Garrett Riley's History with Quarterbacks
The story of this offseason for Clemson centers around the arrival of offensive coordinator Garrett Riley. Fresh off of guiding TCU's offense to a College Football Playoff win over Michigan and title game appearance against Georgia, Riley's jump to Clemson, in a lateral move, was one of the biggest coaching moves of the offseason.
Riley brings a creative offense that utilizes space and tempo to keep defenses off balance. It's an offense with a lot of window dressing; motion, play action, and a ton of formations. All of these are aspects that require a quarterback to be in complete control. Riley's done a great job of forming his offenses around his quarterback. Over the past three seasons, he's had three different quarterbacks in control of his offense, each has produced at an extremely high level.
Garrett Riley is entering his first season as Clemson's offensive coordinator
2022: Max Duggan - TCU - 3,698 passing yards, 41 total touchdowns
Duggan may be Garrett Riley's greatest success story. Though he didn't start week one, Duggan went on to lead TCU to the College Football Playoff and found himself among the four Heisman Trophy Finalists. He was lethal with the deep ball and was completely in control of the offense. Riley did use Duggan's legs a lot - 137 carries on the year - but a large chunk of those were scrambles.
2021: Tanner Mordecai - SMU - 3,628 passing yards, 41 total touchdowns
The year after transferring from Oklahoma, Tanner Mordecai found himself at the helm of TCU's offense. In his first full season as a starter, he was named Second Team All-AAC, leading SMU to an 8-4 record. Mordecai set the then-school record with 7 touchdown passes against Abilene Christian. He broke his own record last year with 9 touchdown passes against Houston.
2020: Shane Buechele - SMU - 3,095 passing yards, 25 total touchdowns
Playing in just 10 games due to injuries, Shane Buechele averaged over 300 yards per game through the air. In his one season with Garrett Riley as his OC, Buechele set career-high marks in QB rating (152.9), yards per attempt (8.4), and completion percentage (65.4). He was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs and was a part of the active roster when the team won the Super Bowl this past February.
