Dabo Swinney adding Garrett Riley can save ‘stale’ Clemson offense

Fox Sports college football insider Bruce Feldman recently appeared on the Move the Sticks Podcast with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks, discussing some of the headlines of the upcoming college football season. One of the more intriguing off-season moves was the Clemson Tigers hiring former TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley to the same position. And while Feldman believes that the hire was a bold shake-up move to help Clemson, made by head coach Dabo Swinney, it’s not the only thing he thinks was ailing their offense.

“I think so. But he (Swinney) made a big, bold move by grabbing Garrett Riley to shake up what was a really, really stale system there,” said Feldman. “They were one of the few programs that was not all in and getting transfers. I did a big story with my colleague Grace Rainer who covers Clemson, and talked to RGIII as well as Dan Orlovsky, who had both of those guys called Clemson games, about how stale the Clemson offense had gotten.

“DJ Uiagalelei, when I spoke to him a couple of months ago, he spoke in detail about some of the frustrations of playing in that system. Where you don’t feel like they’re taking chances; you don’t feel like they believe in you, the quarterback. I’ve seen Cade Klubnik in person; I think he’s very good.”

“When Clemson was really rolling, they had a crazy run of receivers and then it dried up. I don’t know if they missed on a few guys they expected to be something else. So some of it started to get a little leaky.”

Uiagalelei was widely believed to be the next great Clemson signal caller after taking over for Trevor Lawrence following the 2020 season. In the two years that followed, the former Tiger-turned-Oregon State Beaver failed to live up to the lofty expectations he was presented with. But he felt the troubles of Clemson’s offense had more to do with the system’s limits and not his capability.

With Uiagalelei now in the Pac-12, it is Klubnik’s show to run. Still, their offense struggled against a Tennessee Volunteer squad in the Orange Bowl that was not known for its defense. Clemson could move the ball down the field but failed to transition that into touchdowns leading to three failed field goal attempts in the first half. They followed that up in the second half with two drives stalled by interceptions.

Seeing the writing on the wall, Swinney made a move at offensive coordinator, removing Brandon Streeter, who took over the position less than a year ago after previous offensive coordinator Tony Elliott accepted a head coaching position at Virginia. In his place, he hired Riley fresh off a fantastic run as TCU’s offensive coordinator, helping the Horned Frogs make it to the College Football Playoff championship game against Georgia.

“I still think they’re really good, but what ended up happening was he lost some guys who became head coaches, who were core guys on both sides of the ball. And I think that hurt. I think the Garrett Riley hire is a big one, but Brent Venables was a terrific defensive coordinator for him. And we’ll see how Wes Goodwin does. That was a guy from inside that he believes in, and those are big shoes to fill,” said Feldman.

Whether or not losing the likes of Elliott and Venables hurts Swinney and Clemson is not the topic of concern. It is whether or not the Tigers head coach can install new coordinators that can assist him in maintaining his program’s spot at the top of the ACC and in college football. And according to Feldman, he still has faith in Swinney and the Clemson Tigers.