Auburn coaches explain why RB Kam Martin didn’t get a carry in loss vs. Clemson
By Adam Spencer
Published:
After recording 136 yards and a touchdown on only 14 carries in Auburn’s 41-7 Week 1 win over Georgia Southern, RB Kam Martin probably thought he was in line to receive more action in Week 2 at Clemson.
However, as the Tigers’ offense floundered in a 14-6 loss to the defending national champions, Martin was noticeably absent from Auburn’s game plan.
In fact, the talented sophomore didn’t record a single carry and only had one catch for five yards in the abysmal offensive effort.
On Sunday, offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey explained that Clemson’s elite defense favored using bigger RB Kamryn Pettway more often (via AL.com):
“Kam (Martin)’s our guy, for sure,” Lindsey said. “I mean, Kam, I love Kam. He’s done a great job filling in. With Pettway back… when you look at it, it was time to get him going. He’s a bigger back. That was a big football team we were playing. Felt like he had a chance to break some tackles in-between the tackles. That was kind of our philosophy for that game.”
At 5-10 and 182 pounds, Martin is indeed much smaller than Pettway, who stands 6-0 and weighs 235 pounds. Still, there were probably ways the Tigers could have (and should have) gotten the ball to the versatile Marin more often.
With games against Mercer and Missouri in the next two weeks, it’ll be interesting to see how much work the sophomore back gets.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
