I have to admit that the numbers below surprised me a bit. I figured that Mike Bellamy had a fairly high percentage of successful plays, but didn’t realize that D.J. Howard would be at the top of the running back list or that Sammy Watkins would exceed the 70% clip for successful plays.
Some of this can be attributed to the game situations, Bellamy and Howard tended to get snaps when the game was out of reach, but still it can be instructive in showing their potential. We also shouldn’t forget that Andre Ellington played parts of several games injured, reducing his cutting ability and burst.
| Name | Successful | % Successful | Non-Successful | % Non-Successful | N/A | N/A% |
| Bellamy | 30 | 52.63 | 27 | 47.37 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Benton | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Boyd | 53 | 50.96 | 43 | 41.35 | 8 | 7.69 |
| Diehl | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Ellington | 104 | 48.83 | 104 | 48.83 | 5 | 2.34 |
| Howard | 25 | 62.50 | 14 | 35.00 | 1 | 2.50 |
| Humphries | 2 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| McDowell | 4 | 40.00 | 6 | 60.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Peake | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Stoudt | 1 | 50.00 | 1 | 50.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Team | 0 | 0.00 | 11 | 100.00 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Watkins | 22 | 70.97 | 9 | 29.03 | 0 | 0.00 |
Finally, a note on Tajh Boyd’s performance: Boyd’s official rushing stats are rendered meaningless by sacks (not included in this analysis), but these numbers show that of the 96 carries that Boyd had that can be classified as successful or non-successful over 55% of them were successful, gaining a first down, touchdown or putting the Tigers in a position to gain a first down or touchdown. Not outstanding, but certainly solid and an important part of the Clemson offense.
