Phil Mafah didn’t play much against Pitt in his first meeting against the Panthers, serving as a backup behind former Clemson star Will Shipley, but the second meeting will be much different.
Mafah — a 6-foot-1, 230-pound running back from Loganville, Ga. — has been a real workhorse over the last two games, and that doesn’t seem likely to change against Pitt.
“Mo’ Mafah, Mo’ Better,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “That’s what I like. I ain’t worried about anything else. A little Mafah is good, mo’ is better. This is the championship phase, man. We have all the confidence in the world in our other guys, but why would you not want to give the ball to Mafah more? We only got him for a few more weeks. He’s gonna be gone, and he’s a horse.”
Mafah carried the ball 30 times for 171 yards and two touchdowns against Louisville and followed it up with 26 carries for 128 yards against Virginia Tech. The Tigers went 1-1, but it wasn’t because of Mafah.
He racked up 199 yards after contact in the last two games, made eight tacklers miss and broke off 10 runs of at least 10 yards (four of at least 15 yards). Pitt can expect a heavy dose of Mafah.
Mafah has the second-most carries in the ACC, trailing only North Carolina star Omarion Hampton, and Narduzzi sees some similarities.
“Their tailback, Phil Mafah, he plays 90% of the time,” Narduzzi said. “He’s 230 pounds, very similar to the tailback at North Carolina. He’s athletic, he’s physical and they like to run the ball.”
Hampton racked up 106 yards and a touchdown against Pitt, but almost all of his production came in the first half.
Mafah has recorded 161 carries for 981 yards (6.1 yards per carry) and eight touchdowns this season. A sizeable chunk of yards on the ground have come after contact (586 yards, 3.64 yards after contact per attempt) and he’s been adept in breaking off big runs (26 carries of at least 10 yards and 14 carries of at least 15 yards).
Mafah is capable of generating his own offense, but Swinney pointed to the Clemson offensive line as a major part of that success — and Narduzzi believes it’s the best unit his defense will face all season.
“It doesn’t happen without those big guys up front straining and getting it done and Cade making the right decisions,” Swinney said. “Because there’s a lot of things in our run game that are dictated by the decision at the line of scrimmage or post-snap, but Mafah would be the first one to tell you that you gotta give all the credit to those guys up front.”
It’s a big, veteran unit for Clemson, one that will be tough for the Putt defensive line to crack. If Pitt wants to get back on track, the defensive line, and the linebackers, will have to wrap Mafah up — easier said than done — and stop him before he gets going.
“Phil’s just steady,” Swinney said. “He’s just such a smart player, he understands patience and how important that is in the run game and setting your blocks up. He understands all the run schemes, he understands the defense, he sees it and he feels it.”
It’s just as big a game for Clemson as it is for Pitt though, and that’s why Swinney is making sure that his best player is getting the ball a whole lot.
“He’s been on that sideline enough,” Swinney said.
