CLEMSON — Like Dabo Swinney said in his Monday conference call with the media, there are always plays a coach would love to have “a-do-over” with.
Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley is no different. He would love to have a couple of plays back from every game he has coached in, even the ones that the Tigers won.
In other words, Riley is harder on his play calling than any fan on a message board or radio call-in show has been the last few days.
“You always have things you want back,” Riley said Tuesday. “I can think of a lot of games where pretty much that day we wished we had some things back. You are always going to have that, but we are always going to have to self-evaluate and be brutally honest within ourselves.”
Things must be really tough in the offensive film-room right now. Clemson’s offense has not even come close to living up to its preseason billing. Fans, media, and even the coaches and players themselves thought the Tigers would be greatly better than where they are after four games.
The offense’s issues have played a huge role in why the Tigers are off to their first 1-3 start since the 2004 season. Clemson currently ranks 14th in the ACC in total offense, averaging 365.3 yards per game, and 16th in scoring offense, 19.8 points per game.
Last year, the Tigers averaged 34.7 points and 451.9 yards per game with pretty much the same players and coaches.
“Those are things you evaluate as you go through the course of a season and certainly at the end of the year,” Swinney said. “There are definitely somethings that everybody can do better on both sides of the ball.
“There have also been a lot of things that have been there that we have not executed well.”
One of the plays both coaches wished they had back from this past Saturday’s loss to Syracuse was the fourth-and-one play midway through the third quarter from the Syracuse 44-yard line. Running back Adam Randell averaged 8.1 yards per carry against the Orange, however, Riley chose to throw the football on the critical play with Clemson trailing by 13 points with 8:01 to play in the quarter.
Riley says, this is why you have to self-scout yourself, even if you do not like what you see.
“You have to do that, but you want to adapt, and you want to continue to build and you want to get better,” he said. “So, we certainly have to do that as coaches, and that is no secret. But we have to do it as players, as well.”
Clemson will try to get things corrected when it plays at North Carolina on Oct. 4.