Still in the Growth Phase: Chad Morris on Offense, Tempo, and Staying Ahead

Editor's Note: This is from an interview with Chad Morris earlier this fall after Virginia knocked off FSU.

Former Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris has always been at the forefront of offensive innovation. Now, while watching his son Chandler shine at Virginia, he’s still keeping a close eye on where the game is headed.

In a recent conversation, Morris explained why tempo and personnel variety are becoming the defining traits of successful offenses — and how staying creative is what keeps a program in what he calls the growth cycle of football.

“You look at football, you look at a program — you’re constantly trying to make sure you stay in the growth cycle and avoid the plateau,” Morris said. “Plateau is complacency — ‘this is the way we’ve done it, and I’m not going to deviate or change.’ Once you get in that plateau, the decline is coming quick. And very few people are able to pull it out of decline mode before it goes to death mode.”

For Morris, the challenge is to keep an offense from ever becoming stagnant. That means constantly re-evaluating, adjusting, and finding new ways to evolve.

“There are two ways to stay in a growth cycle in any business,” he said. “Number one, you have to reinvent yourself every year — self-reflect, what did we do good, what did we do bad, how can we coach better, evaluate talent better, evolve with trends. And number two, you have to reinvest — not just financially, but reinvest in your program, go all in on doing things a new way.”

That reinvention, Morris said, is no longer just about how fast a team plays.

“It’s still the ability to play with tempo,” Morris said. “But tempo isn’t just playing fast all the time. It’s the ability to change the flow of the game — to do it in 12 personnel, that’s one back, two tight ends; 10 personnel, one back, no tight ends; or 11 personnel — but to be able to change personnel groupings and still play with tempo.”

He pointed to several programs that are successfully using those ideas right now.

“You’re seeing that — you watch Ohio State, you’re seeing it. You watch Virginia each week — they’re playing with 12 personnel, they’re playing with 10, they go to 11, and they’re mixing their tempo up left and right,” he said. “It’s really keeping people off balance instead of playing fast all the time.”

Morris added that Ohio State and Oregon are among the programs pushing the tempo-personnel balance forward.

“Ohio State is doing that. Oregon is doing that,” he said. “Several programs are mixing tempo.”

Staying in that growth cycle isn’t just about scheme — it’s also about humility and curiosity.

“It chips at your ego at times,” Morris said. “You have to leave your ego at the door, because you think, ‘Well, I’ve been doing this and it’s been working, why would I change?’ But you have to ask, ‘Yeah, it’s working, but can we do it better? Is somebody else doing it better?’”

That mindset defined much of his tenure at Clemson, where he and Dabo Swinney regularly sought opportunities to exchange ideas with other programs.

“Being with Coach Swinney, we were always adamant about getting other staffs together who were like-minded but did things differently, and sharing knowledge,” Morris recalled. “We’d say, ‘What are they doing really good? What are we doing really good?’ and we’d do crossover — you share a little, I share a little.”

Those collaborations took the Clemson staff across the country, trading insights with some of the game’s best minds.

“One year A&M, us, and Ohio State all went to Ohio State and shared knowledge for three or four days,” he said. “We took our staff out to Arizona State when Norvell was there — of course, I’d worked for Todd Graham, so we had a great connection. We spent time with Coach Ault in Nevada when he was running the pistol offense — that was cutting edge — and you know what, we picked up some really good stuff along the way that helped us evolve and stay on the cutting edge.”

Football’s growth cycle mirrors life — a constant process of reflection and renewal.

“Each year you reflect, see what’s happening, and evolve with it,” he said. “That’s how you stay in the growth cycle.”

Even now, while following Chandler’s breakout performances at Virginia, Morris remains as analytical and forward-thinking as ever about where the sport is headed — and how to stay ahead of the curve.