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DeAndre Hopkins calls recent Clemson offenses 'horrible,' praises hire of Chad Morris

IMG_6598by: Nick Kosko01/28/26nickkosko59

DeAndre Hopkins could go down as a Hall of Famer one day and he can credit his development to his Clemson days. But as of late, the Clemson offenses haven’t been up to snuff, particularly when Hopkins played for the Tigers and when Dabo Swinney and crew were winning national championships.

In fact, it’s been “horrible,” per Hopkins. That’s why he was thrilled they hired Chad Morris as the new offensive coordinator. Morris previously coached Clemson as the OC from 2011-14 before taking the head coaching jobs at SMU and Arkansas over the next five seasons.

“You know, I’ll be honest. I grew up in Clemson, so I can say this, but it’s been horrible,” Hopkins said on Pardon My Take. “It’s been terrible. You know, I’m happy that they got back to the basics, bringing Chad Morris back in, the guy who evolved the Clemson offense to where we were averaging 30, 35 points. They brought Chad Morris back this year, if you guys didn’t know that, So I’m happy that we kind of got back to the basics, and, you know, that kind of offense, but it’s been terrible, man. It’s horrible.”

Morris took this past year off from coaching while his son, Chandler, played quarterback at Virginia. It marks a return to Clemson after he served as an analyst with the Tigers in 2023 and was the program’s offensive coordinator from 2011-14.

Following his first stint at Clemson, Morris became the head coach at SMU, where he took the program from a 2-10 record in 2015 to a 7-5 mark in 2017. From there, he headed to Arkansas from 2018-19, where struggled en route to a 4-18 record before his departure.

Auburn then hired Morris as offensive coordinator in 2020 and he returned to his roots as a high school football coach at Allen (TX) in 2021. He spent two years as an analyst after that – one at USF and another at Clemson – from 2022-23. Most recently, he served as Texas State’s wide receivers coach and pass game coordinator in 2024.

On3’s Pete Nakos reported Chad Morris as a name to watch in Clemson’s offensive coordinator search after announcing Garrett Riley would not return. The Tigers struggled in 2025 despite entering the year with high expectations. Their 392.2 yards per game ranked tied for eighth in the ACC while their 27.2 points on average ranked 11th out of 17 teams. That led Swinney to announce a change.