Clemson may be going in a different direction offensively, but it’s one Kyle Richardson is familiar with.

Richardson’s role within the offense won’t change following Dabo Swinney’s decision to move on from Brandon Streeter and hire Garrett Riley as the Tigers’ new offensive coordinator. Swinney confirmed as much during Riley’s introductory press conference earlier this month.

Richardson will remain the passing-game coordinator, a role he served last season for Streeter. He also coaches Clemson’s tight ends. Richardson said Swinney had a certain way of telling him he would be pleased with Riley’s addition to the staff.

“Coach looked at me and said, ‘You’re about to be a pig in mud,’” Richardson said. “I’ve been the pig in mud, so it’s been fun and exciting.”

While Richardson said he hasn’t had many opportunities to chat with Riley to this point, he’s familiar with Riley’s background and philosophies, which are similar to Richardson’s.

Before Richardson was hired at Clemson as an off-field offensive assistant in 2016, he was building an in-state prep dynasty at Northwestern High in Rock Hill, where he used an air-raid system to push the tempo and pile up points. In five seasons as Northwestern’s head coach (2011-15), Richardson led the program to 58 wins, four region titles, three state championship game appearances and a pair of state titles. He was also the offensive coordinator during Northwestern’s 15-0 season in 2010.

It’s a system that’s similar to the one used by Riley, who played quarterback at Texas Tech under the late Mike Leach. Former SEC coach Hal Mumme and Leach are largely credited with bringing the air-raid offense mainstream in the late 1990s at Kentucky, where Mumme and Leach (then Mumme’s offensive coordinator) coached Tim Couch, whose 4,275 passing yards in 1998 stood as an SEC single-season record for more than two decades.

“For 13 years, that was the system I was in,” Richardson said. “I learned it from Coach Mumme and his son, Matt, 13 years ago.”

Riley has used bits and pieces of it during his stints as a play caller at SMU and, most recently, TCU, which finished ninth nationally in scoring, 15th in passing efficiency and 29th in total offense this past season in reaching the College Football Playoff. Richardson said the system isn’t as complicated to learn as one might assume.

“It doesn’t have a lot to it. It’s all about repping for greatness,” Richardson said. “And in order to rep for greatness, you can’t have a lot of stuff to do. That’s the beauty of it. We’ve got plenty of time to get it in. We’ve got plenty of time to get it in with coaches and get it in with the kids. And from there, we’ll go into spring ball and have some fun with it, start repping it and getting better at it.

“I just appreciate all the hard work and effort (Streeter) put into the program, but moving forward and looking to the future I’m super excited about the system and the direction we’re going.”

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