Behind closed doors: Richardson, Tajh Boyd, former Gamecock help with red zone success

Former Jacksonville State Gamecocks head coach John Grass works with the Clemson offense.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Sep 29 12:20:05 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – Clemson passing game coordinator Kyle Richardson made an interesting comment this week about how the offensive coaches break down the gameplan for each opponent, and which coaches are responsible for which down and distance.

For instance, Richardson is responsible for the red zone (inside the opponent’s 20-yard line) plays. Through four games, the Tigers are ranked No. 1 in the nation in red zone conversions, scoring on all 24 of their attempts. Other schools are also at 100 percent, but none have a number as high as 24 (Tennessee is at 22, and Ohio St. is at 20).

“For us, we made an emphasis when we got together as a kind of quote-unquote new offensive staff. We looked at everything and talked about where we wanted to make some tweaks,” Richardson said. “And like I said in the spring, we didn't overhaul or bring in a new offense. There's not a new passing game. There's not a new run game. It's just we cleaned up some things. We may be eliminated some things that we haven't run in a while and just added some tweaks to it to kind of clean it up.

“And we had an emphasis on redzone and third down and improving red zone scoring and improving our third down mark. And right now, again, I don't know all the stats and all that, but I think we're pretty high in the country and red zone scores, and we've improved on our third down. Is there like, a magic wand we've waved to do that? No, but we have gone and kind of gone about differently in how we prepare for those two parts of the game plan."

Richardson has a staff that he meets with early in the week, a staff that includes offensive analysts John Grass, former Tiger quarterback Tajh Boyd, and grad assistant Andrew Shipman. Grass was an interesting addition to the Tigers – he posted a 72-26 record in eight seasons as head coach for the Jacksonville St. Gamecocks. His .732 win percentage ranked 12th-highest among all active D-I coaches, but the school and Grass mutually decided to move on to former Clemson assistant Rich Rodriguez after the Gamecocks missed the playoffs last season.

“We've kind of split them up. For instance, I've taken red zone, and that's kind of my baby, and I got a pretty good one in Tajh Boyd that helps him in with that,” Richardson said. “He knows a little bit about scoring. And then Andrew Shipman, who was a student assistant with me at Northwestern and has been here, and I can't escape the dude. He came here as a student assistant after I left Northwestern. He's a GA now. His parents need to pay me child support. Right? But those two just do an awesome job.

“And then John Grass being on our staff, we've kind of taken the red zone as our baby, and we spend time on Tuesdays, and it's just us focused on that, and then we kind of come and present, hey, this is what we see. What do you think? And then at that point, we all kind of start getting on the same page, and we do the same thing with third down. Tyler Grisham has done an awesome job with third down, and that's kind of his baby. And he's got his crew, and they go study it and get a plan together and then come back. And then we all get together and say, this is what I see. And then we kind of dial it all into something. So, if there's been a change, that's probably been the biggest change.”

Head coach Dabo Swinney then detailed the different parts of the game plan.

“We kind of break down different components of the game plan for every section. First down, third medium, third and long, coming out two minutes,” Swinney said. “And so we use all of our staff to make it more efficient that way. And then we come back, and we collaborate and look at it and make sure we're on the same page and punch holes in it or confirm it. But we really try to be very efficient with our time. So we kind of assign everyone something. And Tyler works with (Brandon) Streeter there together on third down. But we divide the whole staff, divide and conquer. It leads to creativity and everybody taking ownership. You're not just sitting there waiting for one person to tell everybody what we're going to do. Everybody is invested. Everybody's a part of the process. And then you pull it all together, and you battle it out and fight for what you believe in. And decision-makers make final decisions on, hey, here's the plan. Let's go.

“And everybody gets behind it because there's a lot of good things. There's a lot of good things, and there's a lot of good things that you like, maybe game plan wise, there's a lot of things that you feel like you could even execute, but it still comes down to, okay, well, what can we practice? And within our practice time frame, they really be polished and precise and detailed, and that's ultimately how you put it together.”

Check out the seventh edition of David Hood's TigerNet Podcast at this link or find it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.