Best Offensive Coordinators in Clemson History

locked on podcast Network your team every day what is up everybody welcome to another episode of the locked on Clemson podcast we're so glad you're joining us uh thanks so much for joining my name is John Biven I am your host here on the podcast you can give us a follow over at I am John Biven on X thanks so much for making lock on Clemson your first listen every day we are free and available wherever you get your podcast at and over on YouTube we are part of the lock on podcast now Network where it is your team every day and here on loton Clemson you're getting all sports you're getting all passion you're getting all the time here from us where we're bringing you everything you need to know regarding Clemson Athletics today is Thursday June 27th today we're going to talk about the best offensive coordinators in all of Clemson and if Garrett Riley will make that list we're going to talk about the best NBA players that have came from Clemson and we're going to end it with our everything what will we do every single week with our turbulent Thursdays uh we're so grateful for all of our spons but today we're grateful for Game Time today's episode is brought to you by the game time app download game time app now create an account use code locked on college for $2 off your first purchase terms apply and so before we get started on today's episode I did want to hop on and tell you one thing um I apologize I want to apologize to all of the listeners out there audio and visional yesterday I made two mistakes uh with and I misspoken two different things so I apologize for that uh one I said BR or Street was the uh defensive coordinator after um that we lost venables and that was incorrect I know it was West Godwin like I know that's our defensive coordinator right now um I said bernon Sher because we're putting it together this list talking about offensive coordinators and I was prepping for this episode yesterday before I recorded so it kind of uh messed up a little bit and so I apologize to that leeway happened I apologize that I misspoke um just slip of the Mind apologize about that and also apologize about the Notre Dame uh slip up I said we play Notre Dame this year we do not again just a slip of the tongue I'm looking at all the ACC schools and I slipped up so I do apologize want to make sure we correct those uh streer was offensive he was not defensive um West Goodwin is our defensive coordinator and we don't play Notre Dame so just wanted to correct that for you we want to make sure you are giving us your time joining us on this podcast we loved you and we are so appreciative of all of you for doing that uh we want to make sure that we're staying true and if we ever do misspeak and we ever do bring you information that isn't true um we'll correct that and so thank you for appreciating that hope you can accept that so what that does mean is every other take that we've ever said has to be true cuz we're not apologizing for it right Clemson is the toughest place to play uh in NCA football like I wouldn't I wouldn't uh lie to you about that I'm telling you the truth same with the ACC we're going to win the ACC this year be back in the college football playoff I wouldn't lie to you if I was lying to you I'd apologize right I'm I'm just I I tell you the truth that's all it is but no for real I did want to apologize to you about all of that um but let's get get jumping in today's episode we're going to start talking about the best offensive coordinators in Clemson history and if Garrett Riley can make that list and so we're just going to Dive Right In some of these names you've probably all heard of maybe you haven't but let's let you know a little bit more number five we're doing the top five number five of the best offensive coordinator of all time at Clemson is Rich Rodriguez uh he was there from 99 to 2000 he came uh with Tommy Bowden so Tommy Bowden came over and then shortly after our G guest followed him after helping Le toan to a 12-0 season uh so he came over and man he he jump started our offense immediately he when he started his first year as our offensive coordinator he increased our total yards per game by over almost a 100 yards we went from just over 300 to just over 400 yards per game offensively with Rich Rodriguez coming in leading it so he's number five he had some great he led some School uh Records back then he had some it doesn't have any he's lost now but he did set some school records it was great uh so yeah shout out to him he's our fifth best our fourth best is a little bit more recent Rob Spence he was known what Rob Spence his nickname was the mad scientist uh he came in and he improved he he was just as much almost as much as Rodriguez Rodriguez helped improve it by 100 yards well Rob Spence by almost 90 yards in his first year the reason that Rob Spence is higher than Rich Rodriguez if you're saying oh R Rodriguez improved by more why isn't he higher Rob smithz was here from 2005 to 2008 double the time that Rodriguez was so definitely there um in his time there was a couple years where they led the ACC in total offense and rushing offense um all different kinds of record uh he he helped them