CLEMSON — Dabo Swinney finally pulled the trigger on Monday.

As reported on Monday, Swinney and Clemson officially announced offensive coordinator Garrett Riley and safeties coach Mickey Conn will not return to Tigertown in 2026.

Of course, these fires are no surprise. The Clemson Insider reported back in November that changes were coming to Swinney’s staff and on Dec. 1 we reported that “we feel confident, unless things change dramatically, that offensive coordinator Garrett Riley will not be back at Clemson next season.”

TCI later reported we did not expect Conn to return to Clemson, either, in 2026. At this time, Conn has not officially accepted any offers to coach somewhere else. Though, we have heard his name come up several times in regard to joining John Grass’ staff at Samford.

Grass was an offensive analyst and assisted with the quarterbacks at Clemson the last three seasons before taking the Samford head coaching job earlier this month.

On Monday, Swinney had no choice but to make these difficult decisions because he must start acting fast. As we stated in a report earlier this month, things are going to move fast once the transfer portal opens and the Clemson head coach either must have his new coaches in place or can tell potential prospects what direction he is moving in, even if nothing official has been made by Jan. 2.

We can tell you, Clemson plans to be very active in the portal this year from the information we have collected.

Here is some background on why things went down the way they did on Monday. TCI has been tracking Clemson’s coaching movements over the last several weeks and we can tell you Swinney was doing everything he could not to fire Riley.

His reasons, according to our sources, were both monetary and personal. Swinney did not want to fire Riley, initially, because he did not want to hurt Riley’s chances of moving up in the business due to Riley’s aspirations of being a head coach.

As you know, Riley’s name was linked to several coaching jobs in the last month, as either a head coach or coordinator. However, none of those opportunities panned out and Swinney had no choice but to move in a different direction with his decision.

With Swinney firing Riley on Monday, Clemson will be on the hook for the remaining two years of his contract, which it extended prior to the 2025 season. Because Clemson terminated the contract early without cause, Riley is owed the remaining $3.5 million.

The buyout can be reduced if Riley finds another job, which will trigger the contract’s mitigation clause.

There were financial reasons for Conn to wait to be terminated by Clemson.

Conn signed an extension in 2024, and 2026 is the last year remaining on the deal. Conn will be owed $1 million, which can be mitigated to a lower buyout if he were to land at another school. In other words, Conn could possibly still make his $1 million dollars, as Clemson will likely pay the difference from what he will make at his new school.

Remember, Swinney and Conn go way back to their college days when they were teammates at Alabama and eventually coached there together.

Stay tuned to TCI for the latest information as it becomes available.