Swinney pleased with young running backs after spring game

Jarvis Green (21) was among the younger running backs to get a look in the spring game.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Apr 14 07:00:02 GMT-04:00 2024

CLEMSON – Phil Mafah didn’t play in last week’s spring game, opening the door for some of the talented younger players to show their stuff.

Mafah, the unquestioned No. 1 tailback, sat out the spring game. In the words of head coach Dabo Swinney, the coaches know what Mafah can do. What they wanted to see was how some of the younger players reacted to playing in front of a crowd.

Jarvis Green led the Orange team in rushing with six carries for 29 yards, an average of 4.8 yards per carry. Peyton Streko carried it seven times for 24 yards and a score to help highlight the Orange attack. For the White team, freshman David Eziomume had eight carries for 11 yards, while Keith Adams Jr. caught a couple of passes for 21 yards.

What did Swinney think of his backs?

“Well, first of all, how about a little Streko? I mean, he's just a tough, gritty kid,” Swinney said. “He's got ability, he's a D-1 guy. He had an opportunity to go to the military academies and he decided he was going to not do that and wanted to walk on at Clemson. And if he sticks with it, he'll be a guy that'll help this football team. He's a talented kid, so good to have him and good for him to get an opportunity. Probably wouldn't have got as much opportunity if Mafah is playing. So it was good for him to be able to show, ‘Hey look, I'm getting better.’ And he is.

“But Keith Adams has had an awesome spring for us. He made a little play out there on a screen that he extended -- ended up getting the first down on and those are the things that's good to see from him. He's done a better job of catching the ball, but he's a good guy that's definitely positioned himself to help us.”

Green redshirted last season, along with Jay Haynes, but Green has remained healthy while Haynes has had trouble staying on the field.

“Jarvis, same thing, you can just count on Jarvis to be where he's supposed to be doing what he's supposed to do,” Swinney said. “And then Easy E (Eziomume), the good thing for him is Jay Haynes was out, so he was able to really probably get a lot more work and he's taking advantage of that. And in the early part of the spring and you could tell it was spinning, but the latter part of the spring he took some steps forward. So big summer for him. And then, hopefully, we'll have Jay Haynes ready to roll come fall camp. He's the guy that we're all eager to see in some live work.”