The Return of the "Morris Magic"
The biggest coaching ripple of the Clemson offseason was not a departure but a comeback.
Dabo Swinney invested quite a bit of time tackling the re-hiring of Chad Morris as Offensive Coordinator — the guy who's credited with igniting the offensive explosion at Clemson in the early 2010s.
Swinney told a funny story in which, after his first re-introduction, Morris phoned him, telling him that no one even knew he was in the room because other breaking-news coverage was in the air.
“I tell you what, nobody at Clemson knows who the hell the offensive coordinator is," Morris said when he laughed, Swinney recalled. “I would have been standing there naked on the podium and people would have no idea what was happening."
Humor aside, Swinney is betting on Morris’s “up-tempo” DNA to give an offense that’s felt stale a renewed lift. Although Swinney said the scheme is “very familiar” to him, it feels a ‘‘little different’’ for the current players, Swinney conceded.
A huge part of the focus for this spring is not just on the playbook, but on the “command” and speed that Morris requires of the quarterback.
“It’s been fun to get to watch all those guys prepare, seeing the ‘Morris influence’ already play into how the quarterbacks training is showing up in the way they are going now with the quarterback that we’re training to throw on time and with precision,”
Swinney said. It is not just a “one-man show,” Swinney added. Mike Miller, plus Jacoby Ford and Artavis Scott — former players who are aware of the “Clemson Standard” — have bolstered the staff. Swinney aims to combine an innovative pace of the past with the modern players currently on his roster by surrounding Morris with “Clemson DNA.”