Clemson Football: Players who benefit most from Garrett Riley’s hire

Will Shipley

One of the bullet points on Riley’s resume is a year as the running backs coach at Appalachian State under then-head coach Eli Drinkwitz. While that hasn’t turned out to be Riley’s calling, he does understand the position.

Many think of Sonny Dykes offensive style as “air raid”, and the perception of that kind of system is that it doesn’t utilize the run game nearly as much as the passing game. One of the reasons that Dykes selected Riley to be his offensive coordinator and play caller at SMU was that he felt Riley would balance the passing elements of Dykes’s offense with a respectable running game.

Dykes plan has worked. This past season, the feature back of the TCU offense was Kendre Miller, a 3-star prospect ranked 1,616th in the Class of 2020 per 247Sports. This past season, Miller ran for 1,399 yards over 15 games for an average of 93.3 yards per game and 6.2 yards per carry.

In contrast, Will Shipley was a 5-star ranked 32nd overall in the Class of 2021. This past season, Shipley ran for 1,182 yards across 14 games for an average of 84.4 yards per game and 5.6 yards per carry.

If Miller can be that productive in Riley’s offense, then I believe Shipley can flourish. Many were critical of Streeter for under-utilizing Shipley. I doubt Riley will make the same mistake.