CLEMSON | When best is the standard and you find yourself so close, yet so far away from it after the final game of the year, the finer points of a season tend to get washed away with the overall tide of disappointment.

Or at least that's the way it works for much of the outside world that passionately follows Clemson football.

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The evaluation is much more specific and nuanced as a staff examines the pros and cons of a season and embarks on the task of building an improved product moving forward.

One of the improved facets of 2019 was the involvement of the running backs in the passing game.

As in, the running backs were actually involved.

This was an area that drew Dabo Swinney's ire at times over the preceding two seasons.

His oft-stated reasoning: If you have elite talent at running back, find every way you can to get that talent the dang ball.