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Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney is welcoming a familiar face back into the Tigers' program with the hope of turning the offense around in 2026.
After a disappointing 2025 season that saw the Tigers finish 7-6, and a veteran quarterback in Cade Klubnik who regressed under third-year offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, Swinney dismissed Riley on Dec. 29.
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Swinney has officially tapped former coordinator Chad Morris as the Tigers' next play-caller, a move first reported on Saturday and confirmed Monday.
Morris was Clemson's offensive coordinator from 2011-14, a period that saw the Tigers begin their ascent as an ACC and national power with the development of Tajh Boyd at quarterback. Morris also played a big hand in helping the Tigers recruit future national champion Deshaun Watson to Clemson.
He left Clemson to become the head coach at SMU in 2015, and later followed with an unsuccessful two-year stint as head coach at Arkansas. Morris did not coach in 2025 and took on an advisory role at Virginia.
His son, Chandler Morris, was the starting quarterback of a Cavaliers team that finished 11-3 and reached the ACC Championship Game.
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What Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney said about hiring Chad Morris
After Morris' hiring was made official on Monday, Swinney released a statement:
"I'm super excited to welcome back Chad Morris, who is one of the best guys I've ever worked with. It's unique that the timing worked out this way. Before this year, the last time we lost six or more games in a season was in 2010, and I went and hired Chad Morris, and the reason I hired him was the fit and the alignment we had on how I think and what I wanted to do. From 2011-14, there were very few games that we didn't score 30-plus points, and there were a bunch of games we scored 40 or 50, so we had some very explosive offenses. With the skill sets of our quarterbacks, I felt like he was the right fit for where we are right now and what I want to do.
"He was an excellent head coach at SMU, and it just didn’t work out at Arkansas, and the last couple years he's been just following his son, but Chad's been studying a lot of people and traveling and meeting with people. This is just a great time for him and a great opportunity for us to go back to the future and put it back together.
"There are always tough decisions that have to be made in this profession, and though I had to make a couple tough decisions, it was an easy decision to hire Chad Morris. I'm really excited for our players. It's pretty cool to have guys like DeAndre Hopkins and Sammy Watkins and a bunch of great players shooting me text messages with their excitement knowing what's to come offensively. I think we;ve got elite offensive personnel, and the name of the game is points. The one thing I know about Chad, he knows how to score points, and so I'm excited to welcome him and his family back."
Clemson finished ninth in the ACC in total offense (392.2 YPG) this past season amid its 7-6 season, the Tigers' worst since 2010, which ended with a punchless 22-10 loss to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl on Dec. 27.
The Tigers were sixth in the ACC in passing yards per game (267.8) in 2025, but just 11th in scoring offense (27.2).
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This article originally appeared on Clemson Wire: Clemson football's Dabo Swinney makes statement with Chad Morris hire
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