The Clemson Football team will begin spring workouts a week from today. Though the Tigers return 15 starters combined on offense and defense, there are still a few positions they have to iron out this spring and summer.
They likely will not get all these things ironed out in 15 spring practices, but they will get an idea on who might be able to help them and who has work to do.
Lots of work to do at running back
If you want to know why Clemson lost to South Carolina and why it could not knock off No. 5 Texas in the College Football Playoff, it was due to its lack of a running game.
After rushing for 981 yards in the first eight games of the season, Phil Mafah, due to injury, was not the same running back in the last six. Playing with an injured shoulder and a leg injury, he managed just 134 yards in the last six games of the season.
The Tigers had very little experience behind him, and it did not help that Jay Haynes tore his ACL while returning a kickoff in the ACC Championship Game. Haynes was starting to come around at the time of the injury, but you wonder how far it might set him back.
Clemson has the talent to compete at a very high level in the running back room, but it lacks experience.
The most experienced running back that will play this spring is Keith Adams, Jr., and he is very limited. Jarvis Green did catch a touchdown pass in the CFP game at Texas and showed flashes once he got back from injury, but he has been injury prone the last two seasons.
David Eziomume played sparingly last season and will be a redshirt sophomore, while the coaches and everyone else are really high on freshman Gideon Davidson, one of the top running backs in the country coming out of high school.
Adam Randall will likely still play some at wide receiver but look for him to help at running back, too. He was the Tigers’ leading rusher against Texas, as he ripped off a 44-yard run in the second quarter. Randall surprisingly has good vision when running through a crowd.
Who is the next big thing at tight end?
Jake Briningstool finished his Clemson career as one of the more productive tight ends in Clemson history.
Who has next?
Olsen Patt-Henry came on late last season, as he caught nine passes for 121 yards and scored 3 TDs. He is big, strong and runs faster than people think. He also surprisingly gets open. He was primarily used as a blocking tight end last year.
Josh Sapp, who is built more like a wide receiver than a tight end, also has the ability to catch passes and get open. He runs smooth routes, and likely will be used as a pass-catching tight end in 2025.
The coaching staff is really high on redshirt freshman Christian Bentancur (6-4, 245). He has been called the next Dwayne Allen due to his ability to get open and his ability to stay in and block. A multi-sport athlete, like Allen, Bentancur became the first high school athlete in Illinois history to catch 200 passes in football and score 2,000 points in basketball.
Need to feel safe at safety
The Tigers have talent at safety. They have experience at safety. What they need is consistency.
Clemson must replace R.J. Mickens, who used up his eligibility in 2024.
Khalil Barnes struggled at times last season, but, as he showed as a freshman in 2023, he has the latent to be a star on the back end. Barnes and Kylon Griffin will likely be the ones to go out with the first team to start the spring, along with veteran Tyler Venables.
Rob Billings, a redshirt sophomore, is another player who has played the last few years that will have an opportunity to compete.
The coaches are also excited to see what sophomore Ricardo Jones can do this coming season after getting valuable experience as a true freshman in 2024.
This content is reposted from the source: https://theclemsoninsider.com/2025/02/21/clemson-football-has-plenty-to-accomplish-this-spring/
