Dabo Swinney evaluates Clemson players' grasp of new offense under Garrett Riley

Dabo Swinney’s hiring of Garrett Riley caught a lot of attention, as many pointed out the fact that Swinney brought in an outside voice to lead a prominent position. Riley orchestrated a TCU offense that helped take the Horned Frogs to an appearance in the national championship game last year. As the Tigers move towards the conclusion of spring practice, Swinney likes where the offense is headed under his new coordinator.

“I mean, we actually got a lot in,” Swinney said last week after a practice. “We’ve got a bunch of stuff. I think the biggest thing is just the plays we have — making sure we have a compliment to them. So, it’s having some good answers that we can go to right away. It’s all built in. It kind of simplifies some things as far as just procedure and cadence wise, where our eyes are and some of that stuff. That’s kind of what we want to do. We just want to be really good at what we do and make sure we’ve got answers for what we have to answer for. We’re well on our way. We’re not where we need to be personnel wise, with all our guys out, but as far as install wise — I think the guys have really caught on.”

Riley, the brother of USC head coach Lincoln Riley, aims to get things back on track with former five-star quarterback Cade Klubnik presumably leading the charge on offense come the fall.

In his first-career start in Clemson’s Orange Bowl loss to Tennessee, Klubnik and company struggled to find the end zone. He was 30-of-54 passing for 320 yards, throwing two interceptions. He also carried 20 times for 51 yards and a score. Playing sparingly in relief of D.J. Uiagalelei throughout the season, Klubnik completed 61% of his passes for 697 yards, throwing two touchdowns and three interceptions across 10 games. He also added 139 yards rushing and two scores.

"He's picking it up quickly,” Riley said earlier this spring of Klubnik, via Clemson247. “We're all about simplicity and making it easy for that guy, No. 1. That's the whole thing: if it's easy for the quarterback, odds are you're going to reap the benefits of that eventually. He's grasped it well. A lot of things he did at the high school level and even last year, it's just probably doing a little bit more and a higher repetition of it."

Out of Austin (Texas) Westlake High, Klubnik was a five-star recruit from the Class of 2022. He was the No. 13 player nationally and No. 2 quarterback. He was also the No. 6 player from Texas.