D.J. Uiagalelei took Clemson’s first offensive snap of the night, faked a handoff to Phil Mafah and threw to Will Shipley, who leaked out of the two-back set for a 9-yard gain.
It was a sign of things to come for the Tigers’ sophomore running back.
Clemson got the ball to Shipley early and often in its win over Florida State on Saturday night inside Doak Campbell Stadium. In fact, the Tigers fed Shipley more than it has all season.
Shipley finished with 26 offensive touches. He caught five more passes, adding up to a career-high six receptions. But most of his production came on the ground where he matched a season-high with 20 carries.
He finished with 238 all-purpose yards, a career-high.
“We knew Shipley was going to have to be a huge factor in this game, and he was,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said.
The primary reason for that, Swinney said, was because FSU dared the Tigers to run the ball. The Seminoles came into the game with the ACC’s top pass defense (x yards per game), often dropping more defenders into coverage and depending largely on their defensive line to slow down opponents’ run game.
That often meant either an equal number of defenders for Clemson to block up front or even times where the Tigers had a numbers advantage in the box. Quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei said that’s something he noticed in studying FSU on film during the week, and a running game that had averaged just 146 yards in the Tigers’ previous two games needed to be able to take advantage of that.
“If you can’t run the ball against those guys, you’re going to be in for a long night,” Swinney said. “I think they were the No. 1 pass defense in the league coming in. So they’ll give you some run boxes, but they’re pretty good (up front). Those dudes are big and strong, and they’ve had a lot of success slowing down the run game with light boxes and heavy coverage. We just felt like it was one of those games where we would have opportunities, but having opportunity and being successful are two different things.”
Said Uiagalelei, “That was a big deal for us to come out and be able to run the ball.”
That defensive approach from FSU also happened to play perfectly into offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter’s desire to get Shipley more involved. The former five-star signee had gotten more than 14 carries just once this season before Saturday, and he hadn’t caught more than three passes.
“One of my biggest goals was to get No. 1 the ball a lot more,” Streeter said, referencing Shipley’s jersey number.
Shipley also made an impact on special teams, racing through FSU’s coverage unit and bouncing off a number of would-be tacklers on the opening kickoff of the second half for a 69-yard return. That set up the Tigers’ fourth and final touchdown of the night.
But Clemson found plenty of other ways to get the ball in Shipley’s hand, running him between the tackles, pitching it to him on the perimeter and even sending him out of the backfield as a receiver. He totaled 48 yards on his receptions and finished with 121 yards on the ground, good for 6.1 yards per pop.
He had a 36-yard burst up the gut late in the second quarter to set up Clemson’s final touchdown of the first half, but Shipley mixed in plenty of gritty runs, including an 11-yarder in a one-score game late in the fourth quarter for a fresh set of downs. It allowed the Tigers to take a few knees to run out the final minute and change on their latest win.
“That was big,” Swinney said. “He made a lot of runs, and he gets better as he goes. He’s just a tough cookie.
Shipley’s rushing output was his highest against a Power Five opponent this season, and his all-purpose yardage was the most for a Clemson player since Travis Etienne had 264 against Boston College in 2020.
“We got him the ball 25 or 26 times, and it just shows what he can do when you get him the ball that many times,” Streeter said.