CLEMSON -- We've spent the past few months thinking, talking and writing quite a lot about the offensive refresh underway at Clemson under Garrett Riley.

It's been logically and reasonably compared to the reboot that took place in 2011 under Chad Morris.

Yet the passage of time, and a lengthy period of almost incomprehensible success, have dulled our sense of what exactly happened that first year after Morris took over.

There was plenty of good, unquestionably, as Morris and a star-studded cast made for an exciting brand of football that played a role in revolutionizing how offense was played in the ACC and beyond.

Yet if we take a glimpse at the most important statistic, points scored, we see that 2011 group having averaged 33.6 points per game.

Clemson's scoring average last fall? An eyelash below, at 33.2 points per game.

In the former instance, Clemson's administration was in such a rush to assure Morris remained here that it set the wheels in motion during the season to make him the highest paid coordinator in the game.

The latter: Brandon Streeter was fired after one season running the offensive show. And he didn't have Sammy Watkins.

No, we're not at all saying Dabo Swinney shouldn't have made a change this past January when he realized Riley was interested in coming to Clemson from TCU.

Also not saying that 2011 offense didn't bring a jolt of rejuvenation and identity even despite just 13 points in Columbia, 13 in Raleigh, 17 in Atlanta and 23 in Blacksburg.

But the comparison is at the very least interesting, no?