Riley on If Last Year Was the Toughest of His Coaching Career

On Wednesday, Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley met with the media for the first time during this season.

Riley was asked if last year – his first with the Tigers, which came with its share of challenges – was the toughest year of his young coaching career.

“Probably not,” said Riley, 35. “I’ve been around, and I’ve been a part of staffs that I’ve been fired twice. Everybody thinks it’s just been easy – I’ve been on the other part of it a couple times already in my young career. I’ve learned in this profession, really in anything, there’s going to be some bad times, and you’ve just got to learn how to take the great value of some of those bad experiences.”

The 2022 Broyles Award winner as the nation’s top assistant coach, Riley joined Clemson in January 2023 from TCU, where he served as the team’s offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach in helping lead the Horned Frogs to a 13-2 record, a Fiesta Bowl title and a berth in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in 2022.

Although Clemson’s offense wasn’t as prolific and wasn’t ignited the way many expected entering last season – when the Tigers ended up ranking 52nd nationally in both total offense and scoring offense — Riley led Clemson to a No. 15 national rank in first downs per game (23.4), the ninth-best mark in school history. Clemson’s 76.8 plays per game represented its highest average since 2016 (81.4), and the Tigers finished fifth in the nation in average time of possession per game (33:19), their highest ranking and largest average since 1989.

This season, following a sluggish start in the season opener vs. UGA — when Clemson was limited to a field goal, 188 total yards and 46 rushing yards — the Tigers have exploded offensively over the last two games against App State and NC State, averaging 62.5 points, 618 total yards and more than 260 rushing yards.

Clemson’s 125 points in the last two games are the second-most in a two-game span since 1936.

“I think I’ve been able to hopefully resonate a little bit with our players as we went through some adversity last year, that that stuff’s going to happen, and you’ve got to be able to learn from it,” Riley said. “So, I really take the same approach from a professional standpoint.”

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