Why Clemson football expects new Air Raid offense to click, starting with Cade Klubnik
CLEMSON – When Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney parted ways with Brandon Streeter and hired offensive mastermind Garrett Riley from TCU in January, it launched the Tigers’ offense into a brave new world.
Known for a highly productive Air Raid attack that flourished at SMU in 2021 and helped TCU to the national championship game in 2022, Riley hit the ground running with the Tigers, first on the recruiting trail then getting to know his personnel.
After three weeks of spring practice, Riley appears to have achieved a solid comfort level with both his players and fellow coaches, including passing game coordinator and tight ends coach Kyle Richardson, who has years of experience with the Air Raid offense as a college assistant coach as well as a successful high school head coach.
Here’s why Richardson is convinced that Riley’s offense will click at Clemson:
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It's suited for quarterback Cade Klubnik
“With his skill set, this is a really good fit for him,” Richardson said. “He’s loving it and having a ball out there, running around and making plays.”
He’s not alone.
“The whole quarterback group has just been awesome,” Richardson said. “They’re out there having a blast.”
It capitalizes on playmakers' talents
“The average fan, they just want to see people making plays,” Richardson said. “In this offense, you put players in better positions to make plays.”
By that, Richardson means “big plays,” which is something Riley’s TCU offense did at an impressive rate last season. The Horned Frogs’ 91 plays of 20 yards or more ranked fourth nationally.
“It puts players in better space to make plays – that would be the biggest thing,” Richardson said.
It promises more 'chunk' plays
Clemson’s downfield passing game was almost non-existent last season. The Tigers ranked 110th nationally with an average of 10.92 yards per completion, and Richardson expects that number to get an immediate boost.
“I know we’re going to throw the ball downfield more than in the past,” Richardson said. “You’ll also see more balls in the 10- to 15-yard area. There’s a lot of crossing routes, intermediate routes, in between the hashes.”
It will create more room to run
Despite what Air Raid implies, standout running backs Will Shipley and Phil Mafah will still flourish.
“Don’t get it twisted that just because we’re throwing a lot of balls at practice right now that we’re putting Mafah and Shipley on the shelf,” Richardson said. “This benefits them just as much as it benefits anybody else. The threat of being you being able to throw the ball at a high level is going to loosen that box up.”
It will provide more up-tempo opportunities
“We’ll get up to the line quick,” Richardson said. “We can either run the play quick or we can just have it at a normal tempo, but we’ll be able to line up quicker and not be herky-jerky, running all over the place to start the play. That will be one of the bigger things you’ll see.”
Scott Keepfer covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at skeepfer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @ScottKeepfer
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson football expects new Air Raid offense to help Cade Klubnik
