Clemson’s seven wins this season were its fewest since it went 6-7 in 2010, Dabo Swinney’s second year as full-time head coach.
Swinney is hitting the reset button, and he’s reportedly bringing back the offensive coordinator who helped turn the Tigers into an ACC juggernaut in 2011.
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After moving on from Garrett Riley, Clemson is hiring Chad Morris as its next OC, according to multiple reports. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Saturday that the deal is nearing completion and pending Board of Trustees review on Monday.
Morris served as the Tigers’ OC and quarterbacks coach from 2011-14. During that span, Clemson rattled off the first four of its 12 consecutive double-digit-win seasons.
Before that stretch, the Tigers hadn’t won more than nine games in a season since 1990. From 2011-13, Morris oversaw a Clemson offense that featured quarterback Tajh Boyd, who’s worked as an offensive assistant on Swinney’s staff since 2021.
Boyd won ACC Player of the Year in 2012. That season, he threw for 3,896 yards and 36 touchdowns, plus he rushed for 514 yards and 10 scores, and the Tigers averaged 41 points per game to the tune of an 11-2 record, punctuated by a Chick-fil-A Bowl win over LSU.
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In 2014, Morris’ final go-around during his first stint as Clemson’s OC, quarterback Deshaun Watson teased his potential. While the Tigers were riddled by injuries that season — Watson notably played on a torn ACL while Clemson snapped a five-game series losing streak to in-state rival South Carolina in the regular-season finale — they still won 10 games, and Watson hinted at what was to come.
Morris left for a head-coaching job at SMU, and the Watson-led Tigers made the national title game the next season. The year after that, they won it all.
This story is being updated.
