3 Clemson Tigers who should be benched, blamed or fired after loss to NC State

The Garrett Riley experiment has gone wrong and needs to be aborted

Everyone and their brother praised Clemson's hiring of former TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley to replace the ineffective Brandon Streeter this past offseason. As it turns out, those Horned Frogs caught lightning in a bottle in the form of The Hypnotoad. Actually, it might have been Max Duggan being a damn good college football player, but nobody associated with that team is shining.

I don't know if Clemson has the cajones to fire Riley after one season, but the Tigers did pull the rug out from Streeter after only one year taking over for Tony Elliott, now doing whatever he does for the Virginia Cavaliers. Simply put, we are getting a lesser version of the Lincoln Riley offense with his younger brother because the Tigers do not have a game-changing quarterback like Caleb Williams.

No matter how you slice it, pairing Riley with Klubnik under Swinney's watch has not worked out thus far. Clemson could conceivably turn the corner, win three of its last four games and get to something like 8-5 with a bowl game victory. However, I am counting the Notre Dame game as a loss before kickoff begins, and I have a sneaking suspicion either Tech, UNC or South Carolina will beat them, too.

Riley can have success as an offensive coordinator, but he may need to go to an ascending program.