Adam Randall’s Reinvention: The Post-SMU Conversation That Made a Running Back
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The pivot started on a bus ride home.
After Clemson’s ACC Championship Game win over SMU, Dabo Swinney says he felt a nudge to pull Adam Randall aside. In the final seconds, with the game tied, Randall ripped off a 41-yard kickoff return to the Clemson 45, setting up Antonio Williams’ 17-yard catch and Nolan Hauser’s 56-yard game-winner to clinch a CFP berth. The junior had slipped behind a surging receiver group, still helping where he could but hungry for more snaps. What followed was a frank conversation and a bold idea that recharted Randall’s Clemson path.
“Sometimes the good Lord puts things on your spirit,” Swinney said on Tiger Sports Hour. “I sat down with him to see where he was mentally. I asked what he thought he did best as a football player. He said, ‘Run with the ball.’ I said, ‘Me too.’”
Then came the line that changed everything: “Why don’t we try running back?”
Swinney’s proposal wasn’t a whim. Randall has long carried the ball — “most of his football career he was a running back/quarterback,” Swinney said. At 236 pounds, Randall brings a downhill frame with vision and patience. The twist is that he didn’t leave his receiver DNA behind.
“He’s not just a running back you line up to run an option route or a slant,” Swinney said. “He can run the entire route tree against anybody. He’s a matchup problem.”
The sales pitch from the two-time national championship-winning head coach was direct and honest.
“If this goes like I think, you can rebrand yourself and have an opportunity to get drafted,” Swinney told Randall. “If you hate it… I’ll help you go somewhere else in May. Let’s give this a shot.”
Randall embraced it. “He had a little success right out of the gate in the playoff game,” Swinney said, and the staff leaned into the experiment through winter and spring.
Swinney didn’t hold back on Randall’s intangibles. “Adam is one of the best leaders we’ve had,” he said. “Let somebody else’s taillights be your headlights. Adam is the taillights you want to follow.”
That matters in a young backfield. The room has watched a veteran change roles for the team, bring his receiver polish to pass-game details, and set a standard in meetings and practice. The shift may even help him hold up over a long season; as Swinney put it, the move “in a weird way takes a toll off his body moving from receiver to running back. He’s not logging as many miles.”
Swinney has been clear about two 2025 points of emphasis: short yardage and red-zone touchdowns. A one-cut, 236-pound back who finishes forward gives Clemson a different club near the sticks and the goal line. In addition, because Randall can motion out and run full route trees, the Tigers can toggle from spread looks to downhill runs — and back — without substituting.
Most of all, the staff banks on his presence. “He’s a special, special human being and a great football player,” Swinney said. “If he stays healthy, he’s going to have a great year.”
It’s a simple plan with a veteran’s edge. Heavy is the crown for a senior quarterback and a program with expectations, but Randall’s reinvention gives Clemson another way to win the critical inches — and a leader who, as Swinney put it, others can follow.
