At some point, the chronically under-appreciated player gets so much notice for that sad state that his very obscurity becomes renowned.
You start to get a little famous for your lack of fame. Yes, sports is strange.
Clemson sophomore running back Wayne Gallman is at that odd tipping point in his football life, here just days before the national championship game against Alabama in Glendale, Ariz. If he’s not careful, his story of unfamiliarity is going to become familiar from coast to coast.
Ideally, Gallman’s low profile would last one more week and Alabama’s notorious, best-in-the-U.S. rush defense would overlook him. Maybe just ignore his record-setting season altogether.
“That’s a great hope of ours,” laughed Tigers guard Eric Mac Lain.
Loganville’s Gallman has developed into the Tigers “silent monster” (a term coined by lineman Jay Guillermo in a recent ESPN story). He currently is like the hot hitter who treats every pitched ball like low-hanging fruit, or the 3-point shooter who suddenly could make 60 percent even while wearing a straitjacket.
In his current groove, Gallman has rushed for 337 yards and three touchdowns in Clemson’s two postseason games (ACC Championship game vs. North Carolina and the Orange Bowl vs. Oklahoma). That, incidentally, is 73 yards more than Alabama’s Heisman Trophy winner, Derrick Henry, has had in the Tide’s past two.
No, Gallman has not achieved star status quite yet, even on his own team. So much of that is reserved for the quarterback who shared the Heisman stage with Henry four weeks ago.
The runner shrugs.
“A lot of attention goes to Deshaun (Watson) because of how great he is. I respect all that,” Gallman said. “If it comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, I’m still going to play hard. It’s not going to stop me from doing what I’m doing.”
Those in his own locker room are really blowing his cover. In various media reports, the Clemson community is lining up to pay Gallman his due.
The offensive coordinator, Tony Elliott, has gushed about his back’s toughness and his ability, much like Henry, to out-will opponents in the second half. “He runs violent,” Elliott has said.
The All-American defensive end, Shaq Lawson, painted Gallman as the kind of flinty player that any defender can respect (indeed, while recruiting him, Georgia saw the personality and possibility to play linebacker).
His standing among his own is not in question. “He’s not under-appreciated by us, that’s for sure,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said.
“He’s special. He’s a great one. He’s relentless,” Swinney expounded. “You got guys like that with that type of toughness and will that he plays with, (it makes for) a great back. Not a good back, a great back. And he’s a young guy. He’s still developing.”
Gallman was even an under-appreciated part of a recruiting class out of Grayson that included, foremost, Robert Nkemdiche. Nkemdiche committed, then de-committed from Clemson. Gallman stayed firm.
The choice has paid off in a team-record 1,482 rushing yards and a trip to the desert to play Alabama on Monday night in college football’s final game.
Finishing strong against Alabama, of course, will be a challenge different from any he’s faced. This is college football’s best run defense, allowing an average of only 71 rushing yards per game. This is the defense that stonewalled LSU’s Leonard Fournette (31 yards) and stole all his Heisman momentum.
“It’s going to be a game where every cut and every read matters,” Gallman said. “You have to be 100 percent correct.”
“I see a dominant defense that really knows that it’s doing. They are kind of like us — they don’t talk trash, but they really hit you in the mouth. They come to play,” he said with a touch of admiration in his voice. It’s a style he, too, brings to a game.
If Gallman gets through Monday night unnoticed, then Clemson may be in a spot of trouble. The Tigers would suffer for his silence.
But when he looks forward to that night, it’s not himself in headlines that he sees. When you turn off that game, he wants you to have a little better feel for a certain university in the western corner of South Carolina.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “It’s a very big stage — I take that into account, too. We have a chance to really prove ourselves, to prove that Clemson really can be that team that can be a brand. It’s a big opportunity to shut a lot of people up. We want to just come out and do our thing and do this for our program.”
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