leaded like 2 200 rushing yards one year it was crazy his first three seasons there Clemson won 25 games uh and that that was the first the most they've won in the stretch in a long time so that's why he uh coming up at four is Rob Spence number three is Jimmy yok Jimmy Lok and his F he was here for three years way way way back in the 17 or 1970s um he came in he won 27 games in that time 27 games in three years uh led us to a good streak this was the offensive coordinator when Steve Fuller was there Steve Fuller was named ACC player of the year um and in 77 and Lok was his offensive coordinator he helped lead him helped lead him to be the amazing player that he was uh the year after he won Fuller one ACC Player of the Year again uh and again Lok was the offensive coordinator so that success that tandem right there between Lok and uh uh Steve Fuller got to be up there high number two most recent so far we've had on the list is Chad Morris Chad Morris came in and made it made a change so quickly like the Improvement that he brought um to Clemson offense was almost immediately like it was so quick he came in 2011 we won the AC championship ship that first year um in his tenure at Clemson they won 41 games and appeared in a bowl game in all of those two of them being BCS ball game so it was great again he set records just like everybody has he averaged over 40 points per game um the fir in the the in 2013 which was led by uh good old Chad Morris so that's why he's up there he led some he broke some records help this team reach new levels that they hadn't been to before um help promote them help lead them in areas that we hadn't seen before that and so that's why he is listed here at number two spot and the best offensive coordinator that we have had all time at Clemson University I'm kind of cheating here uh it is streer I'm just kid no I'm just kidding I'm not that he did not make the list nowhere near make the list he wouldn't have made top 10 um but CH kind of cheating here our number one best offensive coordinator that we've had is a tandem is a little two people coming together it is Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott as they co-coordinated from 2015 to 2019 that stretch was really what catapulted Clemson into being the national level program that they are Tony ellot Jeff Scott they were named right before the bowl game in 2014 um and they came together and Dabba put them together and they did amazing they co- teed together they LED them to two two national championships in 2016 and 2018 had great it helped recruit two of the best quarterbacks the two best quarterbacks that Clemson has had um they did absolutely amazing uh let him know the four in a single season like if you take four consecutive years uh for clms University that time year where they're there uh was the best years that Clemson has had offensively in so many different categories they were great with points they were great with yards with recruiting um it was great it was great to see the end so definitely by far 5 4 32 way up here is one with Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott so they're the best offensive coordinators of all time now we D Riley make that list I don't think so I I I don't know maybe the reason I say I don't think so is I think he's going to be great um I think he's going to create this momentum he's going to get this team back to doing what they can do what they are able to do but with that being said I don't know if he'll have the tenure there to put this together his first year here wasn't a huge success offensive coordinator right like our offense that was a hard spot last year you have the defense we had with a better offense we're dominating right um so his first year he's going to have to do a lot of stuff to outweigh that first bad year he had none of the other five names or six names that I read had a bad first year all five spots of those all five offensive coordinators six counting Tony ell and Jeff Scott doing it together but all five of them had amazing years from the beginning to the end like yeah of course you're going to have a down year if you're there for four or five years but he had a great first year Garrett Riley did not then let's let's say Garrett Ry turns it on let's say this year he becomes the guy we expected him to be that guy that he was at his last school um he comes in and he does that well even if he does that I think with his brother Lincoln rally being a very well-known head coach um already how well-known Garrett rally is I think he won't be at Clemson too long before another school Scoops in and offers him a head coach job especially in today's game we're not seeing a lot of coaches with long tenures um dabos Sweeny is one of the longest remaining but especially coordinators I don't think he'll stay there long enough to be able to make that list so with that being said I don't think he'll make that list he's definitely I definitely don't see him leading us to two national championships in four years that means two of the N three years he leads us to it um that'd be amazing if he did but he'd have to do that just to tie Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott um so yeah I I don't believe that