Garrett Riley says his offense is about 'ball distribution and explosive plays'

Garrett Riley brings an offense that turned TCU into a Playoff team and earned him the Broyles Award to Clemson.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Jan 16 07:00:06 GMT-04:00 2023

Can Garrett Riley bring the explosiveness back to the Clemson offense?

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney hired Riley away from TCU last week and put Riley in charge of a Clemson offense that has lacked explosiveness the last two seasons. Go back to the 2018 season, and Clemson led the nation in plays of 50-plus yards with 23. There were 13 plays of 60-plus yards, and the Tigers were second nationally that season with a whopping 104 plays of 20-plus yards.

Clemson managed only 58 plays that gained at least 20 yards last season, which ranked 66th nationally; TCU had 91 such plays, which ranked the Horned Frogs fourth.

Riley played under Mike Leach at Texas Tech, which means the Air Raid system. However, Riley has proven that his offense, unlike some of those old Texas Tech teams, can and will run the football. TCU finished in the Top 40 nationally in both passing offense and rushing offense.

One thing that remains to be seen is how much Riley will incorporate Clemson’s tight ends into the equation – TCU ran a lot of four-wide, 10 personnel structures (one running back, zero tight ends) this season and Horned Frog tight ends combined for 35 receptions. Clemson’s Davis Allen had 39 by himself, and backup Jake Briningstool had 25.

Riley said in an interview last year that he runs an offense that is predicated on execution.

“There’s such a premium on execution,” Riley said. “We don’t do a million different things because it’s hard to do that and get really, really good at it. So it’s about repetitions and just executing at a higher level than the defense is in stopping it. That’s our philosophy. For it all to work, it comes down to ball distribution and explosive plays.”

However, Riley’s TCU offense put a premium on running the football and star running back Kendre Miller carried it 224 times for 1399 yards this past season, an average of 6.25 yards per carry. Clemson’s Will Shipley carried it 210 times for 1182 yards, an average of 5.63 yards per carry. Clemson ran it 546 times while TCU ran it 566 times.

“You’ve got to be able to run the ball. You just do,” Riley said. “That’s part of ball distribution, too. That doesn’t mean you have to throw it this many times a game. That’s talking about the running back, too. He’s got to touch it in the passing game and obviously touch it in the run game.”

At TCU last season, 11 different players ran the ball while 19 different players had a reception, so Riley puts a premium on getting the ball in the hands of his playmakers while making sure everyone gets a touch.

“If you’re at a place, and we feel we are now, where we have really good athletes on offense, then ball distribution is what you’re aiming to get,” Riley said. “Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be. We need to spread the ball out to those guys and let them and their God given ability take over; you know what I’m saying? A system where our guys are going to be very confident. That changes year to year.

“Our 2020 team offensively at the other place (SMU) was a lot different than our 2021 offense. There’s a lot of similarities, but it’s going to be different every year. The main reason is you’ve got to tailor it to what your guys are good at and what you feel like you have.”

Riley is still proud of the fact that he is part of the coaching tree of the late Mike Leach.

“I played under Coach Leach for two years,” Riley said. “He was my position coach for two years, so there’s just a lot of philosophy that goes back to what we learned being with Mike and there’s a lot of things that we carry over from that."