Let’s start with the ugly number, because it explains almost everything about last season: Clemson averaged 3.7 yards per carry in 2025. It showed up on opening night against LSU, and it never really went away, dragging an offense with real talent down to 27.2 points per game, one of the lowest marks of the entire Dabo Swinney era.
Here’s the thing, though: it was never a talent problem. Adam Randall quietly ran for 814 yards at 4.8 a carry. Gideon Davidson flashed real power between the tackles as a freshman. David Eziomume showed juice when called on. The backs were there. What wasn’t there was an identity — too often, the offense simply got away from the run, abandoning it early in games and leaning on a pass-first script that never made defenses pay for playing light in the box.
Enter Chad Morris. And if you want to know what Clemson’s offense is about to become, don’t take my word for it — look at his record here. In his first tenure calling plays for the Tigers, Morris’ offense fed Andre Ellington to back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons, then handed the rock to Rod McDowell for another thousand the following year. Three straight seasons, three 1,000-yard rushers, all in an up-tempo attack built on a simple principle: establish the run, then make you pay off of it with play-action. That’s not nostalgia — that’s a track record. And Morris has already said the quiet part loud this offseason, promising a two-back, run-based offense where running the football is the identity, not an option.
Now look at the room he inherits. Gideon Davidson enters as the frontrunner after owning the spring. Behind him, Chris Johnson Jr. arrives from SMU as one of the fastest players in college football, a back who’s topped 22 miles per hour and reportedly clocked a 4.24 forty. Johnson is the home-run threat this offense hasn’t had. Add a third-year Eziomume, a healthy Jay Haynes (three rushing touchdowns in 2024 before injury), and Jarvis Green, and C.J. Spiller has a genuine committee — which is exactly how Morris wants to play it. Even Davidson believes it, calling this group “the best in the country” after the spring game.
