Hangin' with Chad

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Oct 17 13:18:37 GMT-04:00 2011

CLEMSON – Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris said he was surprised by the early struggles of quarterback Tajh BoydTajh Boyd
RS So. Quarterback
#10 6-1, 225
Hampton, VA
View Full Profile Saturday at Maryland, and joked that he might have a solution the next time the Tigers play on the road.

“He may stay in my room,” Morris joked during his Monday session with the media. “You just have to learn how to play on the road. You have to remind yourself that this is a young man who has only played seven ballgames. He’s off to an incredible start. We wouldn’t be in this situation we are today if Tajh Boyd wasn’t playing for us. I think everybody in the country would agree with that. You just find ways to make it happen. That’s the growing process.”

Morris said Boyd’s early play was uncharacteristic.

“It really was. I don’t know,” Morris said. “We’ve all gotten pretty accustomed and pretty used to Tajh, and what he looked like against Auburn and Florida State and how he has kind of come out. We are expecting that every week. He wasn’t on his game early on. Maybe I didn’t throw the ball enough on that opening drive and give him something simple to hit, I don’t know. He definitely wasn’t the Tajh that we have seen in the past. It took him a little time to get settled in and get dialed in. He had two other passes that should’ve been picked and then finally it bit us. We did give them one. He and I did talk on “

Boyd and Morris were talking the entire time, according to Morris.

“We were talking on the sidelines. He was frustrated,” he said. “It was the first time this year that I have seen him kind of out of his element and a little frustrated. He was out of his element. He knew that with us being behind, that some of that was on him. He wasn’t playing well and he wasn’t hitting it. He was frustrated and he was trying hard. The injury had nothing to do with it. Everyone wanted to say it was because he didn’t practice- it wasn’t. Sometimes you have those games. You’ve gotta try to find a way and bring him through it. So at that point, we would talk about it. Everyone wanted to talk to him and tell him to settle down.

“At some point, as a quarterback, you don’t want to hear anybody. You just want to sit down, get away from me and figure this out and we are going to get this dialed back in. That’s what I told Tajh. In order for us to win this ballgame- and this was in the second quarter, early in the first half- you are going to have to make some plays, settle down, and relax. That’s when I was sensing some frustrations. That’s when I asked him if I needed to get Cole StoudtCole Stoudt
Fr. Quarterback
#8 6-4, 200
Dublin, OH
View Full Profile ready because you know I will, but you need to let me know something here. That’s when he told me, ‘No coach I’m going to be fine. Just give me a second, give me a minute.’ At no point in that ballgame did Tajh Boyd ever think that we were going to lose that ballgame nor did I or any of our players on that sideline.”

Morris on getting Boyd some confidence in the first half

“You did [try to call some simple plays to get him some confidence]. On one of the drives in the second quarter, I believe, I was trying to throw the football a little bit instead of running it. Hindsight, maybe I should have just run it, we still went up and scored a touchdown. Should we have run it a little more, that was irrelevant at the time. I knew we were going to have to have big 10 rolling. I had to find something to get a little confidence in him and get him going- some easy stuff. He hit a few, made some plays and went and scored. At some point, you flip off the coach button and flip on the psychology button to try and be a counselor. You just have to flip those switches and do a lot of communicating with him on the sideline.”

On what he told Coach Swinney during the game and Dwayne AllenDwayne Allen
RS Jr. Tight End
#83 6-3, 255
Fayetteville, NC
View Full Profile

I told him [Swinney] late in the fourth quarter that this was just an average night in Conference USA, so here we go. Whatever it takes. When our team was making the comeback, Dwayne Allen was on the sidelines and I overheard him – he was talking to the players and he called them up and he said, ‘if we have to go score 50 to win this game, then let’s go score 50 and win this game. Just do what we’ve gotta do.’ It went back and forth again and he called them back up again, and said, ‘if we have to go score 70, then let’s go score 70.’ That was the approach to those guys, not that we were going to have to do that. When you give them 14 points like that, it’s hard to overcome and beat anybody. But, they believe that there’s no deficit too big. There’s not one of these guys that think that they can’t line up and play and beat. You saw that really come together- maybe not the way our fans would’ve liked to have seen it come together. You have to have games where you battle through adversity and you have to overcome some things like not playing as well in the first half. Any championship team that I’ve ever been a part of, you’ve got to win games like that. You have to find ways to win them.”

On Sammy WatkinsSammy Watkins
Fr. Wide Receiver
#7 6-1, 200
Fort Myers, FL
View Full Profile game and his early mistakes

“You have to talk about his maturity level and we’ve been talking about that since he got here. I think you’ve talked about it and we’ve talked about it as a group. He’s far more mature than his age really is. There wasn’t really any panic. There wasn’t anyone upset. You have to field that punt. You have to make that play. He missed a line on some formations and had a couple of mental mistakes, but it wasn’t a panic. That just shows you his maturity level being able to hang in there. It’s just like you tell Tajh. The last thing you want to tell him after he throws a pick is to sit there and chastise him. That’s the worst thing you can do. You just have to flip on the counselor button and say, ‘we’re going to have to have you, we need you, there’s a lot of football left to play. You can do it.’ “

On Mike BellamyMike Bellamy
Fr. Running Back
#5 5-10, 175
Nocatee, FL
View Full Profile being dressed and on cell phone so soon after game

“Those are things that will be handled in house. It’s about the Tigers and it’s about our guys that are putting forth everything that they’ve got to win a ballgame. I’m extremely proud of our players. We aren’t going to let anything or anyone derail what we’ve got going. I wasn’t there and I didn’t see that. Mike got to play and played significant snaps. It’s about the Tigers, I can tell you that.”

On his message to the offense

“There’s not one run. There’s not one pass. There’s not one run that you are going to score 18 points. We have to maintain this drive and go do what we can get. We have to go get points. Points are at a premium. We have to execute and convert on third downs.”

On Andre EllingtonAndre Ellington
RS Jr. Running Back
#23 5-10, 190
Moncks Corner, SC
View Full Profile playing well

“I think everyone saw that. There’s no question. Coach [Tony] Elliott and I were talking about it and we still feel like it he left another 60 yards out on the field. You sensed his temperament and his excitement and the fire back in his belly. You really like to see that.”