Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney hired Chad Morris as the Tigers’ new offensive coordinator, replacing Garrett Riley, who was fired on Dec. 29 after three seasons as Clemson’s OC.
Morris – who previously served as Clemson’s OC from 2011-14, and also spent one season at Clemson in 2023 as an offensive analyst — returns to Tigertown to try and revitalize an offense that finished eighth in the ACC in total offense in 2025, averaging 392.2 yards per game, and No. 11 in scoring offense at 27.2 points per game. The Tigers also finished sixth in passing yards (267.8 per game) and 11th in rushing (124.5 per game).
In an episode of Clemson Football’s 2 Right Turns podcast, Morris went in-depth on the process of Swinney re-hiring him and talked about how it all played out, including what his early conversations with Swinney were like.
Morris said he got a call from Swinney to discuss his OC list on the Tuesday following the Tigers’ loss to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 27.
Morris, who was sitting alone on a beach in Destin, Fla., told Swinney, “Your list is one, and that’s me.”
“It was after the [Clemson-Penn State] bowl game, and I knew that wasn’t the outcome that anyone wanted,” Morris said. “It was Tuesday around lunch, about 12:30 to be exact. … We had just came back from the [Virginia-Missouri] bowl game with Chandler [Morris] in Jacksonville, and we drove to Destin and we were there. … It was Tuesday, and I had just gotten through working out. I went down, I sat on the beach. I was by myself. And I was actually taking pictures of this seagull that was on the beach. … And it wasn’t 30 seconds later, I get a phone call, and it was Coach Swinney. He said, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ And the conversation started then. It was in-depth pretty quick, and he was asking me a few things. …
“He was talking about his list and what he was considering from a coordinator’s standpoint, and I said, ‘Coach, your list is one, and that’s me.’ We kind of laughed and chuckled. We really talked for about an hour. Then he said, ‘I’ll call you back tonight.’”
Indeed, Morris received another call from Swinney on that Tuesday night, and they spent about another hour discussing different things.
“Just hearing his passion and what he wants and what we both want this program to be back at, and where it was,” Morris said.
Swinney then brought up Morris’ wife, Paula, who ended up telling Swinney that she “would crawl back to Clemson” for Swinney and his wife, Kathleen.
“And then he [Swinney] starts talking about Paula. And he said, ‘Is Paula on board?’” Morris recalled.
“And I said, ‘Yeah, Coach. Here she is. You wanna talk to her? Here she is.’ He’s on speaker, and I think Kath [Kathleen] is in the background, and he’s like, ‘You wanna come back home?’ … And she made the comment, she said, ‘Coach, I would crawl back to Clemson for you and Kathleen.’ And I get a little emotional talking about it, because that’s how special this place is and has been to us and our family.”
While the process of Swinney re-hiring Morris started on that Tuesday after the Pinstripe Bowl, Morris noted “it’s important to know that it wasn’t just one quick phone call” that led to him returning to Clemson.
“It was a series of conversations that led into even Wednesday and even into Thursday. But yeah, I’m excited to be back,” Morris said.
Swinney and Clemson officially announced the hiring of Morris as offensive coordinator on Jan. 5.
In 52 games during Morris’ four seasons as Clemson’s offensive coordinator from 2011-14, Clemson averaged 36 points and 468 yards per game. He guided the top three scoring offenses and four of the top five passing offenses in Clemson history during his time in Tigertown.
“I’m super excited to welcome back Chad Morris, who is one of the best guys I’ve ever worked with,” Swinney said. “It’s unique that the timing worked out this way. Before this year, the last time we lost six or more games in a season was in 2010, and I went and hired Chad Morris, and the reason I hired him was the fit and the alignment we had on how I think and what I wanted to do. From 2011-14, there were very few games that we didn’t score 30-plus points, and there were a bunch of games we scored 40 or 50, so we had some very explosive offenses. With the skill sets of our quarterbacks, I felt like he was the right fit for where we are right now and what I want to do.
“He was an excellent head coach at SMU, and it just didn’t work out at Arkansas, and the last couple years he’s been just following his son, but Chad’s been studying a lot of people and traveling and meeting with people. This is just a great time for him and a great opportunity for us to go back to the future and put it back together.”