When Clemson moved senior wide receiver Adam Randall to running back this offseason, it was an experiment born of necessity and potential. Now, on the eve of the season opener, Offensive Coordinator Garrett Riley says the experiment is tracking to be a massive success.
"His ability to do those things, to actually execute some of the running back requirements... that showed up a lot quicker to me than maybe what I thought," Riley admitted Tuesday. "I was really proud of him that way."
The move provides Clemson's offense with a versatile weapon capable of creating mismatches all over the field. For Riley, having a player with a receiver's background in the backfield is a strategic luxury.
"It brings versatility," Riley said. "It's nice to have a guy like that back there that understands space and has awareness and just some of the things that a receiver is going to be a little bit more accustomed to."
The biggest hurdle in the transition is widely considered to be pass protection—learning to block blitzing linebackers in a "phone booth" rather than defensive backs on the perimeter. Riley said Randall attacked that challenge head-on.
"Anytime you make a transition from wide receiver to running back, that's obviously going to be one of the first things you really got to emphasize and work on," he explained. "Adam did a great job of attacking the things that he knew was going to require a lot of work."