Riley addresses making sure Phil Mafah and Will Shipley both get touches

Mafah scores one of his touchdowns Saturday against Notre Dame (Photo by Merrell Mann).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Tue Nov 07 08:00:06 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Offensive coordinator Garrett Riley will have a good problem when running back Will Shipley returns from concussion protocol: trying to find carries for his two talented backs.

Phil Mafah entered Saturday’s home game against Notre Dame with just 73 carries on the season, but with Shipley on the shelf after suffering a brutal hit against NC State the week before, Mafah was called on to carry the load.

Mafah answered that call in a big way, carrying the ball 36 times – tying a program record – for a career-high 186 yards and two scores as the Tigers upset the Fighting Irish 31-23 on a sun-drenched afternoon in Death Valley.

Shipley was Clemson’s leading rusher going into the Notre Dame game with 515 yards for the season, and he also had 120 receiving yards and five total touchdowns. Mafah’s big day gives him 625 yards – 110 more than Shipley on three fewer carries. Mafah also is averaging 5.7 yards per tote.

It’s still not known how long Shipley will be out or if he will be available this weekend when the Tigers host the hot Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, but when he does return, Riley will have to figure out how to make sure both backs receive touches.

During Monday’s interview session, Riley was asked how he would do just that.

“You gotta do a good job of kind of charting the touches and the number of plays that they have. That’s something in-game you’ve just got to be aware of,” Riley said. “I think, as coaches, you try and package things throughout the week where you kind of know and have an idea of hey, this guy’s probably going to get this amount of snaps, this guy’s going to get this, based on your game plan. So, that’ll be the fun part for us moving forward like it always is.”

Mafah’s performance earned the ACC’s Running Back of the Week honor – the first of his career – and I asked Riley if he was surprised at what Mafah could accomplish.

“Not really, no. Not at all,” Riley said. “He’s a patient guy, and obviously, they’ve been getting challenged pretty good from us as coaches and from player to player, of we need that part of our game to step up. So, we knew some key guys like Phil needed to play big on Saturday, and obviously he played pretty big.”