Clemson Football: Joel Klatt sounds off on the Garrett Riley hire

The hire of Garrett Riley to the Clemson Football staff is still making waves around college football.

One of Clemson’s harshest critics during the 2023 season, Joel Klatt, acknowledged that Riley’s hire was much needed.

He started his review by highlighting as many of Clemson’s deficiencies as he could in just a few sentences.

"“Look at what Clemson was on the offensive side this last year. You know, you see what they…30th in the country scoring, 48th in total offense, 73rd in yards per play. 73rd, and 94th in yards per pass attempt. That is not going to cut it. In particular when you look at the fact that that it wasn’t just last year. Offensively, Clemson in the last two seasons was 96th in the country in yards per play. 96th! Ok, so that has to improve and Dabo Swinney absolutely understands that. He understands that because he’s been to the mountaintop.”"

Klatt does acknowledge Swinney’s success and that the people around him love working and playing for him.

"“Dabo understands that and this is not a guy that loves to shake things up on his staff. This is a very tight-knit culture at Clemson, it’s one that I’m a big admirer of by the way. What they do with their program is unique and it’s special and the players love playing there. They really do. Coaches love coaching there. People, you know, take shots at Dabo and they think he’s quirky and weird and this and that, and guess what? The people that are around Dabo and the players that play for him, absolutely love him.”"

Klatt then says Riley will come in to save the Clemson offense.

"“So, he hires Garrett Riley, and Garrett Riley just had a masterful season with TCU. Obviously ended poorly – throw that out the wayside. That Georgia team wasn’t going to get beat by anybody, uh, in that national championship game. And here’s Garrett Riley to help save the Clemson offense and try to turn them to the place where they feel like they belong, which is on the upper echelon.”"

He ends the clip by saying:

"“So, here’s Garrett Riley to Clemson. I think that’s a great move.”"

Klatt’s end analysis is that he thinks Swinney’s decision to bring in Riley was positive for the program. He was complimentary of Swinney and acknowledged that many unfairly judge him.

Klatt’s negativity for Clemson Football clouds his compliment of Swinney’s decision to hire Riley

I’ve not hidden my opinion of Klatt. I listed him this past fall as one of Tiger Nation’s least favorite college football personalities. Despite his ultimate statement that Swinney made a great move, he is still looking at the Clemson program as a glass half empty, focusing on the negatives of the program rather that the positives of Riley.

He barely commented on Riley himself. He did say he had a masterful season with TCU, but beyond that Klatt’s explanation of his approval of the hire seems to have much less to do with how good Riley is, and more to do with how bad Clemson has been over the past few seasons.

Given how he has used negativity against Clemson to get attention on social media in the past year, it isn’t shocking that his ‘compliment’ of Swinney’s decision to bring in Riley came across more like a continuation of that negativity. It felt more like a begrudging admission by Klatt.