Kyle Richardson was going to get a delayed start to his first on-field coaching job at Clemson.
At least that was the plan.
After former offensive coordinator Tony Elliott took the head coaching job at Virginia in early December, Richardson was promoted to coach the Tigers’ tight ends, a position Elliott coached. Richardson had held multiple off-field titles during his first six seasons on Dabo Swinney’s staff, including senior offensive assistant and director of player development.
There was just one problem: Richardson was fresh off corrective back surgery at the time, an operation that kept him from sitting “for a long time,” he said.
“The timing of it was terrible,” Richardson recently recalled during Clemson’s national signing day radio show. “It was probably Week 4 or Week 5 (of the season), and the doctor said, ‘You need back surgery.’ I was like, ‘I need an option B because I’ve got to get through the season.’ I went through the season, and it was terrible. By the South Carolina game, I was barely walking.”
After finishing the regular season 9-3 with a runner-up finish to Wake Forest in the ACC’s Atlantic Division, Clemson earned a berth to the Cheez-It Bowl in late December. Richardson wasn’t going to be able to coach in his first game in his new position as he recovered.
Or so he thought.
Swinney promoted Thomas Austin, then an off-field staffer, to be the interim tight ends coach in Richardson’s absence, but Austin contracted COVID-19 during the team’s bowl preparations in Orlando, the site of the game.
“Thomas has got to go home, and we go to about option D at that point,” Richardson said.
Richardson was just a fews weeks into his recovery at the time, but he said Clemson had just one practice left before the game. So he talked to his doctor and Swinney about scratching the original plan and coaching in the bowl game with certain stipulations.
“The biggest thing with my doctor was you can’t put yourself in position to be bumped into,” Richardson said. “At that point, I was under about a six-week deal of no bending, lifting, twisting, those types of things. I called him, and I was like, ‘If I just stay in the press box and just stay out of trouble, can I just go ahead and take over this job now?’ And he was like, ‘Do the press box and stay off the sidelines.’ At that point, I talked to coach (Swinney), and that’s kind of what we did.”
Richardson said it’s the first time he’s ever coached from a press box in his 21-year coaching career, which includes a successful stint as a South Carolina high school coach. He spent five seasons as the head coach at Northwestern (Rock Hill) High, leading the program to two state championships before taking his first job at Clemson in 2016.
More than two months removed from the operation, Richardson has made significant progress in his recovery. To the point that he anticipates being able to coach his position group like normal once spring practices begin next month.
“I can sit now, and I feel good,” he said. “I’m excited not only to take over this new position but have no back pain.”
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