FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Clemson running back Wayne Gallman is on the verge of setting a school single-season record for rushing.
Yet at one point during his media session to discuss the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl, Gallman sat alone as reporters scurried between quarterback Deshaun Watson and quotable offensive lineman Eric Mac Lain.
The snapshot perfectly illustrates the pregame hype surrounding the game, which is focused squarely on Watson and Baker Mayfield as the dueling quarterbacks eager to make an emphatic point. But the running backs on both sides will have as much to say about the final outcome.
As the lead back, Gallman has done his share to help the Clemson offense. Oklahoma has a different approach, with Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon forming perhaps the best rushing duo in the nation. Both teams rank in the top 25 nationally in rushing offense, each averaging more than 220 yards per game on the ground.
“It is a quarterback matchup. I get that,” Gallman said. “The quarterbacks are going to be looked at the most. I’m for Deshaun. He gets his plays, I’m going to get mine and I’m going to do the most I can with it.”
Gallman has done so this season, emerging as the workhorse back the Tigers didn't have as part of their offense a season ago. The redshirt sophomore needs just 14 rushing yards to pass the single-season record of 1,345 yards set by Raymond Priester in 1996.
Behind Gallman and Watson, Clemson is averaging 222 yards per game rushing, up nearly 80 yards from a season ago. Having a healthy Watson has been huge. But so has Gallman, who knew going into the season he had a year like this in him.
In 2014, Gallman led the team with 769 yards rushing. This season, he has 1,332 yards and is averaging 5.5 yards per carry, up from 4.8 a year ago. In 2014, he had three 100-yard games. In 2015, he has eight -- and counting.
“I’m very satisfied,” Gallman said. “You heard all last year there needs to be more of a workhorse running back at the position. That was a goal of mine because we could have been doing it all along. I had to prove myself that I could start and take that turn.”
Oklahoma has been a different team since its loss to Texas thanks, in part, to its heavier reliance on Perine and Mixon. Both went more than 100 yards rushing twice in the second half of the season, including its last game against Oklahoma State.
During the Sooners' seven-game winning streak, the two have averaged a combined 216.5 rushing yards and scored 18 rushing touchdowns. Perine is averaging 7.2 yards a carry; Mixon 7.6 to rank No. 3 nationally during that stretch. Perine’s 12 rushing touchdowns since Oct. 17 rank second nationally.
“We know there’s no defense in the country that can shut us down,” Perine said. “They’re just another team that has to get beaten.”
Clemson defensive end Shaq Lawson said of Perine and Mixon, “We haven’t seen a one-two punch like them in a while.”
That is a credit to the way Mixon has played in the second half of the season, giving the Sooners something they lacked on offense a year ago.
“It's been really nice,” Perine said. “I've said it all throughout the season. We feed off of each other, and to have him back there knowing what he's capable of, it's comforting. I don't feel like there's much of a drop-off, if any. There's probably not. There's probably some games when he's in the game or when both of us are in the game, it's even better, because defenses don't really know what to expect. It's fun to watch him do what he does, and it's fun to play with him when we're both back there.”
Gallman, Perine and Mixon all had 100 yards rushing their last time out. Simply put, their importance to their respective teams cannot be overlooked.
No matter who is playing quarterback.