Is there anyone in these parts who is not impressed with Chad Morris?
Insert sound of crickets chirping.
It's my opinion that way too much is made of "winning the press conference," too much weight put on whether a coach's quotes sizzle or don't sizzle. It's all about winning and losing, and there's an assembly line of cardboard personalities (Saban, Belichick, Meyer, etc.) who have shown that what unfolds in front of the cameras is relatively irrelevant.
That said, you can learn a lot about a coach through extended sit-downs and interactions with the media jackals. Rob Spence was always pretty edgy and sensitive to any question that wasn't all sunshiny, and maybe that persona extended to his game-day comportment. Kevin Steele sometimes made defensive tactics sound like algebra or brain surgery, and maybe it wasn't a coincidence that his players sometimes seemed confused during his three years here.
In all the interviews Morris has conducted over the past year, I can't think of one time I didn't walk away impressed about his outlook and/or enlightened about his X's and O's or something else related to scheming.
From the beginning, Morris has said he's a straight shooter and he's not going to sugar-coat. That doesn't mean he's going to rip a guy publicly. It does mean he's not going to ignore or deny the truth, and many of you will probably agree that's a refreshing approach.
This program broke new ground last year by winning its first ACC title in 20 years and securing its first 10-win season in 21 years. A lot of impressive accomplishments, for sure. But every single person in that football office strives to take it to the next level, an elite level. Getting to that level is not easy. Getting there requires some self-scrutiny and some hard looks in the mirror even in the wake of success, and that's precisely the mentality Morris projects.
Another impressive part of his persona: He doesn't think he has all the answers. Morris is known as a rising star in this profession. He was pursued by Meyer. He runs a cutting-edge offense that has caught the fancy of a lot of people. It would be easy for him, or anyone in his position, to experience major ego inflation -- a sense that he and he alone is the keeper of all knowledge as it relates to successful offense.
But as Morris told us in the interview, he's always seeking to learn new methods. Always seeking confirmation or a refinement of his own methods. He took the staff to Nevada this offseason, and next offseason he'll take the staff somewhere else. It might even be a high school. In his eyes, nothing and no one is beneath him as he tries to make his own offense better. He built his current reputation on being curious and always considering new methods, and Clemson fans should be happy that the mentality is alive and well even though his methods are the envy of a lot of people.
Clemson fans should also feel good that one of the most respected defensive minds in college football, Bud Foster, is spending the offseason searching for ways to solve an offense that rang up 61 points on his bunch last year.
Missouri runs a spread offense. Is that something specifically you want to look at in terms of defending?
“Obviously we’re going to be playing Clemson again. I think at times we played the spread pretty well. We did in the bowl game, with the exception of a couple plays, but it’s getting different people’s thoughts. It looks like the ACC is kind of going that way with Larry Fedora coming in and instead of North Carolina being a two-back offense, it looks like they’ll be an up-tempo offense. That’s what Missouri is. So I’m curious to talk to them, how they defend their people too. Because their offense is all no-huddle, empty a guy out, motion a guy back in and different things that make you change your calls, even in mid-stream, or the kids have a lot of check-with-me calls. So I’m just curious to see how they game manage and things of that nature.
“And Dave Steckel, who is a good friend of mine, he’s the defensive coordinator at Missouri, he wants to pick my brain about game-planning and all those type of things too, because he’s only been a coordinator the last few years. So it’s just a guy that I trust and he trusts me and we can share ideas and know that that’s not going to, not that we have anything to hide, but he’s not going to get on the horn to his buddy at Clemson or something and say, ‘Hey, look, this is what they’re thinking about doing against y’all.’”
LW
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