Dabo Swinney expresses confidence in Clemson QB Cade Klubnik after early struggles

Dabo Swinney didn’t hold back in evaluating quarterback Cade Klubnik’s early mistakes against Charleston Southern on Saturday.

Getting flustered with the play clock running down and botching a snap on 4th-and-1 deep in his own territory was a “fundamental” mess-up.

Tossing a ball haphazardly into space for a 67-yard interception return touchdown instead of taking a sack was “about as bad a play as you can get.”

Those two errors, combined, were “critical.”

“But from that point on, he was magical,” Swinney said after No. 25 Clemson’s 66-17 win over Charleston Southern at Memorial Stadium.

Such was the Jekyll-and-Hyde performance of Klubnik on Saturday, a game that started with a seven-point home deficit against an FCS opponent and ended with a showering of good vibes for a team in desperate need of them.

Lingering questions about defense and wide receivers aside, No. 25 Clemson is going to go as Klubnik goes this season. He’s the reason the Tigers trailed Charleston Southern 14-7 late in the first quarter and only led by a touchdown at half despite out-gaining them by 200-plus yards.

But he’s also the reason Clemson’s Garrett Riley-led offense ended Saturday with the best single-game first down margin (+33) in program history, its most yards in a game since 2019 (702 against Wofford) and its most points in a game since 2020 (73 against Georgia Tech).

Klubnik finished 28 of 37, completing 76% of his passes for 315 yards and a career-high four touchdown passes, and was the primary engineer of a 28-point third quarter — Clemson’s best scoring third quarter since 2018 and overall quarter since 2020.

“It was beautiful,” he said. “You got a glimpse of what our offense is really like.”

He attributed the turnaround to a choice he made on the sideline at Memorial Stadium after his pick six, a “SportsCenter” Not Top 10-worthy play that put Clemson — a 50.5-point betting favorite — in the embarrassing position of trailing a “buy game” opponent in Death Valley.

“I could chin it and just keep rolling, just play like me,” Klubnik said. “Or the external factors and the fans and what people are saying, I let them go to my soul. I just didn’t let that happen.”

Cade Klubnik bounces back

Klubnik was coming off his worst game as a Clemson starter, a 209-yard outing against Duke that featured an interception, a fumble inside the 10-yard line and at least three more interceptable passes in a loss to a Duke team Clemson had beaten 25 times in its last 30 tries.

It looked like more of the same early Saturday. With Clemson up 7-0 after a smooth opening-drive touchdown, the Tigers opted to go for it on 4th and 1 from their own 29 and Klubnik, rushed by a dwindling play clock, mishandled the snap from center Will Putnam and couldn’t get the ball to running back Phil Mafah.

Charleston Southern safety Trayson Fowler returned the loose ball 25 yards to Clemson’s 1-yard line, with Klubnik hustling to save a touchdown, and scored on the very next play to make it 7-7.

“He was just a little flustered,” Swinney said. “Clock was running down. Again, it’s a situation where you just call timeout. But regardless, you gotta handle that (snap). It wasn’t perfect, but it was just fine. Just like as a quarterback, you don’t always throw a great ball. It’s not always gonna be right there. It might be right here.”

On Clemson’s very next drive, a humming offense reached Charleston Southern’s 34-yard line before Klubnik, under pressure, heaved up a pass to his right that fell right into the hands of CSU defensive back Leon Thomas for a 67-yard interception return touchdown.

That’s when the loudest of boos rained down from the stands at Memorial Stadium, full of thousands of fans well within their rights to expect a clean, dominant game.

“That was just a horrible decision on my part,” Klubnik said. “Tried to throw it away, just didn’t throw it far enough. It was just a bad decision and completely my fault.”

It was also a moment of adversity, to say the least, for a quarterback who entered college with very few of them. Klubnik was the MVP of the Elite 11 quarterback camp, 247Sports’ No. 6 overall national recruit and 27-0 as a starter his last two seasons at Westlake (Texas) High School when he arrived on Clemson’s campus in January 2022.

They’re popping up more frequently now that Klubnik has replaced DJ Uiagalelei (now at Oregon State) as Clemson’s full-time starter. Not every game will be like his unforgettable 2022 ACC championship, when Klubnik came off the bench in the third series to replace Uiagalelei, reinvigorate the Clemson offense and win MVP honors in a 39-10 blowout.

There will be more games like the Orange Bowl loss to Tennessee, when Klubnik took a critical sack right before halftime, and Monday’s Duke game, when Klubnik abandoned the pocket far too often and looked in over his head at times — concerning for a second-year starter.

Swinney said it’s all part of the process, likening Klubnik’s early-career struggles to those of future ACC Player of the Year Tajh Boyd back in 2011.

And Saturday’s end result, to Swinney, was a reminder that Klubnik, with big home games against Florida Atlantic and Florida State on deck, is learning and growing. But he’s doing it at a pace he and the program, still openly talking about lofty 2023 goals, are comfortable with.

“It’s not an easy position to play and you find out a lot about people when we hit a little adversity,” Swinney said. “As I always say, it either shines you up or grinds you up. All depends on what you’re made of, and that kid’s made of the right things.”

Next Clemson game

Who: Clemson (1-1, 0-1 ACC) vs. Florida Atlantic

When: 8 p.m. next Saturday

Where: Memorial Stadium in Clemson

Watch: ACC Network