After years of dual-threat QBs, Clemson’s now got a Heisman contender at RB

Trevor Lawrence isn’t gonna set any rushing records at Clemson. While Lawrence does run the zone reads that have been a staple of the Tigers’ run game, he is carrying the ball at a fraction of the rate his speedier predecessors were.

A look at QB rushing attempts per game since Chad Morris ushered in the up-tempo offense at Clemson in 2011 tells that story.

Clemson runs about 40 times per game over the course of a season, and they’re on track to do so again in 2018.

What’s also different is Clemson’s total yards per carry, currently the highest it’s ever been under Dabo Swinney by over 1.5 yards. The Tigers ranked in the bottom third of the country in S&P+’s rushing explosiveness stat in 2016 and 2017, but in 2018, they’re above average.

Meet Travis Etienne, the efficient workhorse who currently ranks No. 4 in ESPN’s Heisman poll.

At 8.16 yards per carry on only 14 attempts per game through seven games, Etienne is quite comfortably the most bang-for-buck running back in college football. His 98 total attempts ranks 67th nationally, yet his yards per game rank eighth.

Etienne tacks 8.8 extra yards onto his runs that go at least five yards — 54 percent of his runs do that, a sign of a pretty good run-blocking line. He only has nine rushes of either no gain or loss of yards.

NC State seriously held Etienne in check, but no other team really has, and this is a pretty big reason Etienne should get serious consideration in the Heisman conversation.

The Tigers are really putting things together after stumbling to a win over Syracuse. They’ve bludgeoned two straight opponents with the punishing defense we expected earlier this season, and their schedule is pretty favorable.

That means some more leads, and more carries for Etienne. Clemson quite clearly held Watson back from rushing, but there was an obvious reason why you’d want to do that for a quarterback.

Don’t expect him to put a lot of tread on his tires, though. The Tigers play a ton of players, and they’re proud of their backfield sharing. From the 2017 media guide:

Clemson is one of the few teams nationally that uses four running backs virtually every game. As a result, no running back has played more than 350 of the offense’s 978 snaps this year.

There’s a backfield committee this season as far as rushing goes, but it’s three players equally sharing Etienne’s table scraps. That’s different from last season, when Bryant far exceeded Etienne and Tavien Feaster in carries.

We’ll see if Etienne’s share of carries increases as the season hits its final stretch. Assuming the Tigers do make a Playoff run, they’ll do it with a slightly different looking rushing attack than usual. But make no mistake, it’s at least as effective.