Clemson Football: Five things we learned about the Tigers at Duke

I’m not seeing the “raid”

Following the discouraging loss in the Orange Bowl, Clemson made a change at offensive coordinator and brought in Garrett Riley. Riley had just led TCU’s offense to a runner-up finish in 2022, and it seemed like new leadership (from outside the current Clemson staff) and a new offensive philosophy was exactly what this team needed to get back to the elite status they enjoyed from 2015 to 2020.

We saw how much confidence the defense gleaned from the Tiger offense when Cade Klubnik stepped in for former starter DJ Uiagalelei in the ACC Championship Game last season. With Riley calling the plays in his system – generally called an ‘air raid’ offense, but termed ‘dirt raid’ by Clemson – fans expected the energy to come back into the team.

The problem on Monday was that there was very little “raid” about anything Clemson did on offense. They tried a few downfield throws, but none came close to connecting. The longest reception was a 21-yard completion to Tyler Brown.

The offensive line began to open up some big holes for the running backs in the second half. The longest play of the night was a 49-yard rush by Phil Mafah, but even it didn’t find the end zone.

There just wasn’t anything about this offense that was explosive. It’s easy to say we should have been more conservative about our expectations for the first game with a new offensive system, but on the surface, there seemed to be little difference in the way Clemson played offense Monday night.