that's there that is why I don't have him I don't think he'll be in our top five coordinators of all time but that's the list that's our opinion let us know your thoughts drop a comment hit us up on Twitter let us know what you think we're going to take a quick break and when we come back we're going to dive into some basketball cuz you know draft time's around so we'll see you in a second MLB is in full swing very little is better than game day at Clemson University but MLB games are right up there I love going to different ballparks and feeling the vibe and energy of the stadium my go-to place for tickets is the game time app game time is an authorized ticket seller for all MLB games and they're the easiest place to go to for all your ticket needs whether it's a so the advance or the day of prices with the game time app actually go down the closer it is the tip off with killer last minute deals all all in prices views from your seats and their lowest price guaranteed game time takes the guest work out of buying MLB tickets some of my favorite things about them are I love the fact you get 60% off when you're buying last minute tickets I also love the fact that every single seat you buy no matter what stadium has a panoramic view that you're able to see what you're going to see when you're in your seat before you buy the ticket take the guesswork out of buying lb tickets with Game Time download the game time app now today on the app store or Google Play and use code locked on College lck d o n c o l l e g for $20 off your first purchase terms apply and so now it's basketball season right like it's basketball it's not basketball season but it is basketball time these next couple of days with the draft happening uh round one was last night round two is today can't wait to hear PJ Hall's name called that's going to be so exciting um we're excited we're stoked about this we can't wait to see what happens there so we thought we'd keep this basketball energy Vibe going uh into uh today's episode and we want to do a segment talking about our five best Clemson players to play in the NBA of all time this is obviously not including uh Hunter Tyson because he's still in the NBA and he hasn't proven anything yet um but these are the five best alumni to play in the NBA and have a successful NBA career I am not saying the most talented basketball players if I was saying the most talented basketball players I'm going to let you know Skip Wise would make the list Skip Wise is probably the most talented player to ever play for Clemson basketball I'm not including that PJ Hall might make this list as well obviously he hasn't made it to the NBA so we can't put him there so this is not most talented Clemson players of all time this is the best NBA careers from a Clemson alumni of all time so with that being said we're going to give you our top five and Dive Right In number one or number five would be none other than the tree Rollins himself uh he spent 19 years in the NBA and scored almost 6,300 points he had a great career overall his percentage wise like he didn't light up the boards with anything or anything like that he averaged a total of 5.4 points a game 5.8 rebounds a game point6 assist and 52.2% uh from the line he's a center from Winter Haven Florida he had a decent year he played with Cleveland Detroit Houston Orlando uh he started ended his career in 1994 um but overall he had a decent career he ended up with over a thousand turnovers I don't know if he wanted me to say that but uh overall with rebounds he ended with 6750 so 6,750 um he had a great year or he had a good career solid career he's a name that everybody knows he was in the NBA he played well he is athletic he a big man um so yeah he comes in at number five for Clemson coming in at number four is none other than Dale Davis he spent 16 years in the NBA had 8,076 points Wally scored there Dell was a power forward from tcoa Georgia uh tcoa falls down there they got a beautiful college campus but he was a first round draft pick he was drafted in 1991 pick 13 from Indianapolis uh the or the Pacers he drafted him there um he played for them until the in 2000 where he went to Portland spent four years there oneyear stint with golden state went back to into Pacers for a year and then finished his career in 05 and ' 06 uh with Detroit he had a decent career he seen a little bit more average stats his career stats were eight points and almost eight rebounds almost a full assist and shot 53% from the line um excited to see that that was he had a good career he overall he had a really good career I was happy to see him he played there long he was in there 16 years so not as long as tree Rollins but he was a successful uh career really happy to see um just I love being able to watch him this is a player that I actually got to watch a little um tree Rollins I didn't get to watch uh but uh Dale Davis I remember watching him in the NBA I was born late 90s so I saw him in the NBA and my family knew that I was a Clemson fan uh early on and so they they kind of let me watch it they kind of let me uh stick through it that kind of stuff but it was cool it was cool to watch him uh when you break down their stats he averaged pretty