Dabo Swinney Predicts Clemson Senior RB to be ‘Great College Football Story’

The Clemson Tigers are one of the nation’s most talented teams heading into the 2025 season, and many expect them to be a legitimate national title contender.

However, Dabo Swinney and company face one lingering question: What will the running back room look like?

Former All-ACC third-teamer Phil Mafah recorded 1,115 yards and eight touchdowns as the Tigers’ main weapon on the ground last season. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the seventh round of April’s NFL Draft after four years with the program, leaving a gaping absence that needs to be filled this season.

Clemson has a multitude of pieces to work with, including true freshman Gideon Davidson, Keith Adams Jr., Jarvis Green, David Eziomume, and Jay Haynes, who’s recovering from a torn ACL suffered in last year’s ACC Championship game.

Consequently, graduate senior Adam Randall made the transition from wide receiver to running back following Haynes’s injury, and his new duties will become full-time in 2025.

Randall could be one of the most mysterious, but also the most exciting, players to watch in the country heading into the season. At 6’2 and 230 pounds, Randall compares well to Deebo Samuel of the Washington Commanders (6’0/214) and the Steelers’ Cordarrelle Patterson (6’2/220), both of whom are wide receivers who have seen time in the offensive backfield. 

“Adam is the wildcard,” Swinney said to the media last week. “He’s the one senior in the room. I really think he will be one of the great college football stories this year. I really believe that. I really believe in Adam Randall.”

The former four-star from Myrtle Beach, SC, was ranked as the No. 17 wide receiver and No. 103 overall player in the 2022 class by 247Sports. He was one of five finalists for Mr. Football in South Carolina and was selected to participate in the Under Armour All-America game during his senior campaign.

Although Randall played mainly wide receiver in high school and to this point in his college career, Swinney points out that the new role isn’t exactly unfamiliar territory.

“He’s a very natural guy. It’s been a natural transition. You saw what he did in the playoff when he had, like, three days of practice,” Swinney said. “But, he played a lot of running back growing up – mostly running back and quarterback. So it’s not something that’s foreign to him.”

Randall contributed at running back during Clemson’s College Football Playoff first-round game at No. 3 Texas last season, posting four carries and leading the team with 44 yards against the Longhorns. A bulk of that yardage came on a career-long 41-yard rush in the second quarter, which was Clemson’s longest run by a player listed as a wide receiver since Sammy Watkins’ 58-yard touchdown run against Furman in 2012.