Greg McElroy calls Garrett Riley hire by Clemson 'massive'

Dabo Swinney arguably had the hire of the offseason by bringing in Garrett Riley as Clemson’s next offensive coordinator. After a season of bolstering TCU’s offense to the point of a national championship appearance, he will now be tasked to do the same in Death Valley.

Greg McElroy said it was a phenomenal hire from what he said during the latest episode of Always College Football. To start, he thinks it will make all the difference in the development of sophomore quarterback Cade Klubnik. From there, he thinks the effect Riley will have will trickle down to the rest of the Clemson offense and, in the end, morph it into something that can be really great.

“(Riley) going to Clemson is massive. Massive. I can’t even put into words how significant that is. Why? Because Garrett Riley, for one, has Cade Klubnik who is I think a very talented individual. Very, very talented,” said McElroy. “What’d he just do with Max Duggan? He waved the magic wand and made him a star. But what’s he going to do now with Cade Klubnik?”

“Clemson, traditionally, they’ll do a lot offensively but what they haven’t been is Baylor, tempo, speed, vertical. That’s not who they’ve been. So it’s going to be really interesting to see how much does Garrett Riley alter what they’ve been traditionally and does he kind of conform to the Clemson offense that we’ve seen for the last five or six years,” McElroy said. “Dabo Swinney has emphasized line of scrimmage, we need to be able to run the ball, we need to take the pressure off the quarterback. Well, they didn’t do a great job of that last year. Garrett Riley now? His offense is going to make that offensive line a whole heck of a lot better. But will they try to continue to do what they wanted to do heading into last season? That’s gonna be something that’s going to be interesting to follow as well.”

Riley is coming off a season where he won the Broyles Award in Forth Worth. He raised their offense from 66th in the nation to ninth with 38.8 points per game. His work with Max Duggan also helped the senior quarterback become a candidate for the Heisman Trophy.

That came after Riley also succeeded offensively at his other FBS stops at SMU, Appalachian State, Kansas, and East Carolina.

Of all the hires this offseason, this is one that could really shift the national picture in college football. While we always know what the Tiger’s defense can be, Clemson’s offense has, at times, left something to be desired. Now, with the pairing of Riley, the potential of Klubnik, and the rest of the offense heading, this can be the kind of move that could potentially get Clemson back in the College Football Playoff.