Reflected glory

Arkansas’ Chad Morris moved on from his job as offensive coordinator at Clemson after the Tigers went 10-3 in the 2014 season to take his first head coaching collegiate job at SMU. Morris had been in the college ranks just five years at that point, having served as offensive coordinator at Tulsa in 2010, then at Clemson for the next four years.

The Tigers would go on to finish 14-1 the following year, defeating North Carolina 45-37 in the ACC Championship Game and Oklahoma 37-17 in a College Football Playoff semifinal before falling to Alabama 45-40 in the championship game.

Clemson went 14-1 again in 2016, this time edging Virgnia Tech 42-35 for the ACC championship, crushing Ohio State 31-0 in a CFP semifinal and then gaining revenge on Alabama with a 3531 victory in the CFP Championship Game.

The No. 1 Tigers are right back in the playoff for the third consecutive year with a 12-1 record, a 38-3 rout of Miami, Fla., in the ACC championship game and a postseason matchup with Alabama in the Sugar Bowl looming Jan. 1.

“I’m so excited,” Morris said of the Tigers and Coach Dabo Swinney. “Being a part of that staff for basically five years and four seasons and recruiting a lot of those guys and helping build the vision of that program from where it was at 6-7 to where it is now.

“I’m still in touch with these guys, calling them. Matter of fact, the night when Arkansas was sitting in my living room, the night they officially hired me, Coach Swinney called me. Of course he was on speaker phone and he had a chance to talk to everybody, so it was a great night. Some very, very dear genuine people to Paula and I in the state of South Carolina. And we love them to death.”