Mafah has four 100-yard games already, with a total of six touchdowns. The second bye week helped Mafah to ensure his body stayed healthy for the rest of the season as Clemson tries to get into the ACC Championship and the first year of the 12-team playoffs.
“Being a football player, injuries are a part of the game, and (you’re) never going to feel 100 percent throughout the season. So, you just got to work on maintaining that and that comes down to just your priorities and your scheduling, just making sure you’re getting treatment and doing everything you can on a daily basis to treat your body,” Mafah said. “It’s your greatest asset in this game, so you just got to be a pro in that aspect. So, that helps a lot and the bye week helps a lot, just having a week where you get to just focus on getting your body back, focus on the rest, little things. That always helps too.”
Through the first seven games, Mafah has 108 rushing attempts (No. 8 in the ACC) for 6.5 yards per attempt (No. 4 in the ACC). Thus, he has been incredibly productive in his time on the field. However, because the Tiger offense has been so explosive in multiple games, Mafah has not finished some games. This has allowed other players to develop, helping Clemson for the future. Some players would take issue with this, especially someone like Mafah, who is in his last year of eligibility. But, Mafah is not that kind of player as he is more focused on what is best for the team.
“I would say I feel overall pretty good. I mean, just maintaining my body, not having to do much of a workload, being able to be versatile in my role, being able to run the ball as well as pass pro. I take pride in both things, and whatever the team needs me to do, I’ll be there to do that as long as we get what we want, and that’s to be able to go down the field and score,” Mafah said. “I’m happy with everything as long as we get the results we want, and I’m happy to see the other guys get opportunities and that’s less for me. It’s great to see honestly, us making explosive plays and just getting down the field really quick. It allows us to just put more points on the board and allows our offense to be versatile, not just me. We have so many weapons.”
Part of why Mafah has not been finishing games is because of the explosive plays in the passing game, allowing second- and third-string players to come in. Junior quarterback Cade Klubnik has done a lot better in his second season working in offensive coordinator Garrett Riley’s offense.
“I’ve seen him improve so much, just in his confidence, the way he leads. He’s become more vocal. He’s just grown into his role as a quarterback of this team and as a leader on this team and he’s always had that determination to win,” Mafah said. “But, he just learned how to use that and how to adhere to what the team needs, and he’s just grown in this offense. Being the second year in this offense, knowing the offense way better, being able to have chemistry with us all together has helped us a lot.”
Mafah said the greatest challenge hosting Louisville Saturday (7:30 p.m./ESPN) will be their defense. They currently have 17 sacks through their eight games this season and are allowing just 136.3 rushing yards per game.
“They’re a great defense. They have a great defensive front. They play fast, they’re well coached, they’re physical. We’re just going to have to play physical and be able to do what we do this time of year. They got great coaches too. So, they’ll have great scouting reports,” Mafah said. “We’ll just have to execute the plan to win and just focus on what we need to do on (a) daily (basis) in terms of practice and how we attack it in order to give it our all on Saturday.”