CLEMSON — Clemson’s Cade Klubnik did not have the kind of start he wanted in last Saturday’s victory over Wake Forest.
“I missed a couple of throws on the first drive and then fumbled the snap on the second,” the quarterback said.
Klubnik opened with a nice 18-yard completion to T.J. Moore on a hook route. Then the two hooked up again for a five-yard gain.
Then adversity hit.
The junior threw too high to a wide-open Troy Stellato on what could have been a big gainer or even a touchdown. On the next play, he threw short to tight Jake Briningstool after being flushed out of the pocket.
On the Tigers’ next possession, Klubnik ran a couple of times for 13 yards and completed a couple of passes, including a 12-yard reception to Briningstool. A few plays later, however, he fumbled a snap on second down for a five-yard loss and was sacked on third down for another five-yard loss.
“After that we got going,” he said.
The Tigers (5-1, 4-0 ACC) did get going after that and so did their improving quarterback. Clemson scored touchdowns on six of its next seven possessions—halftime preventing seven straight TDs—while Klubnik threw touchdown passes to Antonio Williams, Troy Stellato and Jake Briningstool.
The Clemson quarterback finished the afternoon completing 31 of 41 passes for 309 yards, while also rushing seven times for 30 yards. He led the Tigers on touchdown drives of 75, 23, 57, 75, 75 and 53 yards.
“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot there a little bit in the first quarter, but it’s nothing that we can’t control,” Klubnik said. “I am proud of the guys and how they responded, and they played a great game.”
The Tigers’ slow start was quite the contrast from the previous four weeks when they jumped out to double digit first-quarter leads before rolling to easy victories. This time around, they waited until the second quarter before they got things rolling.
“We did not have our normal fast start. We kind of had a slow start,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “We really just missed some opportunities early. We missed a big play on a throw (to Stellato) that was high. And then we fumbled the snap on the next drive.
“Then, we just settled in, and we had four straight touchdowns. Offensively, we played with a lot of rhythm from that point on.”
After Wake Forest took a 7-0 lead, Klubnik threw a 22-yard TD pass to Williams, while running back Phil Mafah had back-to-back touchdowns from one and two yards out. Just before halftime, Klubnik found Stellato for an 8-yard scoring toss.
In the second half, Adam Randall returned to action to catch a 9-yard TD from Klubnik on the opening possession before Briningstool caught a 28-yard pass for a score from Williams, as the Tigers executed a perfect double pass trick play.
Keith Adams, Jr., later scored on a four-yard run to close out the scoring for an offense that tallied 566 total yards (343 passing, 223 rushing).
“This team is resilient in everything we do,” Klubnik said. “It is the first time we have been down in a while and to see us as an offense and defense respond, it was great. Six straight touchdowns after not getting anything on the first two drives, that was huge.”
With their 28-point second quarter, the Tigers have now produced at least three individual quarters of 28 or more points in a single season for the third time in school history. Clemson scored 35 points in quarter one vs. App State and 28 points in the first quarter vs. NC State earlier this year.
The other two times Clemson produced three 28 or more points in a quarter three times in a season came in 2020 and in 2012 (four).
“Those first couple of drives, we had some miscues, but they did not panic. They just settled in, went back to work and put a bunch of touchdowns together,” Swinney said.
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