Louisville, Ky. – To hell with a committee of running backs. Wayne Gallman put Clemson on his back in Thursday night’s 20-17 win at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

The redshirt sophomore running back from Grayson, Ga. rushed 24 times for 139 yards as Clemson handed Louisville its third-straight loss of the season.

“We kind of fed Wayne Gallman,” said Dabo Swinney, whose Tigers improved to 3-0. “I told our backs in there — a lot of guys didn’t get opportunities tonight, but we’re going to need all those guys, all those guys to win.

“But No. 9 is the workhorse. He earned every yard he got tonight.”

That’s the type of guy Tony Elliott envisioned Gallman becoming when he was signed out of Grayson High School in 2013. But it didn’t always come easy for him, especially during last season’s redshirt freshman campaign.

“(Gallman) just wasn’t confident. He was a young guy out there trying to figure it

out,” Elliott said. “Now he knows what he’s supposed to do. He understands the run schemes better. He knows what we’re trying to get accomplished and now he’s running with a more physical mentality.”

Gallman agreed.

“This was probably one of the first games where I was really confident in myself and I didn’t have

any jitters, so I’m really starting to feel everything come out,” he said.

For Deshaun Watson and the rest of the offense, having that hammer out of the backfield adds another dimension to an already potent attack.

“It’s great, especially to kind of balance out the offense, the running and the passing game,” Watson said. “The offensive line did a great job of opening up the holes and creating a new line of scrimmage. That’s what they did and (Gallman) kind of followed them. He just ran hard and got we he could.”

Along with some help from the big boys up front, Swinney said Gallman was the difference in the game.

“I had fun tonight,” Gallman said. “Really, man, everybody just did a great job.”