Kyle Richardson suddenly finds himself near the forefront.
One of Clemson’s new on-field assistants, Richardson spent the last six years working quietly in the background as a support staffer and senior offensive assistant with the program. Now, with Tony Elliott off to Virginia, he’ll coach Clemson’s tight ends.
But that’s not all.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney promoted Brandon Streeter to be Elliott’s successor as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator. Streeter will continue coaching quarterbacks, but the passing-game coordinator role he also held previously has been passed to Richardson, who oversaw some of South Carolina’s most prolific high school offenses during a highly successful five-year tenure as the head coach at Rock Hill’s Northwestern High before joining Clemson’s staff in 2016.
“Obviously my background is an offensive background, and it’s a passing background being at Northwestern and having those quarterbacks we had and the receivers we had,” Richardson said earlier this month during Clemson’s national signing day radio show. “We kind of threw it around. And Coach (Swinney) knows that, and that’s kind of where that came from.”
As Clemson’s passing-game coordinator, Richardson has no small task in trying to rejuvenate an offense that was statistically as subdued as any the Tigers have had under Swinney.
With a first-year starting quarterback in D.J. Uiagalelei, Clemson ranked 103rd nationally this past season in passing (191.2 yards per game) and matched Boston College and Syracuse for the fewest plays of 20 yards or more in the ACC. Uiagalelei finished with the second-lowest completion rate of any starter in the league (55.6%), and no receiver had more than three touchdown receptions.
Star receiver Justyn Ross is off to the NFL while Frank Ladson Jr.(Miami) and Ajou Ajou (South Florida) have transferred, but there’s still talent on the roster out wide. Joseph Ngata and E.J. Williams should be back to full strength as early as this spring after dealing with injuries late last season. Beaux Collins is also returning after ending up with the second-most receptions on the team as a true freshman. Dacari Collins and Troy Stellato are other youngsters the coaching staff is high on at the position.
Richardson is familiar with the Tigers’ personnel, which includes Davis Allen, Clemson’s third-leading receiver last season as a tight end. He’s also familiar with Streeter having worked behind the scenes with him for the last six years, which Richardson said will help moving forward.
“We’ve got a great working relationship,” Richardson said. “The good thing about it is that he was the passing-game coordinator. So now him stepping into the offensive-coordinator role and me being the passing-game coordinator, I can look at him and go, ‘All right, what did you do? What did you like and what did you not like about the role you had as passing-game coordinator?’ And then we can kind of build off of that.
“I’ve got to support Streeter, and I’ve got to be there for what he needs because he’s the offensive coordinator. And then my job is to make sure I’m there, I’m giving him ideas and I’m bringing stuff to the table.”
Richardson said he’ll be working closely with Streeter and Swinney to come up with an air attack that everyone is on board with. That begins in earnest next week when Clemson begins spring practice.
“At the end of the day, whatever we’re going as a group, that’s what we’ve go to go out and do,” Richardson said. “Whether it’s my passing game or whether it’s Streeter’s or whether it’s Coach’s, whatever it is, we’ve got to put the best plan together. Then all of us have got to be on the same page to teach it and then for those (players) to go execute it.”
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