CLEMSON — A list of candidates to replace Garrett Riley as Clemson’s offensive coordinator has started to emerge, including one strong candidate. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney parted ways with Riley on Monday, following the Tigers’ loss to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl on Saturday.

The Clemson Insider learned Monday night that current Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken has emerged as a strong candidate. Sources tell TCI that Monken is looking to get back to the college game.

Monken served as the University of Georgia’s offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach (2020-22), helping guide the Bulldogs to back-to-back national championships (2021-22), where he worked alongside Clemson offensive line coach Matt Luke. His 26-year collegiate coaching career also includes a stint as Southern Mississippi’s head coach (2013-15) and duties as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State (2011-12) and Eastern Michigan (1998-99).

He has spent 11 years coaching in the NFL, including the last three seasons with the Ravens, where he has helped them have one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses.

Monken is not the only name we have heard as a candidate to be Clemson’s new OC. One name we have heard for several weeks is former SMU and Arkansas head coach Chad Morris. Of course, Morris was Clemson’s offensive coordinator from 2011-14, as his offenses set the stage for Clemson’s national championship runs from 2015-20.

On Monday, North Texas quarterback Drew Mestemaker said he will enter his name into the transfer portal on Jan. 2. Why is that important to the Clemson OC opening? Morris’ son, Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris, is a former teammate of Mestemaker’s, as he played ahead of Mestemaker when he was at Texas State.

Chad Morris was at Texas State and is very familiar with Mestemaker due to those ties and through his son.

As we reported on Dec. 3, Swinney was already working to replace Riley long before Monday. The offensive coordinator we were talking about in that story, was new Florida OC Buster Faulkner, who left Georgia Tech for Florida.

We can tell you, from what we heard, another name of interest to be the Tigers’ new OC is an ACC offensive coordinator, one who has a very talented quarterback. Keep in mind, in some cases, these coordinator candidates could have ties to a portal quarterback.

Another name we have heard is a current college head coach with ties to the Palmetto state.

Stayed tune to TCI for the latest information as it becomes available.