Clemson Tigers Star Compares Offensive Duo Baltimore Ravens Stars

One of the Clemson Tigers’ offensive linemen is loving just how much the team is running the football this season.

Aug 31, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Clemson Tigers running back Phil Mafah (7) runs behind offensive lineman Ryan Linthicum (53) against the Georgia Bulldogs during the third quarter of the 2024 Aflac Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. / Ken Ruinard - Imagn Images

Offensive linemen love running the football, especially when things are going well.

Clemson Tigers lineman Marcus Tate knows the joys of run blocking all too well. He’s entering his fourth year as a starter and is paving his way toward an NFL career once his days with the Tigers are done.

For now, he’s just having too much fun watching quarterback Cade Klubnik and running back Phil Mafah run the ball. In fact, per the Post and Courier, he spent a minute on Wednesday comparing the pair to one of the top rushing duos in the NFL right now.

"It’s like watching the (Baltimore) Ravens with Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson,” he said. “…just having that many threats on the field is huge, especially with the way our receivers are playing right now."

That’s high praise when you consider what Henry and Jackson are doing right now.

Henry leads the league in rushing yards with 480 yards going into Week 5. He’s coming off a huge game against Buffalo in which he rushed for 199 yards.

Jackson is the league’s leading rusher among quarterbacks and No. 9 rusher in all of football with 308 yards.

Well, the pair aren’t putting up those kinds of numbers, but they have formed a consequential one-two punch in the run game for the Tigers (3-1, 2-0 in ACC).

Mafah, the former All-ACC back, leads the team with 342 yards rushing and is averaging 8.0 yards per carry. But he’s only scored twice and he has a long rush of 83 yards this season.

Klubnik has been quite the revelation with the football so far. He’s carried the ball just 17 times and has 106 yards. But he’s also rushed for four touchdowns, including the first score in Saturday’s win over Stanford.

In between the pair is running back Jay Haynes, who has 108 yards on just 20 carries this season.

Tate came to Clemson as one of the top offensive line recruits in the country and he made an immediate impact as a true freshman in 2021. He played in 13 games with eight starts.

In doing so, he became only the third true freshman offensive lineman to start a season opener for Clemson since the NCAA instituted permanent freshman eligibility in 1972, joining center James Farr (1980) and tackle Mitch Hyatt (2015).

With Tate protecting Klubnik’s blind side and opening run seams for Mafah, the Tigers have scored 40 or more points in each of their last three games as they enter Saturday’s game with the Florida State Seminoles.