The volume has been increased at Memorial Stadium this spring, and the man holding the dial is Chad Morris. Morris hasn’t only adjusted the playbook — he’s transformed the culture since he returned to the position as offensive coordinator. The opening salvo included a viral video from March 6, in which Morris delivered a brutal manifesto to his players about coaching at the “uncomfortable” level his men need.
By last Wednesday’s two-hour scrimmage, that rhetoric had turned into an unrelenting reality. The session didn’t feel like a mid-March tune-up so much as a Saturday in October. Morris wasn’t in need of a microphone to be heard across the valley, stalking the sidelines and asking for a pacing that had the unit breathless.
“Everyday is a scrimmage environment with Coach Morris,” said Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney. "He never stops. I love that [about him]."
The Scrimmage Standard
The shift is calculated. Morris spent his year away from the sidelines watching his son, Chandler, play quarterback at Virginia — a sabbatical that afforded him an opportunity to analyze the game from a distance. He came back with a polished philosophy on outreach to a new generation of athletes who have little patience with the “old way.”
“It’s about how you teach,” Morris said. "You have to adapt the teaching method along with the players now, as well. You can’t just go up there, and lecture them all the time. You have to get up there and you have to be continually evolving. With the way players learn now, you have to change continuously how they learn.”
For Morris, the application is secondary to the whiteboard. He’s asking his personnel to step out from the podium and into the fire.
“The attention span is just so long, so you’ve got to be flexible in teaching to get the best out of your players,” Morris said. “This is my challenge to the staff. This is for me, that’s part of what I require as a coordinator. And this is what needs to happen and what we should get done. Here is how we are going to get it done and giving guys a plan.”
The “plan” was put to the test in the scrimmage, riddled with the sorts of procedural penalties and mental lapses that typically annoy coaches. But Morris relished the chaos, turning those mistakes into live-action teaching points, not momentum killers. “
The speed of the game, and all of that stuff, he’s been great. He’s been awesome,” Swinney said.
Drinking Through a Fire Hose
Although the system is nascent before that March 28 spring game, the impact is felt most deeply in the quarterback room. With the new scheme being put into effect at breakneck speed, the Tigers’ signal-callers are in survival mode at the moment.
“You know, they’re all competing,” Morris said. "That’s what I’ve seen. I think currently they’re drinking water through a fire hose. And it’s as they all are, as I’d expect. That’s not surprising for anyone at the moment with the change in system and the change in how everything flows. But they’re competing. I will say that.”
Morris has embedded himself in every meeting, refusing to delegate the foundational work of the rebuild. He’s as interested in physical growth as mental acuity, and already the “eye test” appears to have passed.
“They’re all competing. And I’ve been in every one of the meetings,” Morris said. “And, you know, I think that they’ve done some good stuff, all of them, collectively, have done some good stuff at certain points. And they’ve done some stuff that we’ve got to get better at. But they’re competing, and that’s what you love. I guess you got to be pleased with the physical look of this.”
Fresh Faces and Physical Growth
One of them, Chris Denson, whose transformation has caught the coordinator's attention. “Chris looks good,” Morris said.
“I mean, obviously, he’s extremely athletic. And, yeah, I think he’s put a lot of work in this offseason. You can definitely tell it.”
The future is also flashing in the form of freshmen Tait Reynolds and Brock Bradley. Although installation of a "fire hose" is quite complex, the newcomers have not been flinching.
“We brought two freshmen in, [Tait] and Brock, both of them have been very impressive in the meetings, impressive out on the field,” Morris said. “Tait, he does have a live arm and thick. He’s just a big guy. But again, he is processing the whole thing too. Like I said, there’s been some really good things that they have all done.”
Clemson has just another week to complete the spring installation before the Orange and White game. The playbook may be a work in progress, but the character of the Morris era has been laid out: fast, loud and uncompromising.