Chad Morris is back at Clemson looking to recreate some magic of the past.
During his first run with the program, the Tigers were 42-11, as he led a rejuvenation on the offensive side of the ball.
Coming off of a 6-7 season in 2010, Dabo Swinney hired Morris to revamp his offense. During his first season at the helm, Morris helped get the most out of quarterback Tajh Boyd as Clemson won its first ACC Championship in two decades.
During his four-year tenure at Clemson from 2011-14, the Tigers averaged 36.3 points per game, which ranked 15th nationally. Morris; offense also averaged 466.3 yards per contest, good for 12th in the country.
Now Morris is charged with a similar task during his second stint. Clemson averaged just 27.2 points per game a season ago, ranking 71st nationally, and those numbers were nowhere near what was expected from an offense with a senior quarterback in Cade Klubnik, and a plethora of weapons out wide.
“I am pumped up as a bike tire right now,” Morris said recently on the ACC Network’s Road Trip. “It’s great being back here to a place we love, a place that means so much to our family,” Morris added. “And obviously, I’d like to think that we made a big difference at Clemson when we were here the last time. And just to be back here with Coach Swinney. Man, it doesn’t get any better than this.”
After Morris left Clemson, he had head coaching tenures at SMU and Arkansas. He was the offensive coordinator at Auburn during the 2020 Covid season, signaling the last time he officially led an offense at the collegiate level. After spending the 2021 season in the high school ranks, Morris spent a year at South Florida as an analyst, before serving in a similar role helping out on Swinney’s staff in 2024. He did not coach last season, choosing to spend a lot of time with his son Chandler, who was finishing his college career playing for Tony Elliott at Virginia. Morris says that experience with Elliott has helped him evolve as a coach.
“As a coach, your calendars run parallel,” Morris added. “You very seldom have a chance to go and visit other schools and to watch the way other practices are ran or meetings are ran. To be able to go and do that and still be able to be tied in with Virginia last year with Coach Elliott. I learned so much about how to run meetings more efficiently and effective. Practice — just different things that happen in practice.”
With Morris not having run a college offense the last five seasons, there are some questions regarding how similar the scheme will be to what was seen during his first tenure at Clemson. Back then, it was all about tempo, with the Tigers routinely running 100 plays or more.
The sport has evolved since then. Defenses have adjusted. That means Morris’ scheme will need some tweaks. However, no matter the differences between then and now, the goal remains the same. Get the ball to his playmakers and let them do what they do.
“The last time I was here it was all about tempo, tempo, tempo,” Morris said. “And now defenses have caught up to that. Now it’s your ability you still have to be with tempo, but it’s your ability to mix things up. And I think you’re able to see that right now across college football, the land of college football. But make no mistake about it, it’s still about execution.”
