Clemson football: RB Chez Mellusi has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal

The Clemson football program lost another player to the NCAA Transfer Portal when it was reported Monday that RB Chez Mellusi had entered his name in the portal.

Mellusi, who was coming into his junior season with the Clemson football program, played in 11 games during his freshman year and rushed 44 times for 276 yards and three touchdowns. As a sophomore, he appeared in nine games and rushed 27 times for 151 yards and three touchdowns.

247 Sports and NCAAF Nation both reported the news Monday afternoon.

Clemson football has a plethora of talented running backs in the depth chart and that room was extremely crowded

Anyone who has been keeping up with Clemson and the projected depth chart heading into this fall knows that a transfer, perhaps two were coming.

While there was talk heading into the spring that Mellusi could potentially compete for the starting position, the truth is that he saw himself in a crowded running back room where he was being surpassed. 

Lyn-J Dixon is expected to be the starter as the returning veteran and sophomore Kobe Pace came on in a big way during the spring. When you add in two stellar freshmen in 5-star Will Shipley and 4-star Phil Mafah- who both had big springs- to the mix, you can see how the running back depth chart was starting to play out.

Mellusi was considered to be in contention with Pace, Mafah and Shipley for playing time, but many who have seen the upward  trajectory of those three RBs could see that he likely was going to find himself without much playing time this season. Or, certainly not as much as he would’ve liked to have.

In addition to the four running backs listed, Clemson also has Michel Dukes and veteran leader Darien Rencher on the roster.

This running back group is the deepest we’ve seen in quite a while- maybe ever in the Dabo Swinney era- and no one can blame Mellusi for wanting to look elsewhere for playing time.