CLEMSON FOOTBALL

No more big boards: Clemson's offensive playcalling is overhauled
Garrett Riley will signal in the plays this fall.

No more big boards: Clemson's offensive playcalling is overhauled


by - Senior Writer -

CLEMSON – No more boards with pictures on the sidelines -- and Clemson’s offensive coordinator will be on the sidelines instead of the box.

Clemson fans can expect plenty of changes to way the Tigers’ offense goes about its business, but one noticeable change will be how the play is signaled into the offense. Over recent seasons, student assistants would hold large poster boards with different pictures on each board. Each picture represented a play and formation, and those were held up only after the play came down from the box to the field.

Not this season.

"Garrett is going to signal the play. You don't have boards and all that other stuff,” tight ends coach Kyle Richardson said Wednesday. “In the past, in order for us to get a play going, there was a lot of stuff that had to happen for us to even get the call in, and then from there, there was a ton of communication to get the call started. You don't see that much in this offense."

In other words, the offense can go fast when it needs to go fast and it can slow things down when that is needed.

"TCU, Oklahoma, all the teams that have made their living in this system, they're not going to be No. 1, 2, or 3 most-called plays in a game,” Richardson said. “But when you want to go fast, you can go fast."

Richardson ran the same offense when he was at Northwestern High School, and he said more than one school made its way to Rock Hill to learn the system. But most of them didn’t have the same success as Northwestern because they didn’t commit to it.

Many wondered how much of Clemson’s prior offense would be kept, but Richardson said head coach Dabo Swinney wanted to start from scratch with Riley’s system.

"I knew that when Garrett was coming and bringing it. You can't go half and half and piece together the best part of what Garrett does to the best part of what Clemson did in the past,” Richardson said. “It has to be 100 percent. And coach Swinney has done an awesome job of that. 'Hey you got the keys, this is why I brought you here, teach it to these guys, let's go and let's get our confidence back and swagger back.'

"It's been fun to see the kids respond. They're having fun. They're not bogged down with a lot of details. And you can just go play football. That's why they came here. They came here to play football at a high level and most of these kids watched Clemson players before them make a lot of plays offensively that looked a lot of fun. And they wanted a part of that. And I think that's where we're headed back to."

Swinney, Riley, and now Richardson have all mentioned that there will be less plays in the playbook, but there are options because those plays will be run out of different formations.

"Just simple schematically. You take the plays and mix and match them with different formations and motions to make them look different to a defense, but to the quarterback, they're still those 10 plays or whatever number it is,” Richardson said. “We've done some things schematically that we'll be able to take advantage of our personnel and skill set at receiver, tight end, and running back. That's only going to benefit the quarterback.”

The system allows the quarterback to just play – the lack of option routes keeps everyone on the same page.

"And there are some plays that are black and white in the system. But there are a lot of plays in the system that not only the quarterback has freedom to check one dude or change something, but the receiver, tight end, and running back also have freedom,” Richardson said. “'Hey I went here when you told me to go here and it wasn't there, so now I'm going here, and that's OK because we're all on the same page.'

"But the biggest thing is as long as we're making definitive decisions that the quarterback knows why we're doing what we're doing and we're both on the same page, whether it's quarterback and WR, quarterback and TE, quarterback and RB, even if you're wrong in making that decision, if the quarterback knows why you're making that decision and where you're going, we can still make it right."

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allorangeallthetime52®
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Clemgalalways®
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TigerzzRoar®
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Judge Keller®
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bretfsu®
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HowardsBoy®
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jstone D329
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TigerzzRoar®
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LeonTrotsky
spacer The guy in the press box still has a job.
bretfsu®
spacer yes, but not exactly
RU4GOD2
spacer Agree, I wasn't clear.
bretfsu®
spacer Re: Agree, I wasn't clear.
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RLW7353
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tigerlex24®
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97TigerPaw
spacer I hope we breakout the big boards for the USuC game...
milfordcttiger
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ESSOCU
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prescotttiger®
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TigerBill82®
spacer Grammar hell is filled with those who commit to less plays
sectionHrowJ