Graham Neff breaks down how Clemson landed Garrett Riley as OC, kept move quiet

Clemson made one of the biggest moves of the college football offseason, bringing in Garrett Riley to lead the Tigers offense.

Clemson Athletics Director Graham Neff recently joined Eric Mac Lain and Kelly Gramlich on the Gramlich and Mac Lain podcast and shed some light into how the move went down. Neff explained that he was regularly in contact with Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney leading up to the move and that being respectful to former offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter played a role in the process.

“Certainly that change from a coordinator standpoint, driven by coach. But he and I talked on it off-and-on over the end of the season there into mid-January when the transition transpired. A lot of the sequencing, or the timing, was born out of respect and doing it the right way for Brandon Streeter, who’s an awesome Clemson man and [Clemson] family, was a heck of a player here, let alone a heck of a coach,” Neff said. “So wanted to make sure that there were steps and the conversations along the way were really, really sensitive to that. So that was certainly one of the drivers.”

Neff and Swinney also wanted to make sure that Clemson players, other staff members, etc. received the news that Streeter was on the way out and Riley was coming in from them.

Swinney has won two national titles at Clemson in large part because of the culture he has built. Having trust and being honest is a big part of that.

“So much of the success of Clemson football and how coach Swinney has led is the culture of the program and staff continuity and consistency, consistency in the locker room, all of that,” Neff said. “So a change like this, from a coordinator position, was significant on so many levels. So working through that, where it was just a really, really tight circle. And it might not have been a circle. It might’ve been a line with Dabo and I. It was really cool to be able to support Dabo in that consideration, or that opportunity from what my role was and is. But then also to be really prudent about how it went down.”

In the days leading up to the hire, which came on Jan. 12, Neff and Swinney had a conversation to make sure that they were on the same page. There was plenty to take care of ahead of the official announcement, although Swinney and Neff had different roles in doing so.

“Coach had his list of dominoes, or people to meet in certain steps, and players and staff and offensive staff and parents. And so did I, but mine was very different, right? President, board, HR. And so we kind of just were being very intentional about making sure that we were each on the same page of what each of us needed to do by way of what our roles were, that we didn’t get out of sequence and call into question the actual transition,” Neff explained.

“But that also when it was go time at certain steps, we were able to move very efficiently. And certainly for me, it works up through president Clements and our board. So to have that level of sensitive but really trusted type dialogue… those aren’t just created in a moment, in a couple of days… those are day to day.”

The fact that Neff, Swinney, President Jim Clements and others at Clemson get along well and have worked well together for years allowed for a smooth process that ended with Garrett Riley hired as Clemson’s new offensive coordinator. Riley and the Tigers will open the season Sept. 4 at Duke, and there’s a ton of excitement around the program.

“Incredibly pleased of certainly how that transpired but obviously what Garrett’s going to bring to the program, to the offense and a little bit of even what that change means,” Neff said.