Dabo did: Riley Hiring shows Swinney is still serious about winning Clemson

Looks like Dabo Swinney means business in 2023.

Clemson’s head coach wasn’t playing when he fired offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter, something many people didn’t think he had because of his loyalty to the staff.

Sweeney didn’t throw punches in the rushing touchdown of one of college football’s most sought-after callers when he snatched Garrett Riley away from UCLA.

Two-time league title-winning coach and relatively fresh athletic director Graham Neff showed just how serious they are about getting the Tigers back in the college football game when they awarded Riley a $1.75 million-a-year contract that would make him among the highest-paid assistants in the country.

Sure, this stuff is Sweeney’s mission, and you could argue he should have made the decision to bring in an outsider a year ago. He is supposed to put his program in the best position to win as many matches as possible and to compete at the highest level. But sometimes when you do that, it just doesn’t work. Case in point, Streeter, whom Sweeney helped take care of and built trust in over the years.

Watch the elite football teams and it is clear that the tigers are not that aggressive anymore. A lack of explosive plays, a reliance on taking what defenses give them rather than imposing their will and a lost identity plagued Clemson for two full seasons, one of them under Streeter.

Sweeney, who didn’t introduce Riley or make public statements about why he made the change, probably didn’t have the confidence and belief he needed to move forward.

Riley seems like a guy who can at least fix many of these issues. TCU was one of the most explosive teams in the country in 2022 on its way to the College Football Playoff and National Championship. Riley has created ground slashing and scrolling games with his air raid plot.

Sweeney is a big fan of balance. He’s also pro-win. While the Tigers have won 21 games in the past two seasons, they felt far from the 2015-2020 teams. To get back to that, Sweeney clearly felt he had to do something big.

It was a throwaway for a coach who has been with the program since the end of 2014 and helped the Tigers collect six trips to the CFP, a bunch of ACC championships and two national title awards.

Steeter’s one-year call-up plays boosted Clemson from 99th in total offense in 2021 to 48th in 2022, but there’s still a pretty big gap when you compare the Tigers to teams that made CFP.

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There is still a lot to assume when it comes to Sweeney’s motives. Perhaps the Orange Bowl, where Clemson had three weeks to prepare with new QB Cade Klubnik, made the decision easier. Clemson gained too much yardage but kicked two field goals and one touchdown in a 31-14 loss to Tennessee.

Can you blame changing talent for the dropout? Sure, but coaches are responsible for recruitment and development, too. Hopefully, Riley can fill some of that gap with a new, more modern system that takes advantage of all kinds of talent.

Clemson doesn’t have much wiggle room to upgrade the offense before a new season. There aren’t enough open scholarships right now to hit the NCAA transfer protocol as many notable names are back on defense. The 2023 Signature Class is full and not looking to add in February.

If the program was going to take a radical offensive leap this fall, it had to make a drastic change to the scheme.

Clemson appears to have done just that, and Swinney has shown he’s willing to make big changes to bring the Tigers back to the CFP. The odds of Clemson winning the national title in 2023 are currently +1,600, according to Vanduel.

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