Something being off with the Clemson Tigers' offense would be putting it lightly. While this team can occasionally run the football with some conviction, the passing game has been nothing to write home about. Under new offensive coordinator Chad Morris, the Clemson passing attack has thrown for only two touchdown passes in the first half of the season. Clemson is still 4-2, but this cannot continue.
"We gotta be able to make the explosive plays. Right now, that's one of the things we're lacking," Morris said on Clemson's offensive struggles this season. We're having to go on nine, 10, 12, 13-play drives, and that's hard. And you deal with 18 third downs ... We need some three, four, five-play drives, to where somebody is taking something to the house, and making a guy miss in space, and let's go."
This is was actually one of Morris' most salient points since coming back to Clemson after some 12 years away from the program. To be a great offense in this day and age of college football, you need to score on drives of three, four, or five plays. Clemson methodically moves the ball down the field on lengthy dozen-play drives, ones that often come up short in the red zone, resulting in field-goal tries.
Chad Morris told us today the offense isn’t where he thought it would be at this point.
— Grayson Mann (@gray_mann21) October 21, 2026
I asked him how can it meet that standard.
Morris boils it down to execution, explosive plays, and more:
“That’s what we need, you know a guy making a play over somebody.” pic.twitter.com/G2xEblylux
Chad Morris will have to do these three things to fix Clemson's offense
To rectify this, Clemson needs to do any of these three things offensively in the second half. The first would be to continue giving the rock to Gideon Davidson and Chris Johnson Jr. in the backfield. By committing to the run, it will give these ball carriers confidence, as well as wearing down the opposing defense to allow explosive plays in the ground game to occur. Clemson can definitely implement this.
The second would be to get the tight ends more involved in the passing game. Last Saturday versus Charleston Southern, Christian Bentancur had his best game in a Clemson uniform. It may have been garbage time going up against an FCS opponent, but Luke Brooking made some plays as well. Having more than just trio of receivers to the throw ball to would be a big boost in Tait Reynolds' confidence.
And finally, Morris needs to take it upon himself to help slow the game down even more so for his true freshman quarterback. Morris tends to agree with Dabo Swinney that Reynolds just played his best game as a Clemson quarterback, even if the stats do not show it. If it is all about setting protections better, not taking dumb sacks, and using his legs a bit more, then more power to the Clemson starter.
Overall, it is Morris' job to dial up plays to make this offense more explosive. Clemson is at a talent disadvantage in most instances offensively, but that is no excuse not to scheme it up a bit. If this team plays with discipline, then it can get the most out of its talent, no matter how little there may be on offense. Of course, Reynolds has to level up in the second half to really make any of this happen.
Morris might be quick to identify why Clemson's offense has stagnated, but he was hired to fix it.
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