when he returned from injury, Gallman was our main running back based on participation.

Once again we are going to be pretty young at running back though Zach Brooks will return to provide some experience. Brooks is a bit of a wild card here because of his injury. Gallman should be able to produce at a similar level if not improve and based on his appearances, Tyshon Dye should do some really special things. If Brooks can be as talented as we hope then the running back position could be relatively strong given our lack of ability on the OL. Of course their effectiveness will also be determined by how healthy Deshaun Watson is. There is a reason some of the best work Clemson had in the running game came because of the threat of Watson on the ground.

Another area where we can get some tangential evidence is run blocking. As we've mentioned before it is more important for the RB to understand pass blocking in this offense than to be an excellent runner. It is apparent that Gallman became proficient enough in run blocking for the staff to trust him on the field. Given how difficult it can be to understand the blocking schemes it is impressive he was able to earn the staff's trust here. Or everyone else was just terrible and would have gotten Stoudt killed.