well uh double digits for a while they there's a cool stat ESPN puts out that is points per 40 minutes and overall he had double digits in that from 1992 to 2002 and three so 11 years he averaged over to double digit scoring in the NBA like to see that so Dale Davis Falls in and number four number three none other than the Elden Campbell himself Elden was a good player he was a another Center another big man another first round draft pick he was drafted in 1990 uh round one picked 27 from the lake Lakers uh fun fact for Elden from 1990 to 2000 he was the leading LA Laker player in that decade so great player um he's from Clemson he's from Los Angeles California so he left California to come all the way to Clemson played a career a good career at Clemson and then went back to LA overall he averaged 10 points and five re or almost six rebounds a game 46% uh from the field he ended up playing a total of 15 years in the NBA scored almost 11,000 points had 10,800 points in his career so he had a good success um looking at those Advanced stats we talked about points or points per 40 minutes he was double digits his entire career except for 2004 and 2005 that was his last year he only averaged like 1.6 points but he did great His Highest he had was 0102 uh he finished with almost 20 points in that span 96 and 97 he had 18 points so he started off his first year he had 15 points for 40 minutes um so decided he had a good career really excited a lot of people might have him higher a lot of people might have Elden Campbell a little bit higher there but we have him at three on our list um we're going to take a quick break before we do that and I'm not a break as I add but I just want to say this some it's kind of exciting ain't it when I'm reading off these names I don't know about y'all but I get a little encouraged because it's like you hear about Clemson basketball and honestly the last 20 plus years uh 20 years we haven't really had a lot of NBA caliber players we Haden had a lot of people that really made some noise our basketball program got to a point where it was mediocre and now it's starting on the upcoming um but I just like going through this list and some of you are like why are we even talking about this and it's because it's encouraging to hear this we just talked about a guy who played in the leag for almost 20 years and he averaged double digits a game for a while or per 40 40 minutes for a long time for the majority almost all of his career and that was just the third best so I'm doing this just to kind of bring a spark to say PJ Hy on the NBA let's see hopefully he can make a good impact hopefully can we can see a player play competitive basketball in the NBA make a real difference getting some real minutes from Clemson for the first time since the booker Brothers KJ McDaniels did for a little bit Blossom game only played one year it really didn't get play play a lot but um so it just that's why I'm doing this it's encouraging and I hope they can encourage you as well number two is horse Grant horse Grant's my favorite n NBA player from Clemson not favorite basketball player from Clemson my favorite basketball player from Clemson is damont sit uh but horse Grant is the second best in our opinion he spent 17 years in the NBA had 12,996 points he was drafted another first run draft pick in 87 Pick 10 with Chicago and he played in Chicago 88 through 94 um played where got to play with Michael Jordan a little bit so that's cool um got to win a champion win that ring uh so I love to see that love to see with Clemson with a n or NBA national or championship ring um but he played with Chicago from 98 to 94 Orlando 94 to 99 Seattle for one year Lakers for one year Orlando two more years and then finished his career in 04 with the Lakers um he had a good gear overall he averaged 11.2 points per game 8.1 rebounds per game two assists and shot 50% from the field he was a big man a horse Grant he's he's a monster he was a big man uh like to see that per 40 minutes he was double digits in all of his game years for per 40 minutes except for two 1990 and 2000 he only had nine points and then his last year only had eight points but other than that he was double digits and he was consistent uh from 88 to 89 or 80 or 88 to 98 he was in that 13 14 15 range hitting 16 twice uh 2000 like we said dropped off and then M early 2000s in doubles was 11 and 12 so he had a successful career he's number two and and the best player to play in the NBA from Clemson is none other than Larry Nance no this is not Larry Nance Jr from Cleveland this is his daddy uh he was a great player he's from Anderson South Carolina was drafted in 1981 20th overall pick to Phoenix he had a really good career in the NBA he only played for 14 years so he had the lowest uh tenure out of all this list but he in those 14 years he scored 15,682 points highest scoring player in the NBA from Clemson uh he had a great career in the NBA he scored 17 points per game eight rebounds 2.6 assist and shot almost 55% from the line uh he had a really good career he's one that people don't remember him a lot um but they should he played well from 82 to 87 he played with Phoenix spent one year with Cleveland in 88 or sorry