After starting the season with a brutal loss against the Duke Blue Devils, the Clemson Tigers college football team might have issues with running back Will Shipley and their coaching staff.
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The Tigers have won back-to-back games against Charleston Southern and Florida Atlantic by a combined score of 114-31, but during their win against FAU, Shipley was not happy after quarterback Cade Klubnik scored on a rushing touchdown from the one-yard line.
Here’s the broadcast clip of that moment. FWIW, Shipley was up and engaged with helmet on not too long after this and was in on Clemson’s last drive of the half (another @Sam_Neumann_ h/t) https://t.co/fL6DEkmlRM pic.twitter.com/5Zl86fzg5t
— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) September 17, 2023
"A look back to the bench, and something ain't quite right with the star back of the Tigers," the ACC Network broadcaster said. "And then he and C.J. Spiller in a fairly animated conversation."
"C.J. not looking like he wants to back down from that conversation," the other broadcaster added.
The play came after Shipley tried to push it across the goal line but was short. The team was leading 27-0 at this point. As you can see, Shipley got into a heated exchange with Tigers assistant coach for Tigers legend and first-round NFL Draft pick C.J. Spiller. After the game, head coach Dabo Swinney was asked about it, and apparently it's not as serious as we'd think.
Dabo Swinney says he spoke with C.J. Spiller with his spat with Will Shipley during the FAU game: "Just some competitive juices right there from two great competitors. They resolved that very quickly."
— Jon Blau (@Jon_Blau) September 17, 2023
"Just some competitive juices right there from two great competitors. They resolved that very quickly," Swinney said.
So far this season, Shipley has 36 carries for 225 yards but hasn't scored a rushing touchdown. In the passing games, he's caught 11 balls on 14 targets for 58 yards and one touchdown. This is his third season with the program. In 2022, he ran for 1,171 yards on 211 carries and 15 touchdowns.
Against FAU, Shipley finished with 10 carries for 38 yards. He added two catches for seven yards as well.
Shipley has mentioned in the past that he's still finding a balance between being competitive and emotions to impact the team positively. He even credited Spiller with those comments.
"I need to learn when and how to control it," Shipley said Aug. 6, per TigerNet. "Coach Spiller has done a tremendous job of helping me with that. Because it's all great energy. I will be the first to tell you that. It's all the love for the game. I just want to win. That's all I want to do."
"I want to go out there, and I want to win, and when that's not happening and when I do something that hurts us in terms of winning, that's when I get very, very frustrated. It's learning to channel all of that and not dwell on the past and use all of that good energy for the future, and that is really where I am focusing. Not a huge thing but something I can continue to improve."
