Clemson Football: Is a pecking order emerging at the RB position?

The latest on the Clemson football running backs

The 2020 Clemson football team has one of the deepest groups of running backs in the country heading into this season and it’s really not even all that close.

The Tigers are led by returning starter and back-to-back ACC Player of the Year Travis Etienne at the running back position and there is little doubt that he’ll be the man who garners the most attention in this room.

Following Clemson’s last scrimmage of the preseason, Dabo Swinney was asked by the media if there was any separation within the running back room and his answer was pretty simple: Travis Etienne.

Outside of Etienne there’s still some major competition going on and here’s how we think it will shape out.

How the pecking order may shape out for Clemson football RBs

We all know that Etienne is the starter, but what about the numerous play-makers behind him?

Lyn-J Dixon is the expected second-string guy and he’s had a solid camp when he’s been on the field, but he is also nursing an injury and isn’t going to be back to full-strength likely until next week or even later. Chez Mellusi was the projected third-stringer coming into camp, but he has also struggled with injury and has been held out of practice for a while.

So that leaves four others: two veterans- Darien Rencher and Michel Dukes– and two true-freshmen- Kobe Pace and Demarckus Bowman.

How does that shape out?

Both Pace and Bowman have been guys who have garnered praise during fall camp with Pace drawing glowing reviews in several scrimmages and practices. While Rencher may not be the most physically-gifted of the bunch, he has proven to be a great leader and it should be expected that the coaching staff will look to work the veteran in to the game to honor his commitment.

Still, at this point, it would seem that Etienne and Dixon are at another level and then the others will file in behind those two. We may very well see them come into games in different orders depending upon how they perform in practice the week before.

In the end, it’s my belief that the running back order won’t be defined until later this season after several games have been played. Each guy is going to get an opportunity to prove himself and those that succeed will be given more time while those that don’t will find themselves descending down the depth chart.