he got traded to Cleveland the middle of 88 and then spent from 89 to 94 in Cleveland that's why was a big deal Larry n Jr playing in Cleveland kind of had that uh oh the symbolic feel your dad played here you play here too so that was cool to see um but yeah he had a great year uh he had a great career he's one of he should be talked about so much more he should get more recognition than what he does get when you go to Advanced stats he is the only one that hit 20 points and he never drifted below uh 20 points when you go or 20 or below 10 points when you look at points per 40 minutes he started his career rookie year 17 points8 hit 20 points from 84 to 87 and he was back and forth between 19 and 20 until 93 where he went 18 and his last year in 94 had 16 His Highest in that period was 87 he had 24 points per 40 minutes that year uh he also had 10 point or turn 10 rebounds per per 40 minutes that year and he hit that stat a couple different times so by far Larry Nance is the best player to play at Clemson University in the NBA and have a successful NBA career so that's our list let us know your thoughts who do we miss who would you put on that list remember it's not most talented from Clemson it's best NBA career from Clemson so would you change up our list do you agree with us do you disagree let us know in the comments or on Twitter we're going to take one last break when we come back we're going to wrap up with our turbulent Thursday we'll see you in a second and here we are back on the locked on Clemson podcast all so turbulent Thursday what that is and if you're new here here's what it is every day of the week we try to have a regular segment that we in the show with just so you know what to expect just so you know what you're getting um we go through Monday we have momentum Monday where we talk about what's happening are we have good momentum bad momentum indiff what's going on with Clemson Sports uh after a game if basketball's playing and PJ Hall had a great great game a career setting points and we'd be talking about PJ Hall's momentum and what he's done the past five games and what we expect going forward in football season if we drop a game to Georgia and we get blown out by Georgia week one not going to happen but if it does that's not going to have good momentum for the rest of the year so we'll talk about what that loss might mean uh so that's what it is T Tuesday we have tracking Tuesday where we go through and we talk about what the recruits are doing what what's happening what recruits are going where uh what What's the latest Buzz with our prospects our recruits that we're trying to get Wednesday is our worried Wednesday you can check out yesterday's episode for that we just highlight some topics that Clemson fans are worried about and talk about what we can do about it what we need to see Friday's Flashback Friday that's our shortest one we just go through and we talk about stuff that happened on that date important things in Clemson history Thursday is probably one of my favorites it is turbulent Thursday and this is where we go through and we just dive into some hot takes we go through and we talk about some hot takes that people are saying on Twitter or Internet or in person or all over the place and we just go through and we dive into these hot takes and talk about what they really are and so the first one we going to talk about this is going to be a short one because of how ridiculous it is uh I don't know if you'all heard about it but Texas A&M's coach is in un is on fire right now he is uh their head baseball coach um has recently agreed to sign with Texas University um and be their head baseball coach so he is leaving a program that just got to the College World Series the finals in the World Series um lost that uh but he's leaving that program to go to 10 Texas and the rumor is is that he made that deal before the Regionals or before the Super Regionals so which isn't allowed that's not okay like especially to lead your team and not say it so he's under water right now people are attacking him and it brought up the conversation somehow on Twitter where people are now saying that Eric bage is going to leave Clemson the coach from Clemson who just in the Super Regional lit the crowd up showed so much emotion talks every single interview about how he loves Clemson University how he loves the players how he loves the environment How He Loves coaching with his friend Jack leet that coach people are saying now that he's going to leave Clemson this year ridiculous that is a terrible hot take you can watch any I'm not even going to spend a lot of time on this because you can watch any interview with him and you'll hear how much he loves Clemson he's not going anywhere he's coming back he's going to be in there for a while uh I could see him retiring with us the fans love him University loves him Graham nef our athletic director loves him he's not going anywhere so that's a hot take that we're not even that's not even hot take that's just a dumb take uh he's not going anywhere the second thing we want to talk about and we spent some time talking about this yesterday is EA Sports put out their hardest places to play on their new game college