Why Clemson football is expecting ‘great growth’ from QB Cade Klubnik

Forget the football field. It’s loud inside Cade Klubnik’s head.

Expectations are high. The pressure to perform is higher. All of that sat in his brain throughout his first year as the Clemson football team’s starting quarterback in 2023.

Then there’s the blinding white noise of fans screaming, and music turned up so high the speakers could burst.

It’s just loud.

Klubnik’s first season as the signal caller was mentally difficult – and it wasn’t the sort of season coach Dabo Swinney’s Tigers are accustomed to.

After winning the ACC in 2022 and being picked to win the league again in 2023, Clemson started 0-2 in the ACC, wound up with a 4-4 conference record and snapped a 12-year streak of winning at least 10 games.

There were errors that cost them a game or two along the way.

And more noise came from every direction.

The Tigers still finished with a 9-4 record, ending with a five-game winning streak and a Gator Bowl victory against Kentucky.

“We’re sitting here, 4-4 last year, glass half full or glass half empty?” Klubnik said Thursday during ACC Kickoff in Charlotte. “And it was half full for us. And we freaking persevered the rest of the year.”

Klubnik had moments without clutter, where he was playing freely. He ended the season better than he started it, but he wasn’t satisfied.

So he left for a few camps this summer, spending a few days with both former NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning. There, Klubnik got in the weeds of different techniques and plays that the Manning brothers taught.

“I got like three pages of notes from it in like two days,” Klubnik said. “I learned a lot of stuff.”

He also got to talk to former Southern Cal Trojans and Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, learning how the former Super Bowl and NCAA champion saw the game. Klubnik kept taking notes along the way.

“If you’re going to be in an environment like that and ask all these questions, what’s the point of doing it if you’re not going to take notes?” he said. “So I just tried to really soak up everything I can.”

Klubnik learned how to manage some of that mental clutter, and ways to wipe his mind clear before and during a game.

“I would say playing the position of quarterback is 90% mental and 10% physical,” Klubnik said. “And something I was talking to Pete Carroll about a couple of weeks ago: You have all these guys that will train the physical side the whole year long, and then they’re never going to train the mental side when the majority of quarterback is really a mental sport.”

Then there’s confidence — in knowing the playbook, in having more reps and simply just stating it’s Year 2.

“We’re excited about Year Two with him as our starter,” head coach Dabo Swinney said of Klubnik, who he defended throughout the 2023 season and again on Thursday.”It will be Cade’s first time to have the same coach, same system. I think we all expect to see some great growth from that.”

Klubnik, a former five-star recruit, is working with offensive coordinator Garrett Riley (formerly of TCU) for the second season. During spring practices, Klubnik was improving his judgment: when to get rid of the ball, and where, versus when to make a play.

He’s also more comfortable moving through progressions and managing the game better. Klubnik believes it’s a feasible goal — he felt himself relax into the game as last season went on.

“I think that that’s one thing I got better at throughout the season,” Klubnik said. “And one thing that I want to start off with really, really quickly in Week One, and then just continue to get better at.”

Klubnik finished last season with 12 interceptions. He was sacked 29 times. Clemson’s opponents’ scored 78 points off turnovers. The team lost 13 fumbles (Klubnik accounted for five of them).

Those numbers, he hopes, will change in his second year as a full-time starter since he took the college football world by storm, winning ACC title game MVP honors as a true freshman after subbing in for then-starter DJ Uiagalelei.

“I mean, you got to hang on to the football at the end of the day,” Klubnik said. “Every time I hand that ball off, it’s never nonchalant. It’s intentional and very critical that we do it exactly how we need to do it.”

The pressure and expectations are still there, and it’s not going away any time soon, as Clemson opens with a massive non-conference game against Georgia in Atlanta and once again has College Football Playoff aspirations. But Klubnik is learning how to keep his head out of the flutter — and thriving in the quiet.

“I feel like when I’m just truly in a peaceful zone, you have such a freedom to play the game,” he said.

Clemson football 2024 schedule

• Aug. 31: vs. Georgia in Atlanta, noon (ABC)

• Sept. 7: vs. App State, 8 p.m. (ACC Network)

• Sept. 14: OPEN

• Sept. 21: vs. NC State

• Sept. 28: vs. Stanford

• Oct. 5: at Florida State

• Oct. 12: at Wake Forest

• Oct. 19: vs. Virginia

• Oct. 26: OPEN

• Nov. 2: vs. Louisville

• Nov. 9: at Virginia Tech

• Nov. 16: at Pitt

• Nov. 23: vs. The Citadel

• Nov. 30: vs. South Carolina

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