How Will Louisville Star Running Back's Injury Affect Clemson Tigers?

Viewers will remember the performance that Louisville running back Isaac Brown had against the Clemson Tigers last season, but head coach Dabo Swinney may be seeing a different tailback in the backfield on Friday.

Brown recorded 151 yards and a touchdown for the Cardinals last year at Memorial Stadium in a 33-21 win, with Clemson having no answer for the true freshman at that time. He finished fourth in the ACC that season in rushing yards and earned himself the ACC Rookie of the Year in 2024.

However, Swinney and his team might dodge a bullet, with Brown suffering a leg injury two weekends ago against Virginia Tech. After that game, head coach Jeff Brohm said it could be a little bit before viewers would be able to see the true sophomore again in the backfield.

"He might be out for a little while," he said. "Unfortunately, he hurt his leg there, and we're anticipating him being out for a while."

On Monday, Brohm provided another update on Brown’s health for Clemson, saying that it would be up in the air once again, but the future looks murky.

“As far as Isaac, you know, we will still just proceed forward and get him ready as fast as we can,” Brohm said. “I’m not optimistic that it will be this week for sure, but we’ll see how that goes.”

This season, Clemson is ranked the fifth-best rushing defense in the ACC so far this season, only allowing an average of 108.7 rushing yards a game. If its opponent is taking away the second-best rusher in the conference this season, who averages 8.6 yards per carry and 782 rushing yards, it helps the Tigers to stifle that part of Louisville’s offense.

Backup tailback Keyjuan Brown had a career day in Brown’s place in the team’s loss to California this past weekend, recording 136 yards off of 14 carries. However, the Golden Bears are fourth-worst in the ACC in run defense, allowing 155.4 yards per contest on the ground.

Regardless of who is starting at running back for Louisville, Swinney knows that anybody in that room can make important plays against his team.

“They’re explosive,” Swinney said. “They got, I think, 10 plays of 50+ yards this season, so got home run dudes at running back that can just flat out, you know, put it to you. Just in the last three games they’ve averaged 10.2 a carry, 6.9 a carry, 4.9 a carry. So, you know, they’re really built through the run and the play actions and the boots.”

The Tigers had success with Florida State’s high-powered rushing offense last weekend, holding them to the lowest amount of yards on the ground so far this season. Swinney wants his team to use that defensive momentum to go into Louisville, Kentucky, firing, making the Louisville team more one-dimensional.

If Clemson does that, and can slow down the rest of Louisville’s room, that will be most likely without Brown, it will help the Tigers leave the Bluegrass State with another win.

“That’s why you’ve got to be able to minimize that,” Swinney said. “If they get a lot of comfort in the run game and they can play on schedule and be in those, you know, 3rd-and-3 and fours, you got a lot on your plate. It’s just what they do, so we’ve got to have a plan, we do, and we got to go execute it.”

Clemson and Louisville kick off at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.