Dabo Swinney reflects on growth of Garrett Riley's Clemson offense

When Clemson scored only six points in a season-opening defeat to then-No. 1 Georgia, alarms sounded about Dabo Swinney’s program. The Tigers missed the College Football Playoff the last three seasons and failed to crack the top 25 in scoring offense each of those years. The three years before that, Clemson was firmly entrenched in the top five of the points per game department.

But while early September questions swirled about Swinney’s transfer portal reluctance, coordinator Garrett Riley’s offense and quarterback Cade Klubnik’s future, Clemson didn’t panic.

Since, the Tigers have demonstrated why with back-to-back offensive explosions in head-turning wins over Appalachian State and North Carolina State.

Clemson poured on a combined 125 points in those victories: 66 versus App State and another 59 two weeks later against N.C. State. Just like that, the Tigers have slingshotted up to 15th nationally in scoring offense.

“It’s been awesome,” Swinney said this week when asked what it’s been like to see the offense click and Riley to put everything together.

“Last year, we missed a lot of opportunities. It was frustrating. We see things differently — when this is what you do every single day — than maybe just the person on the outside looking in. And we know our players, and we know how close we’ve been on some things. So it’s fun to see them put it together. It’s fun to see them take the next step.”

Swinney continued: “But we saw this in the spring. We saw this in the spring, we saw this in the summer, we saw this in fall camp. So it’s just great for it to come to fruition and to see so many guys being involved, so many guys that can really play and not having to kind of patch some things together. We’ve been fortunate to this point, and hopefully we can continue to have a little luck with a couple key spots.”

Swinney hired Riley last offseason. Riley, the brother of USC head coach Lincoln Riley, came over from TCU, where he helped the Horned Frogs reach the national title game in 2022. That season, a Max Duggan-led offense averaged 38.8 points per game, tied for the ninth most of any team in the country.

Last year at Clemson, however, the Tigers scored 38 or more points against power conference competition only twice: first against Georgia Tech on Nov. 11 and then versus Kentucky in the Gator Bowl, both wins.

“We saw progress, even though sometimes maybe to other people — it’s not always what you see,” Swinney said. “Progress isn’t always what you see. Sometimes it’s kind of unseen, but you see it coming. In the way we finished the season last year was a huge step forward for us, and you can see the guys kind of coming on and the belief that was coming, and we just built on it.

“But, I mean that’s just coaching. Sometimes, you got a young quarterback that’s getting a first year … there’s always growing pains. Not everybody’s going to walk in and day one be this amazing quarterback at this level. And same thing at the next level. I mean, sometimes, but if that’s the standard, you’re going to fire a lot of quarterbacks quick. Sometimes you just got to be patient, especially when you know that you got a really talented player, and you see the work that’s being put in.”

Swinney was complimentary of Klubnik’s high-level decision making, noting that “he’s playing with a lot of confidence” and that the Tigers want to “nurture that.”

After a rough opener, Klubnik has posted an 8:0 touchdown-to-interception ratio over the last two games. He completed 24-of-26 passes against App State and 16-of-24 passes against N.C. State without taking a sack in either game.

The Tigers are humming offensively — also thanks to 250-plus rushing yards in consecutive games — and they’re hoping for that balanced success to continue this week against Stanford.

“You should get better, and we’ve taken another step,” Swinney said. “But now it’s about just really developing the consistency week in and week out. I wish I could say we’re going to score 60 points every game, that’d be great, sign me up for that.

“But you know, I just want to see us be consistent, continue to play with the type of effort, the type of details. Again, consistently make the routine plays, playmakers continue to make some great plays and be able to run the football. If we can run the football the way we’re running the football, good stuff’s going to happen.”