CLEMSON -- A wide-eyed freshman with a mouth full of braces stepped on Clemson’s campus this time last year. After a few practices during fall camp, he was an immediate stand out at running back to the coaching staff.
Travis Etienne, the former four-star running back from Jennings, Louisiana, has now gone from fourth-string newcomer to potential first-string superstar as this year’s August camp begins Friday afternoon.
As spring practice came to a close, the post-spring depth chart was released, and Etienne edged junior Tavien Feaster as “starter” at running back. Both backs, each who got an equal 107 carries in 2017, have different battles ahead of them, aside from each other.
Dabo Swinney will be the first to tell you that depth charts after spring camp don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. But it does tell us what Clemson’s coaching staff is prioritizing as Clemson’s 2018 campaign approaches.
At the media golf outing, Swinney and co-offensive coordinators Jeff Scott and Tony Elliott all echoed one theme regarding the offense: the goal is to get back to being one of the most explosive offenses in college football.
With Etienne, explosiveness is what you’re getting when he steps onto the grass. There were countless examples from last season where his dominant style of running made you say, “wow.”
The fourth quarter against Louisville and Boston College is where he completely stepped on the scene and became one of the most popular players on the team. The unknown freshman, who rushed for 766 yards and 13 touchdowns, started to get comparisons to Clemson legend C.J. Spiller. It’s apparent that Etienne continued to show his explosiveness this spring with big-play potential, which is why he’s on top of the depth chart at the moment.
Even with the resounding success from his freshman year, Elliott is doing his best to motivate Etienne for what could be a stronger year even with the highest of expectations. There is still plenty for the young running back to improve on.
“You saw that (Etienne) was very, very explosive early,” Elliott said. “He didn’t quite know what he was doing so he was running fast and breaking tackles and as you learn, you have to learn to play within a system. It takes a little bit of patience. Also, you realize how long a season is. The biggest thing with him was conditioning. You got to get your body in a position to be able to withstand the punishment of a 14 or 15 game season.”
There’s also the sour taste in Etienne’s mouth of going back home to Louisiana and having a poor showing in the New Orleans Superdome on January 1. Elliott has been in not just Etienne’s ear, but other young players as well who weren’t around after Clemson’s 2015 loss to Alabama. Carrying a chip on his shoulder could be just what Etienne needs to have a strong sophomore year.
“Knowing that he went home and he was excited but didn’t play his best, right? So now that’s something I can use to motivate him and say, ‘if you want to show up in primetime, it’s about what you do in the offseason,’” Elliott said.
“The biggest thing for him is just to push him and help him understand that last year’s touchdowns don’t carry over into this year’s. There’s going to be high expectations. You just gotta stay humble and focus on the little things. If you do that, then big things will come.”
But what about Feaster? When spring came to an end, and Etienne grabbed first string, Feaster met with Elliott to talk about what needed to happen between the end of spring and the fall for Feaster to improve.
Where Etienne showcased his explosiveness on the practice field, there was a lack of that same explosiveness from Feaster. A lot of that had to do, according to Elliott, with the amount of weight Feaster was carrying.
Coming out of high school, Feaster had a shoulder injury which caused him to gain some weight for protection purposes. Feaster, who was 225 pounds at the end of spring, has been committed to losing the necessary weight to get back a step and make gains in this running back competition.
Elliott said Feaster had lost ten pounds since the end of spring practice and is now at that 215 number.
“Now we kind of got him bought in now to where his body needs to be,” Elliott said of Feaster’s weight. “He was a little bit too heavy. He lost a little bit of his explosiveness and coming out of the spring we said ‘hey, let’s try and lower our body weight down to about 215.’...I think his body is in the best conditioning that it’s been in since its been on campus. I’m excited to see when we get on the grass. He’s been fully committed and doing everything that you ask.”
Now the only extra weight Feaster will be carrying is the chip on his shoulder that seems to be looming larger as the season gets closer. There will be plenty of time to hash out who the starting running back will be or if a committee of backs will still be the gameplan moving forward.
But both backs, Feaster and Etienne, have high expectations placed upon them this season and the mission has, and always will be, to make each other better.
Elliott said it best: “Competition brings out the best in everybody.
“Not just (Feaster) and Adam (Choice) but also guys at other positions. I think Travis came in and caught everybody’s attention with his ability. Now he’s starting to put a little more consistency with that ability, and it’s making everybody else a little bit better.”
Which, if you’re Clemson, isn't a terrible problem to have.
You hit on a couple of topics I'm hoping to address in a soon to be published article.09Tiger said:
I really enjoyed watching these two last season. I thought Etienne ran out of gas a bit late in the season. Feaster still has some work to do to "impress" me, but his speed is legit.
I think that they are in position to have another great year, especially if we can hit on some deep balls to really open things up.