football's coming out next year or next month uh July 16th if you pre-ordered it 19th if you didn't and they put out their list of their top 25 hardest stadiums to play in on the game and it's supposed to represent the hardest places to play in uh Act real life Clemson came in at 12th on that list and so if you didn't catch that go listen to yesterday's episode we started the show uh talking about uh um it might have been two days ago but we started the show talking about uh what our list was who we thought Clemson should be number one but the hot take that I'm talking about is I've heard so many people talk about this list and honestly the hot take is the list itself because here's the problem I was talking to a good buddy of mine Michael Craver from Duke Blue Central check out his podcast if you're a Duke fan if you're a Duke fan watching this hey welcome to Clemson come join us uh but I was talking to him about it and I think the problem is this there's I don't know what they went to measure the stats and to measure uh what they measured the hardest stadiums to be if they did it on winning percentage there's no way a Texas A&M is won they went on winning percentage at Home Alabama is the best Clemson is a close second since 2014 since the playoffs were tied for first with Alabama so there's no way that they went on winning percentage if they win on Vibe alone some of the most viby stadiums in the nation uh yeah Texas A&M is up there that's why they got one Tennessee with nean Stadium if you've never been to a night game it don't matter who they're playing go to that the crowd is electric that Vibe is a vibe that is on fire it is a crazy Vibe another one Virginia Tech inner Sandman is nationally known one of the best entrances of all football they didn't make the top 15 it's so if you're do on viable alone how is Tennessee 12 how is Virginia Tech not up there how is so that doesn't make sense and if you're like Clemson does have a big Vibe all right well we got 12 so on that list maybe that made sense if you're going on based on solely uh how loud it gets okay if you're going on how loud it gets all right I get that you know who what stadium has had the loudest football game in the stadium it's organ they had 130 Deb one time according to a website according to an artic calls reading Oregon has the Lou game that has ever that has happened in recent years but yet Oregon was like number 10 so I don't understand I don't understand what vibe they're going with I don't understand what they're hitting what they were measuring their takes on what they were measuring this list on because it feels like it's all over the place if it's winning percentage perfect well Alabama was two why is tanium one if it's Vibe why is Alabama two they should be lower why is neand Stadium of Tennessee 12 or 13 I I don't understand that Clemson is 12 right there if you average all the stats together if you average winning percentage uh attendance that's another thing we haven't talked about is it attendance if that's the case all that stats is jacked up because there's so many other larger stadiums than what was listed so if it's attendance then it's not right if it's Vibe the list isn't right if it's winning percentage the list isn't right if you average all three of those or all four of those together Clemson averages at like seven or eight if you put all those stats together why are we 12 I don't understand what their measures on so the hot take is to have a list at all don't put out a list if you're not going to say what you based it on because a list without basing it on anything is just a list of it's it's just a bunch of names and schools on a piece of paper so the hot take is don't trust that list don't take that list to Heart the list that EA Sports put out because it doesn't matter if you want a real list go to the list we put out on our episode when we talked about it we base that on the vibe and winning percentage put together because at the end of the day if you're winning at your home it's a hard place to play um but there's also the factor of do fans still show up when the team isn't good Virginia Tech yes Alabama we don't know right there there's so much different play FSU definitely not so there's so much things to say there's so many arguments to have that list is just a booty list it was something to put out there just to for people to talk about so that would be the hot take and with that all that being said we're going to wrap up this edition of the lock on Clemson podcast with that later on this week tomorrow we're going to dive into more football so make sure you join us there hey let us know your thoughts on today's topics let us know your thoughts on everything we talked about over on Twitter uh or you can let us know a comment over on YouTube we'd love to have a conversation with you about that if you haven't make sure you're subscribed to this podcast wherever you're podcast at and if you're watching us over on YouTube hit that big red button for us that way every single day this can be your first listen here on the locked on Clemson podcast we can't wait to see you on tomorrow's episode but until then keep that tiger Pride alive and roaring and as always go Tigers e