As June reaches its second half, the focus shifts a bit to football.
SEC Media Days kicks off in five weeks, and LSU reports to fall camp a little over a week later. It’s not that far off. Over the next two weeks, we’ll take a look at every team on LSU’s schedule for three off-season talking points.
That, of course, begins with Dabo Swinney’s Clemson squad which will return LSU’s trip to the Palmetto State from last Labor Day Weekend.
Circumstances have changed significantly in Baton Rouge since then, and they have for Swinney’s program, as well. Ironically, that’s because so much has stayed the same.
College Gameday will broadcast from LSU that morning, and the eyes of the nation will be watching the beginning of an era on one sideline that night. What about the end of another?
MORRIS MAKES RETURN
Many are saying Swinney is heading backwards as the rest of college football moves forward. Swinney just believes he’s bringing back the most productive offensive coordinator he’s ever had.
Maybe both are true.
Chad Morris returns as the offensive coordinator where he set records from 2011 to 2014 directing the Tahj Boyd-led offense at Clemson. Over his four seasons as Clemson’s OC, Morris’s offenses averaged 36.3 points and 468.5 yards per game. At the time, Clemson and Art Briles’s Baylor attacks were the only programs nationally to boast a 3,000 yard passer, a 1,000 receiver and a 1,000 rusher every year from 2011-2013.
Boyd broke the ACC touchdown record, and Clemson produced 14 offensive draft picks.
Then Morris spread his wings and flew the comfort of Clemson. He became the head coach at SMU for three years before a disastrous run at Arkansas that didn’t last through the second season. He failed to win an SEC game with the Hogs. Auburn was the next stop during the pandemic season of 2020, and since he’s bounced around from the Texas high school ranks to an analyst roll with USF, back to Clemson then on to Texas State.
Last season he took time off to watch his son quarterback Virginia.
Morris hasn’t called college plays for five years. Can he help a Clemson offense that was 72nd nationally and 11th in the ACC in scoring? That’s the hope.
EXPORT/IMPORT
Talent wasn’t the problem at Clemson last fall.
Swinney’s program sent nine players into the NFL Draft, and all nine went in the top five rounds. Blake Miller (OT) and Peter Woods (DT) went in the first round, and TJ Parker (EDGE) and Avieon Terrell (CB) were taken in the second.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik is also gone.
Most of the top tier programs including LSU have taken to the transfer portal to replace production in many cases. Clemson is still slow to that process. Swinney’s program only took 10 transfers this offseason, and ESPN did not rank a single one in the Top 100 newcomers. Rivals did not rank any of the newcomers as a four-star.
Swinney continues to bet on his high school recruiting and development. Rivals also has not ranked a Clemson high school class in the top 10 over the last four years.
VIZZINA’S VERSION
Klubnik played 49 games over four years at Clemson. He threw for more than 10,000 yards and accounted for 90 touchdowns. He’s Clemson’s school record holder for completions and is third all-time in passing.
He moves on, and Christopher Vizzina becomes the guy. As you might imagine in Swinney’s program, Vizzina has waited his turn. He’s a fourth-year junior without significant starting experience which really doesn’t happen anywhere else (except at LSU with Garrett Nussmeier).
Vizzina has played in 14 games. He’s 64-for-105 (61%) and has thrown for 596 yards and four scores. He started one game a season ago against SMU and completed 29-of-42 passes for 317 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
He was a four-star recruit in the Class of 2023.
Tiger Stadium will be quite the place to take over the reins of an offense for the first time. Vizzina has a terrific pedigree and is not young. Same could be said for his offensive coordinator. But Labor Day Weekend will be important for both of them in their new roles.
