Kyle Richardson is entering his first season as Clemson’s passing game coordinator and tight ends coach.

On Tuesday, Richardson detailed his perspective on the coaching transitions for the Clemson offense and how he sees the Tigers’ offensive schemes becoming more streamlined this upcoming season.

Question: People may look at the staff roster and say there are new guys all over the place, but for you guys, it seems like you are working around people you have been working around for a while for everybody. That has to be a good feeling?

Richardson: “You know, I’ve been here seven years and I’m going on my seventh season, and the guys that I’m working with as position coaches… Tyler Grisham, I have worked with in some capacity for seven years. I’ve known CJ Spiller since he was running down that hill because I was in the stadium watching. So, I feel like I’ve known CJ forever, but I’ve got a great relationship with Spiller. I have worked with (Brandon) Streeter for seven years in some capacity and I knew Streeter before that when I was a head coach and he was recruiting for Clemson. Thomas (Austin), I’ve been with Thomas for five out of the seven years, because we would take our families to FCA camp in the years he was not here, so it kept our relationship going. All the support staff, they have been here, whether they’ve been here for a year or two or longer. So, for us, it has all been easy transitions, but on the outside, it looks like it all has been hitting the fan and where is it falling? And for us, it’s just like I need you to move to that seat and that seat, but we are all moving to the same seats in the same room, just at a different table.”

Q: In the spring you introduced some new receiving concepts and passing game concepts. When you went back and analyzed it, what did you find and do you think you will continue to use some of those things in the fall?

Richardson: “For us, we didn’t want to throw the offense away or design a new offense. Did we fall on some hard times? Yes. We have to get better, but for us, it was not just starting back from scratch. With Coach (Chad) Morris being here when he was here and Jeff (Scott) and Tony (Elliott) kind of taking it, what happens is it can kind of become a hodgepodge because everyone is bringing new ideas to the table and they kind of dump on top of one another, and I think that’s when me and Streeter sat down and thought what kind direction do we want to go now. Him as the offensive coordinator and me as the passing coordinator, it was like let’s just clean up some things. Let’s look at things we don’t do anymore or haven’t done in years and let’s put them to the side and let’s get a core group of passing concepts we do a bunch or we need to do more. Let’s focus on that. Our offense hasn’t changed, our passing hasn’t changed. Have we tweaked some things within core concepts? Yes. But at the end of the day, we haven’t changed our passing game, we haven’t incorporated a new passing game. […]”

Richardson went on to discuss the streamlined approach to the offense and how that will impact the tempo of the offense in the upcoming season when it comes to efficiency and effectiveness. Richardson discussed the importance of shaping the guy’s mentality and ability to think “fast” pre-snap to be able to diversify the options post-snap. He believes this will be a pivotal point in the offense’s effectiveness this season.

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