A big part of following college football these days is reading between the lines.
In this era, coaches are much more reluctant than in the past to publicly say what they're thinking -- and that's just the coaches who are allowed to speak publicly.
Coaches don't want to provide bulletin-board material for their opponents. They also don't want to provide hyperventilating material for their own fans. An increasing number of them take great pains to be as bland as possible, and to urge their players to be as bland as possible as well.
And as biased as I am in favor of my profession and the desire for great quotes that fill up the notebook, it's hard to blame them. In many ways, it's a smart approach to take.
That brings us to Clemson's current situation at quarterback, and Chad Morris' view of it. Morris hasn't come out and said he's uncomfortable with what he has in his three scholarship quarterbacks (Tajh Boyd, Cole Stoudt, Tony McNeal), but his recent actions on the recruiting trail indicate some misgivings.
By my count -- and I could be missing someone here -- Morris has offered 11 QBs for the 2012 class and one for the 2013 class. He is traveling far and wide in search of quarterbacks, prompting some folks on the message board to wonder whether he has a few body doubles because it seems as if he's in multiple places at once.
I'm no recruiting guru. Ryan and Cris do an excellent job at that, and I stay out of it. But even from the outside looking in, it catches your attention that Morris is pursuing quarterbacks so actively when he has three quarterbacks on scholarship, and another (Morgan Roberts) on the way.
Clemson appears to be in good position to nab Chad Kelly, yet Morris is still out there offering an assortment of quarterbacks. It would stand to reason that Morris is intent on taking two quarterbacks for the 2012 class, though we don't know that for sure.
So by my math, Clemson could conceivably have six quarterbacks on scholarship come August of 2012.
The urgency with which Morris is searching for quarterbacks is surprising; Cris has said that in January, after Morris was hired, he had no idea the new coordinator would be in such heavy pursuit of signal-callers.
So what does this say about Morris' appraisal of the quarterbacks already in Clemson? We know Morris was impressed during the spring with Boyd's ability to be a running threat in his system, but we also know Morris was not impressed with Boyd's footwork, decision-making and struggles protecting the football.
Morris has not said as much about Stoudt and McNeal, but you have to think he likes Stoudt's long-term potential given that he's been schooled all his life on football from his father, a former NFL quarterback.
The educated speculation here is that Morris knows he entered a tenuous situation at Clemson and knows there's major pressure to win right now. The quarterback is what makes this offense go -- more so than in other systems, I would submit -- and Morris knows that's the key to unleashing the pyrotechnics we've seen at Tulsa, Auburn and a few other places.
What makes this subplot more interesting is Dabo Swinney's apparent conviction that Boyd is going to flourish in this offense. The coach expressed very little apprehension about Boyd during the spring.
“He’s going to be really good,” Swinney said in March. “I’m not worried about Tajh. He’s going to make some mistakes. … If you’ve got a guy that’s enthusiastic about learning and getting better every single day, with the skill set he has, he’s going to be a good player. I’m excited about him.”
After the spring game, Swinney said Boyd was the clear starter.
“We need him to be on fire when he shows back up” in August, Swinney said. “Because it’s going to be a special year for him.”
Then again, recent history indicates what Swinney says publicly can be different from what he’s thinking privately. For almost all of December, he said almost nothing to let on that he made the decision to go in a different direction on offense. And, as we documented in the story that will be on the front page in a few minutes, Swinney's first call to Morris came at least a week before the Tigers' bowl game against South Florida.
How many quarterbacks will the Tigers have on scholarship in 2012 and 2013? What does Morris think of his current quarterbacks on the roster, and is Swinney's appraisal different?
We can only speculate, but the plot certainly has thickened with every new quarterback offer that's gone out.
LW
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