Swinney knew after Orange Bowl it was time to make a change

Dabo Swinney gave his first public explanation of the move at offensive coordinator on Wednesday (Merrell Mann photo).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Feb 02 07:00:05 GMT-05:00 2023

CLEMSON – Dabo Swinney left Miami Gardens after the loss to Tennessee in the Orange Bowl and took his family to their home in Boca Raton for five full days of reflection and soul-searching, and by the time he left Florida, he knew he was going to make a change at offensive coordinator.

What happened next happened fast, and it brought Garrett Riley to Clemson.

Swinney said deciding to make a change wasn’t an easy decision.

“That was the hard part because we really improved a lot. We had a rough year in ’21 for a lot of reasons. But we got better in a lot of areas,” Swinney said Wednesday. “We had our best third down, our best red zone. We think we were 30th in scoring. But I just felt like this was the change that was best for these players and best for Clemson. And, and again, ultimately, that's how I make decisions. You know, I'm very prayerful about everything, I don't make any decisions on a whim around here ever. Every decision I make, I'm incredibly prayerful about it.”

Swinney recounted the stats from the Orange Bowl – 34 first downs, massive time of possession, 101 plays – but said the offense was missing something.

“We have to score,” Swinney said. “We’ve got to get better passing the ball, period. “We’ve got a really great foundation from a run standpoint, but we’ve got to get better throwing and catching, and I think he’s really going to help us there.”

Swinney said he had three or four candidates in mind but wanted Garrett Riley. Swinney knew Riley’s older brother – USC head coach Lincoln Riley – and called Lincoln to get a feel for whether the younger Riley would be willing to listen to what Swinney had to say.

The answer was yes, and Swinney knew he had his man.

“I was just very impressed with what he did at SMU, in taking the reins there,” Swinney said. “And then to walk into TCU, with basically the same guys back, and they went from five wins to playing in the national championship.

“As I evaluated where we are, I thought it was the right time, with a new quarterback (Cade Klubnik) coming in and taking the reins, it was the right opportunity to hire Garrett. It was great timing to bring him on board. I think he’s a great fit for Clemson, and I think he’s a great fit for me, and a great fit for our personnel. Philosophy wise we really match up.”

Swinney said that while Riley will help Clemson, being around this program will make Riley a better coach.

“I have no doubt he’s going to make us better offensively, and I think we can help him grow and continue to mature and get better as well as he navigates his career,” Swinney said. “There will be certain things that he’s going to learn here that are going to help him.

“It starts with Garrett being comfortable – what he wants to keep, what he wants to change. He’s going to bring a whole fresh way of doing certain things. His big task coming up in February will be studying and learning the personnel. We’ve got a really good roster, a really talented roster. That’ll be a lot of fun to learn different things and have a different approach.”

Riley has already fit in with the quarterbacks on the roster and with the recruits.

“I knew he was going to be a natural in dealing with our guys here and connecting with recruits,” Swinney said. “You don’t have the type of success that he’s had if you’re not a good communicator. That’s a tough change for them, but they were super excited about the opportunity with Garrett. Obviously Cade already had a little bit of a relationship there and CV (Christopher Vizzina) knew of him.”