Kyle Richardson overcomes back issues, ready to get spring practice started

Richardson is the new tight ends coach and passing game coordinator.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Feb 24 08:00:06 GMT-04:00 2022

Kyle Richardson has had a whirlwind two months: starting out in an off-field role on the Clemson coaching staff, needing and undergoing back surgery, earning a promotion to tight ends coach, not expecting to coach in the bowl game because of the surgery and then needing to step in the press box and coach in the Tigers’ win over Iowa St. in late December.

When former offensive coordinator Tony Elliott left to become the head coach at Virginia, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney turned to Richardson to take over as not only the tight ends coach but also the passing game coordinator.

Richardson was in charge of some of South Carolina’s most prolific high school offenses during a highly successful five-year tenure as the head coach at Rock Hill’s Northwestern High before joining Clemson’s staff in 2016.

Richardson was excited about his new role, but he knew back surgery was in the plans after lingering back pain was affecting his daily life.

“The timing of it was terrible,” Richardson said earlier this month. “It was probably Week 4 or Week 5 (of the season), and the doctor said, ‘You need back surgery.’ I was like, ‘I need an option B because I’ve got to get through the season.’ I went through the season, and it was terrible. By the South Carolina game, I was barely walking.”

The plan was for Thomas Austin, still assisting then-offensive line coach Robbie Caldwell, to coach the tight ends in the bowl game. But Austin contracted COVID after the team arrived in Orlando. Richardson, just a few weeks removed from surgery, wondered if he could coach in the bowl and called his doctor.

“Thomas has got to go home, and we go to about option D at that point,” Richardson said. “The biggest thing with my doctor was you can’t put yourself in position to be bumped into. At that point, I was under about a six-week deal of no bending, lifting, twisting, those types of things. I called him, and I was like, ‘If I just stay in the press box and just stay out of trouble, can I just go ahead and take over this job now?’ And he was like, ‘Do the press box and stay off the sidelines.’ At that point, I talked to coach (Swinney), and that’s kind of what we did.”

Two months later, Richardson is feeling good.

“I can sit now, and I feel good,” he said. “I’m excited not only to take over this new position but have no back pain.”

He’s also ready to see if he can help the woes that plagued Clemson’s passing game last season.

“Obviously my background is an offensive background, and it’s a passing background being at Northwestern and having those quarterbacks we had and the receivers we had,” Richardson said. “We kind of threw it around. And Coach (Swinney) knows that, and that’s kind of where that came from.”

He also can lean on new offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter.

“We’ve got a great working relationship,” Richardson said. “The good thing about it is that he was the passing-game coordinator. So now him stepping into the offensive-coordinator role and me being the passing-game coordinator, I can look at him and go, ‘Alright, what did you do? What did you like and what did you not like about the role you had as passing-game coordinator?’ And then we can kind of build off of that.

“I’ve got to support Streeter, and I’ve got to be there for what he needs because he’s the offensive coordinator. And then my job is to make sure I’m there, I’m giving him ideas and I’m bringing stuff to the table.”

It all starts next week with the start of spring practice.

“At the end of the day, whatever we’re going as a group, that’s what we’ve go to go out and do,” Richardson said. “Whether it’s my passing game or whether it’s Streeter’s or whether it’s Coach’s, whatever it is, we’ve got to put the best plan together. Then all of us have got to be on the same page to teach it and then for those (players) to go execute it.”