Dabo Swinney might be deep in the trenches of being the next coach to be fired. But, even amid this turmoil, the Clemson HC won’t let go of his coaching assistants. Once a powerhouse, the Tigers are struggling to find rhythm, especially on offense, where quarterback Cade Klubnik’s rookie mistakes and injuries have hurt the flow. The offense repeatedly fails to sustain drives, making the defense exhausted and vulnerable.

And with all these offensive woes, the blame straight away falls on the Tigers’ $1.7m offensive anchor, Garrett Riley. But with all these speculations amid the tremendous coaching carousel already going on, Dabo Swinney has made one thing clear. “Clemson coach Dabo Swinney says he’s generally against firing assistant coaches mid-season,” Clemson writer Chapel Fowler posted on X. “If you’ve got a bad person, where you can’t be in a room together, that’s different. But we’ve got good people — good men. Let’s go play the games left on the schedule that year.”

So this keeps Garrett Riley in the safe spot, but what about the results? Riley was hired after the previous OC, Brandon Streeter, was fired. Garrett Riley was fresh off a Pro Bowl-like season with TCU as their offensive coordinator. He turned the Horned Frogs around from a mediocre five-win team into a 13-win national championship finalist with a ninth-ranked scoring offense averaging nearly 39 points per game. It’s hard to overlook that kind of magic.

But all that momentum took a hit this season. The offense has been a big reason the Tigers are off to their first 3–5 start since 2004. Clemson is sitting at 14th in the ACC in total offense with 365.3 yards a game and 16th in scoring at just 19.8 points a game. Last year, with basically the same players and Garrett Riley, they were putting up 34.7 points and 451.9 yards a game. To put things into perspective, let’s take the Duke game as an example. Clemson exploded for 45 points and racked up 560 total yards, averaging a sweet 7.77 yards per play.

It looked like the Tigers found their rhythm, right? But hold up, Duke ranks 83rd defensively and lets teams put up almost 28 points a game. Before that, Clemson’s offense hit 30 or more points only twice, against Boston College and North Carolina, which aren’t exactly offensive powerhouses. Their upcoming game against Florida State is telling. How? FSU’s defense is much tougher, allowing just 20 points per game and ranking 48th. If Clemson’s offense fails to execute here, it will prove they still haven’t fixed their struggles.

Garrett Riley’s unmovable resolve

Garrett Riley is a man on a mission. Clemson’s rushing attack this season has been, frankly, embarrassing. It’s a far cry from the glory days when runs by Travis Etienne Jr. and Wayne Gallman struck fear into defenses. This year, the Tigers rank a dismal 12th in the ACC with just 116.4 rushing yards per game, a major factor in their tough 3-4 record. Garrett Riley recently opened up about the dire state of the ground game during a media session, and he’s no longer playing it safe.

His plan? Unleash the young backs, no matter the growing pains. “We have to get those guys in, and they’ve got to rotate,” Riley said. “For obvious reasons, we need other guys to play and produce for us, and it also is going to help Adam Randall throughout the rest of our season.” Right now, it’s one-dimensional out there. Adam Randall, who is a converted wide receiver and leads the rushing stats with 433 yards. On the other hand, the next highest rusher, Keith Adams Jr., has a jaw-dropping 67 yards.

This predictability has made Clemson’s offense stagnant and easy to defend. What’s especially frustrating is that some high-upside recruits, like redshirt freshman David Eziomume and true freshman Gideon Davidson, have barely seen meaningful snaps on the field. Riley’s philosophy shift is clear. “I mean, it’s kind of really more of a rep and a play count now that we really just have to get to, one way or another,” Riley said. “So that’s certainly what we’re going to do moving forward.”