CLEMSON -- If Garrett Riley ends up getting Clemson's offense back in the fast lane, Greg McElroy will be able to say he was present for the final chokes and sputters of the old machine.

Yes, the Tigers put up a bunch of yards and piled up first downs that night in the Orange Bowl.

But they reached the end zone one time, which happened to be the same number of trips the 2021 offense took in the Cheez-It Bowl end zone a year earlier against Iowa State.

And even when the end of the first half against Tennessee was known for a game-management debacle by a freshman quarterback, another element was McElroy, on the ESPN broadcast, wondering why the offensive staff had seemingly forgotten about its running backs.

When the TV color guy and even fans are picking up on such a bizarre trend before the coaches, you have problems that all those yards and first downs can't obscure. You have problems that go further and deeper than DJ Uiagalelei, who was long gone by then.

A few weeks removed from covering that game, McElroy visited with Tigerillustrated.com to discuss the most jolting coaching move of Dabo Swinney's entire head-coaching tenure.

Yeah, Swinney has fired coaches before. But getting rid of a celebrated alum (Brandon Streeter) who had one year to run the offense, and replacing him with the hottest assistant out there?