Travis Etienne had several possible options to weigh in the off-season, and his decisions led him back to Clemson.
Etienne, the two-time Atlantic Conference player of the year from the Atlantic Coast Conference, chose to skip the NFL (he won a second-round score from the NFL school advisory committee) to play his senior year with the Top-Ranked Tigers.
Then, once the global pandemic ended with spring ball and three-month off-season workouts, Etienne was forced to think about what she would do if the CCA, such as the Big Ten and Pac 12 conferences, brought the fall season to the top. Spring.
For Etienne, there is little doubt.
“I’m 100 percent registered,” he says. “We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. We’re done looking for what’s going to happen tomorrow. Every time we enter this field, we’ll all be there.”
Few other people with the tiger idea heard this from Stephen at summer camp. After all, the 5-foot-10-inch, 200-pound runner had already had the two highest race marks in a season in history with 1,658 yards in 2018 and 1,614 yards last year.
Etienne has set the ACC’s career mark with 56 career scores and can be clemson’s first player in more than 40 years to win the honour as the most productive player in the league in consecutive years.
He seemed to get ahead of time. Etienne would flee in the NFL, for all Etienne, who said he was looking to leave a legacy for Clemson and in school football.
He recalled that after sharing with his mother, he would come back, “I wondered once a day if I was sure of my decision.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic canceled spring football, Etienne said he had been asked if the fall season was changing. Again, he didn’t hesitate.
“Yes, he’s compromised since we got here,” said Trevor Lawrence, his teammate and quarterback at the Heisman Trophy. “It’s a smart thing for us.”
Etienne said he was looking for the possibility of cementing his prestige as one of the runners in the history of Clemson and the ACC this fall. This conclusion has become even more powerful when Etienne spent time at his home in Jennings, Louisiana, and saw his brother and younger nieces prepare for his youth season.
“He showed me what I love about football, ” he said.
Former Clemson runner C.J. Spiller, the last runner from school to win the 2009 ACC Player of the Year award, believes Etienne’s blend of strength and speed gives him a great chance of good fortune in the NFL when the time comes.
“With Travis, you don’t know what he’s going to do because he can overwhelm you, and then he’s fast enough to run around you,” said Spiller, who recently joined Clemson’s football team as a graduate intern.
Etienne, a last-minute addition to the Tigers before the 2017 season, a rookie at the end of the season when other goals passed from Clemson.
Offensive coordinator and media coach Tony Elliott didn’t sell in Etienne’s form until he saw him play basketball and saw how fluid and effortless he was in the box. He moved to the football area and the Tigers went 41-3, won 3 ACC titles and a national championship with Etienne as the main runner.
Elliott was extremely happy to have him back for one last inning. He said Etienne sought domain coverage, such as pass coverage and pass capture, to become a more complete player.
“He’s got his head on his shoulders. And he’s looking to make whatever’s more productive for the long run and its future,” Elliott said. “And for now, he looks as charming as ever.”
Etienne understands that the uncertainty of the virus may shorten its season this fall and questions about its possible options will return.
He’s in a position to face them head-on.
“I wouldn’t regret it because it’s my resolve to go back, ” said Etienne. “I definitely came back here and stepped forward in the field, off the field, mentally, physically and spiritually.”
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