CLEMSON — On Wednesday, Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris alluded to the fact his offense has not played with a lot of fire so far this season. They did not have any juice in the Tigers’ win over Georgia Southern last week.

“I was just a little bit caught off guard,” he admitted.

Morris later added he was a little bit shocked by the offense’s lack of enthusiasm. He admitted, during his first stint as Clemson’s OC from 2011-14, that was never an issue.

Clemson’s OC told his players, “Sometimes I think I am looking at the back of your heads when I am looking at your eyes. We have to have a fire about us. This is a brand that we have to ride high for.”

Unfortunately, that has not been the case for Clemson in the last 15 games. The program has slipped, and it’s not just the local media outlets or ESPN’s Paul Finebaum that has noticed. The most important people to the program have noticed, as well.

Clemson has lost “its fire” or “juice”, if you will.

So, how do you fix it?

Well, it must start at the top, at least that is what some of the big donors told TCI when we spoke to them last week under the terms of anonymity. They feel if the football program wants to move forward, some changes must be made, but they are concerned that athletic director Graham Neff will not make those changes.

TCI wrote about such changes the day after the LSU game. We wrote that it is time to bring in a real general manager to oversee how the roster is constructed going forward. Someone with a possible NFL background would be the ideal situation.

As we were talking to some of IPTAY’s biggest donors, we found out we were not the only ones thinking this way. The 30 or so donors we polled, donors from Riggs, Heisman to Fike and McFadden levels felt something needed to be done.

We asked them if Clemson should make a change within its football program and all of them said yes. Nearly 61 percent of those supporters said they should keep head coach Dabo Swinney, but with a caveat.

The other 39 percent were done. They felt like Swinney had his opportunity to fix things and it was now time for someone else to come in and lead the program.

“I just do not know why we need to be so different,” one booster added. “We have tried it his way, it is not working. It’s time to give someone else an opportunity.”

Though the minority was adamant about getting a new coach, the others felt Swinney earned the right to see things through, but as we pointed out, there was a catch.

“I do not want to see him go, but if things do not change, then he needs to go,” a Heisman Level donor told us.

When asked what changes Neff should make to the football program, the overwhelming answer was to bring in a general manager.

“We have too many resources and put too much money into football to lose by 41 points on national television,” one aggravated donor told TCI. “It was an embarrassment as a Clemson graduate and as an IPTAY donor. I love Clemson and I will support our teams, but that can’t happen.”

Another donor said, “Dabo needs a boss.”

The main idea that came from the big IPTAY donors was that Neff needed to hire a “real” general manager that would work under him. He or she would have a staff that would be in charge of all personnel decisions. Swinney would have input, of course, but all roster decisions would be made by the general manager.

“I do not think Dabo will allow that to happen, but Neff needs to try,” a high-level donor said.

“And if Swinney does not agree to do it,” I asked back.

“I do not want this to happen, but they should let him go,” they replied.

One thing is certain, the majority of the donors we spoke with believe something needs to change. Some are not optimistic that is going to happen, others feel they will do all they can to make sure it does.

The next few weeks could be very interesting at Clemson.