Hangin' with Chad

Morris said that playing offensive line is just as much about attitude as it is about technique.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Sep 12 14:17:04 GMT-04:00 2011

CLEMSON – Chad Morris addressed the concerns about the toughness and physicality of the Clemson offensive line when he addressed the media Monday morning in the WestZone, and he said the unit was nowhere close to what he wanted.

"The way we're doing it is not what we're after,” Morris said. “We didn’t play nearly as physical and aggressive as we wanted to play. We had some big issues in our pass protection and they weren’t bringing more than we had. We are not nearly as aggressive at the point of attack as we need to be. Everybody wants to see you line up and move people off the ball and that’s not what we’re seeing right now. And that is what we have spent the last two days going over.”

Morris said that playing offensive line is just as much about attitude as it is about technique.

“Until we change that mentality, we are going to talk about this week to week,” he said. “That is what we have to address. We have to coach them harder because the mentality we are taking to the field right now is not getting their attention. We have to come to practice with a toughness.

“You either like to hit or you don’t like to hit. If they don’t bite as a puppy then they probably won't bite as a big dog. We have to try and get that mentality changed, and get that mental toughness and nastiness to where when we step out on that field we play with a nasty, rugged, rough approach.”

Morris was asked if he thinks the Tigers played down to their competition in the first two weeks, and he called that notion “hogwash.”

“I’ve heard that, and this isn’t the only place that they feel like they play down to the level of their competition,” he said. “I call that a bunch of hogwash. I think you are what you put on the field. Whatever the opponent is we have to maintain a consistent approach to the way we play football. We can't expand on our offense because we have to expand on our toughness.”

Morris said he is using only about 50-to-55 percent of the offense at this point because it looks like the players are thinking instead of playing. He then said he was going to make sure the team could run one play with aggressiveness and toughness.

"Are we doing too much?" he asked. "We have three run schemes. Three. We have to make sure we're good at least one of them. Our players want to be tough, they really do. They're struggling with when to turn the switch on. When you think on the field, it takes aggressiveness out. Things we thought we were ready to go with are causing players to think too much. We aren’t going to keep expanding – we are going to get better at what we do.”

Morris was then asked if toughness was something that could be taught.

“You can teach toughness. But you can recruit toughness, too,” he said. “If have someone that doesn’t want to be tough, that’s okay. We will just go get someone that wants to. We are demanding a lot out of them, and we aren’t giving them an inch to breathe right now. Everybody knows what the problem is, but why would you sit in a room and gripe about it?

“Go do something about it. We are going to challenge some guys, and move some guys around. You may see me playing the interior line. You would think Brandon ThomasBrandon Thomas
RS So. Offensive Line
#63 6-4, 300
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View Full Profile would come along, and we have to think of some way to jerk him through the knothole. He looks good, but that doesn’t mean anything right now. I think we want it more than he does, and that isn’t a good thing.”

He ended by saying he wanted people to hate to have to play Clemson.

"I want to see people hating to play Clemson,” he said. “I don't think we've got that here. The people that have played us, I don't think they said, 'Man, those guys were really physical.'"