Clemson passing game has to gain confidence and stay healthy

Richardson wants the offense to have confidence and stay healthy.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Apr 03 08:00:05 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – New passing game coordinator Kyle Richardson thinks the offense will be great in 2022, but he also knows it has to have confidence and healthy players.

The Clemson passing offense finished 103rd in the nation last season at just 191.2 yards per game, a few yards better than typical offensive cellar-dwellers like Vanderbilt and Kansas and a bevy of run-heavy offenses.

Richardson, who was named as the tight ends coach and passing game coordinator in December, met with the media following Wednesday’s scrimmage in Death Valley and spoke about taking the passing offense back to where it was prior to last season.

“It's one of those situations where if you look at the big picture—I've been here six years—and you go, OK we've done some great things in the passing game,” Richardson said. “As a coach, you can't just zoom in on last year. The flip side of that is you can't just assume we'll be better next year because of X, Y, and Z and not change anything. Obviously, my background is passing and that's where coach (Dabo) Swinney has challenged us to get it back to where we were. I think that'll come with some healthy guys. But we also have to get our confidence back in the passing game. We lost it last year, and once we lost it, it was hard to get back.

"We've made some tweaks. I think the biggest thing was coach (Brandon) Streeter and I sitting down and talking about where do we want to go in the future with this? We don't want to throw it all the window, but we want to grow.”

The first step was a logical one.

“Let's get back to the basics, No. 1, which was let's put the ball in playmakers' hands in space and they went and made plays,” Richardson said. “And No. 2, maybe we need to simplify things. Maybe some things stacked on each other year after year, and all of a sudden simple things became complicated. Those are probably the two biggest things we've looked at to get our confidence back."

Richardson said the offense has to be smarter post-snap.

"And what I want to do is post-snap, where are some grass pockets in this play call and how can we get into those? How can we get more answers post-snap? Because nowadays you can't just look to the sideline to get out of this bad play call,” he said. “Because as soon as you get a new play, well the defense gets a new defense, and you run out of time to snap the ball. So for me, it's like how can we take advantage of what the defense give us post-snap and have it already built-in? Those are some things we've really looked hard at our core concepts.

"As we've tweaked core concepts, it really doesn't add anything. We are going to run the same routes, but as you run the route, here's a question mark. I give the tight ends a route to run and I tell them they got an exclamation point at the end, then they're running that route no questions asked. If there's a question mark, then as they're running the route they can think about some things and maybe do something different based off what the defender is doing to me."

Part of the change includes getting rid of the plays that don’t work.

"We looked a fewer older concepts that we install and practice, but they aren't great play calls in the game so we never call them in the games,” Richardson said. “So let's quit installing them and wasting the reps on them in practice."

The offense has been hit or miss so far this spring.

"We've had some practices this spring where we create big plays and it's like, 'We're really going to be an explosive offense this season.' And then you come out of days like (Wednesday), the first quarter, and it's like ‘What’s the deal?’ We're still growing as an offensive staff together and still growing these kids,” Richardson said. “We are also out there right now playing with guys that aren't going to get a ton of reps in the fall, and also are without some guys right now that will get a ton of reps in the fall. I keep saying it, but I think trying to teach them consistency now regardless of who is out there.

"We might not have started the scrimmage the way we wanted to offensively, but we finished the way we wanted to. And that's a positive because they didn't go into the tank and they got their confidence back."

The offense also needs to stay healthy.

"Hate to say it, but we got to be healthy. Got to get healthy in the tight end room and running back room,” Richardson said. “Healthy along the offensive line. So, all the guys can start taking reps together so we can take this offense to the level we want to take it. I think we are going to be great, but it's a matter of piecing it all together and taking those next steps."