Boyd excited about possibilites for the offense; Morris seeks consistency |
CLEMSON – The excitement is back for the Clemson offense, a unit that apparently did so well in last Saturday’s scrimmage that new offensive coordinator Chad Morris had to bring them back down to earth in Monday’s practice. Saturday’s scrimmage wasn’t your normal scrimmage, according to head coach Dabo Swinney, as the Tigers concentrated on second-and-long, third-and-long and third down situations with two downs to pick up a first down. Morris, a disciple of Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, has brought his quick-paced, smash-mouth spread to Clemson, and he said that the offense performed extremely well on Saturday. But that success didn’t carry over into Monday, with quarterback Tajh Boyd saying “the defense kicked our butts today.” Morris concurred with his quarterback. “I think the guys felt like there was a lot of confidence coming out of Saturday,” Morris said Monday afternoon. “I think that they thought we had already won the national championship, because today they kind of thought they didn’t have to practice too much today, so I kind of had to remind them that they haven’t done anything yet. “We had good day Saturday. Today wasn’t quite as good, because we were kinda feeling proud of ourselves and we made some progress. I was pleased Saturday. We moved the football. That was good, especially against our defense, because that bunch is really talented. I thought Tajh had a good day Saturday.” Boyd said he was worried that the offense wouldn’t perform well in Saturday’s scrimmage. “We ran a set of skellies [passing skeletons] and it was really rough,” Boyd said. “But once we got together as a team, we did a lot of good things. We communicated well, and we moved the football. But there is also a lot to work on. The receivers made some great catches, the line blocked well and I feel like I ran well. “And now, we are going to go over there [to the WestZone] and do a lot of film study. We have to get better. We were decent, but we still have a long ways to go. We are going to have another scrimmage on Wednesday, so we need to take it a step further and see how far we can go before spring break.” Boyd said Morris is a stickler for doing things the right way, and he can’t wait to see the results. “He really does a good job of keeping us in line,” Boyd said. “He does a great job with our footwork. Working with him has been good for me. I was kinda like ‘wow, I had no idea I needed this kind of work.’ He runs things differently and the way we do things are different. We have improved so much in just four or five days, and I can’t wait to see how good we are at the end spring or in the summer.” Morris said the biggest thing he wants the team to concentrate on is consistency. “We’ve been really good at times, and we’ve been really bad at times,” he said. “We’ve just got to find that happy medium and continue to keep getting better. All that was exactly what I expected installing a new offense. And I definitely want is to be more consistent. Like with our receivers – they have a good day followed by a bad day, and we can’t have that. We’ve just got to keep getting better.” 
AUDIO: Clemson OC Chad Morris on the scrimmage AUDIO: QB Tajh Boyd on the scrimmage
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