This time a week ago, Will Shipley was stewing.

Clemson’s running back didn’t exactly have the kind of return he’d hoped for eight days ago against Pittsburgh. Shipley had missed the previous two games with a lower leg injury and finished with just 11 touches for 57 total yards in Clemson’s loss to the Panthers.

One play in particular was hard for the true freshman to erase from his mind leading up to Saturday’s game against Florida State. With the Tigers leading Pitt 7-0 early, Clemson isolated a matchup for the speedster against a linebacker in coverage in hopes of quickly building on its momentum. The Tigers got the look they wanted, and D.J. Uiagalelei put a pass on Shipley’s numbers across the middle.

It had a touchdown written all over it, but the ball bounced off Shipley’s chest and fell to the ground. It proved to be a significant shift in momentum as Pitt scored game’s next two touchdowns and never trailed again.

“My blood is boiling because I make plays like that,” Shipley said Monday. “And to not make a play like that in a big game against Pitt, I would do anything to get that back.”

He got his redemption Saturday.

With the Tigers down another running back, Shipley got his most extensive workload of the season against the Seminoles and paced another strong rushing performance for the offense with 128 yards on the ground, the first 100-yard game of his young career. He averaged 5.1 yards per carry and scored twice in Clemson’s 30-20 win.

None was bigger than the last one.

FSU grabbed the lead and the momentum midway through the fourth quarter when Jermaine Johnson beat offensive tackle Walker Parks off the edge and stripped D.J. Uiagalalei. When Johnson scooped up the loose ball and ran the short distance the other way for a touchdown, he gave FSU a 20-17 lead with 7 minutes, 39 seconds left.

After the teams traded punts giving Clemson the ball back with just 3:49 remaining, the youngster whom coaches and teammates say has quickly established himself as a leader in the locker room had a message for the rest of the offense before they took the field.

“My message going out there for that last drive is we’re not out here to tie this game,” Shipley said. “We’re out here to win this football game, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Clemson got some help from Florida State, which was flagged for pass interference on first down. Uiagalelei drew a personal foul on DJ Lundy two plays later on a late hit out of bounds, setting the Tigers up at FSU’s 21 as the clock ticked under 3 minutes. That’s when the Tigers drew up another play for Shipley.

This time, he didn’t miss.

Shipley took the handoff and bounced through the B-gap. Defensive back Akeem Dent was waiting for him in the hole, or so Dent thought. Shipley made Dent whiff by cutting back to the inside. Once he got to the third level, he saw Jammie Robinson closing in from his right, but he also left Robinson grasping mostly at air with another cut as he simultaneously broke out of Omarion Cooper’s shoestring tackle attempt.

Shipley then burst toward the goal line, carrying Kalen DeLoach the final 5 yards into the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown with 2:53 left.

“Made a couple of moves and just willed my way into the end zone,” Shipley said. “Shoutout to the o-line and (offensive coordinator Tony) Elliott for trusting me in that situation.”

Most of his work was done by the time he got his final three carries on Clemson’s final possession, which forced Florida State to use all of its timeouts with less than a minute left. Making Shipley’s bounceback performance more impressive was the fact he did it dinged up.

Shipley dinged up a knee during practice last week and “tweaked” it in the second half Saturday, he said. But Shipley could’ve fooled Florida State’s defense and his coaches.

“You just saw Will Shipley and what we all know about him, but it was good for everybody else to be able to see he’s got the heart of a champion,” Elliott said.