CLEMSON - Chad Morris says Clemson’s red-zone problems don’t come from one culprit. They come from all of them.
When asked Wednesday about the Tigers’ struggles inside the 20, the offensive coordinator pointed to the whole chain: play calling, execution, penalties and even dropped touchdown passes.
“Well, I think it’s a combination of a lot of things, and it’s whether, from some of the stuff I’m calling, to our execution, to our penalties, to dropping touchdown passes. It’s not one thing,” Morris said. “If it was just one or two things, obviously you could find that and say, hey, let’s fix this and move on, but it’s been a continuation of an error somewhere, or a mishap somehow.”
Clemson enters Saturday ranked 137th nationally in red-zone touchdown rate, with 11 touchdowns on 30 trips. Morris said the same mistakes keep showing up, and he used a first-and-goal at the 8 at Syracuse as an example, when the drive went backward on negative plays and a sack.
“We’re just not there yet to overcome a negative play, and so we’ve got to find a way to eliminate those negative plays when we get there.”
Morris also took some of the blame on himself.
“You always, as a play caller, come out of the game, each game, and go, man, I wish I had about four or five calls back, and that’s every game,” Morris said. “Field goals are great, but touchdowns are better.”
One of the more revealing parts of his press conference centered on Tait Reynolds and the way the freshman quarterback has grown. Early in the season, Morris said Reynolds was playing too cautiously.
“He was running afraid to make a mistake, and he was playing the game, he was playing the quarterback position afraid to make a mistake, and you know, and you can’t do that. You just can’t.”
Morris said he stayed up late one night watching Reynolds’ high school highlight tape, then called him at 10:30 p.m.
“I was literally up here one night after watching him run early in the year, and like, ‘This guy, wow. Let me watch his highlight film,’” Morris said.
“I picked up the phone, and I don’t know, it was 10:30 at night, and he was in bed, and I’m like, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ He goes, ‘I’m in bed, Coach.’
I said, ‘I’m watching somebody run around on a highlight tape who’s playing high school football in Arizona. Do you know who this guy is?’”
“And he starts laughing, and I’m like, ‘No, I’m not laughing. I’m being serious because I want to see you start running this way.’”
Morris said the approach with Reynolds has stayed steady since then.
“You got to take some of the kid gloves off of him, too, as a play caller, and just, hey, you’re going to make a mistake, let’s go make the mistake, but we can’t be afraid to call plays, we can’t be afraid to go out and execute,” Morris said.
That growth, he said, has shown up in more than just Reynolds’ legs. The quarterback is now comfortable speaking up when he doesn’t like a call.
“He feels more comfortable now being able to tell me, hey, coach, I don’t like that,” Morris said. “Hey, you don’t like it? I don’t like it then.”
“He is a tough kid. He is a tough, tough kid,” Morris said.
“His toughness makes us all better, and it just shows, especially, you know, some of our older guys that, hey, look, we got a freshman kid here doing it. Let’s everybody elevate their game.
Let’s rally around No. 2.
Let’s go.”
Morris added that Reynolds is now getting to his second and third reads in the passing game. “He’s got an incredible future ahead of him.”
At running back, Morris said Jarvis Green is the player he trusts most right now with Gideon Davidson hurt. He praised Green for the “dirty runs” that still move the offense forward when there isn’t much available.
“Jarvis has probably been one of the most consistent guys from a running back position,” Morris said. “He’s definitely a guy that will and needs to be more involved.”
Morris also addressed the drops from T.J. Moore, Bryant Wesco and Tyler Brown, stressing that the response after a mistake matters most.
“Drops are going to happen. Multiple drops may happen.
But at that point, it’s how does it affect the next play,” he said. “It’s okay to make a mistake, but it’s not okay to let that one mistake affect the next play or two plays later.”
He closed by returning to a message he’s been using with his quarterbacks all season, drawn from Ryan Holiday’s book The Obstacle Is the Way.
“The obstacle is the way. There’s no way around this, Tait. You have to go through this to get to where we want to get to.”
Clemson, 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the ACC, hosts Georgia Tech on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in Death Valley. It’s Senior Day, and the game will be on The CW.
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