CLEMSON — Chad Morris isn't pointing at one thing. Asked Wednesday what's behind Clemson's red-zone struggles, the offensive coordinator spread the blame across the whole operation — his calls, the execution, the penalties and the 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 is 137th nationally in red-zone touchdown rate, 11 touchdowns on 30 trips, and Morris said the pattern keeps repeating itself. He pointed to a first-and-goal at the 8 at Syracuse that went backwards on negative plays and a sack, and said the offense isn't built yet to overcome that. "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."
He owns his share of it. "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."
The best story in the presser came when Morris talked about Tait Reynolds running the ball. Early in the year, he said, Reynolds was running afraid. "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."
So Morris stayed up late one night, pulled up Reynolds's high school highlight tape, and 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.'"
The message hasn't changed since. "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.
The growth is showing up in more than the running. Morris said Reynolds is now comfortable telling him 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 also said Reynolds is getting to his second and third reads in the passing game now. "He's got an incredible future ahead of him."
With Gideon Davidson hurt, Jarvis Green is the back Morris trusts most right now. "Jarvis has probably been one of the most consistent guys from a running back position," Morris said, praising the "dirty runs" where Green finds two, three, four yards when there isn't much there. "He's definitely a guy that will and needs to be more involved."
On the drops from T.J. Moore, Bryant Wesco and Tyler Brown this year, Morris preached a next-play mindset. "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."
Morris closed with the message he's been giving his quarterbacks all year, 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, 4-2 ACC) hosts Georgia Tech (2-7, 1-5) Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in Death Valley. It's Senior Day, and the game is on The CW.
