Dabo Swinney Makes Two Key Changes to Clemson Coaching Staff

Swinney announced Garrett Riley wouldn’t return as offensive coordinator.

Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney announced major changes to his staff heading into 2026. / Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

Dabo Swinney is shaking up his coaching staff after an underwhelming 2025 season.

On Monday, Clemson’s head coach announced offensive coordinator Garrett Riley and safeties coach Mickey Conn would not return next season. Riley is the younger brother of USC head coach Lincoln Riley, who made news of his own on Monday.

Swinney released the following statement about Riley’s departure:

I just want to thank Garrett for all that he did for us here at Clemson leading us and helping us secure another ACC championship in 2024 and get us back to the College Football Playoff that year. I appreciate all his efforts on behalf of our players and our program. Garrett is smart, he’s got great work ethic and he’s a great coach, but it just didn’t work like we both wanted. He’s got an amazing career ahead and he’ll be a great head coach in the future.

I have made the decision to make a change at offensive coordinator. This was a very difficult decision. These decisions are never easy, especially when you really love and care for the people that are involved, and I deeply love and care for Garrett Riley and his family. At the end of the day, we just did not get the production and the results that we needed, and I just feel like it is time for a change, and so we will be moving in a different direction with a new offensive coordinator.

Riley has been at Clemson for three seasons. He won the Broyles Award in 2022 as the top assistant coach in the nation for his work as TCU’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Clemson hired him away soon after that, as he joined the Tigers in January of 2023.

In 2025, Clemson ranked 62nd in total offense, averaging 392.2 yards per game. The Tigers were 22nd in passing yards (267.8 per game), but 104th in rushing yards per game at 124.5. Riley’s offense averaged 27.2 points per game, which ranked 70th nationally.

In Riley’s first season on campus in 2023, Clemson went 9-4 and finished ranked 20th, but the team ranked 68th in total offense (379.7 yards per game). The Tigers jumped up in 2024, as they were 12th nationally in total offense (443.8 yards per game), and went 10-4 overall, 7-1 in the ACC, won a conference title, and reached the College Football Playoff.

Clemson’s offense struggled in 2025, and that had a lot to do with the team’s 7-6 record. It's not surprising that Swinney opted to let Riley go.

Conn had been at Clemson since 2016, first as a defensive assistant, then as safeties coach beginning in 2017. He added a co-defensive coordinator title in 2022. The 54-year-old Conn played at Alabama, where he was teammates with Swinney.

The 56-year-old Swinney won national titles at Clemson in 2016 and 2018, and reached the title game in four of five seasons from 2015-19. It looked as if he’d built a power there, but his results have been up and down over the past few seasons. The Tigers have suffered four or more losses in each of the past three seasons and have had at least three in five straight. Clemson’s record in 2025 was its worst since Swinney’s third season in 2010 when the Tigers limped to a 6-7 mark.

Swinney is probably not coaching for his job, but there is now certainly a sense of urgency within the program to shake things up and turn the ship around.

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