Klubnik Deflects Praise, Credits Team

CLEMSON — Cade Klubnik has played himself into comparisons with Clemson greats, while playing his team into a fiery start in ACC play.

In the 10th-ranked Tigers’ (5-1, 4-0 ACC) victory over Wake Forest last Saturday, Klubnik secured the fifth 300-yard game of his career, accounting for 309 passing yards on 31 of 41 attempts. At this point, only four Clemson quarterbacks can boast more 300-yard games than the junior.

Klubnik also surpassed former Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei for the seventh-most touchdown passes by a Clemson player (38) in the win. He found three different receivers in the end zone, including Troy Stellato, for his first touchdown catch of the season.

Many have asserted that Klubnik’s apparent overnight improvement is the reason for the Tigers’ dynamic start. After all, his impressive stats parallel the team’s dominant wins.

But Klubnik is adamant his success would be null without the improvement of those around him.

“I don’t think that there’s a direct correlation between my play and the team’s success right now,” he said. “It’s everybody else. It’s the offensive line playing a heck of good job this year. It’s a very very elite receiving room, a very elite tight end room, it’s having the best running back in the country right next to me. So it’s not just me out there making plays, it’s all eleven guys working at once.”

While Klubnik has been the recipient of consistent praise in the last month, he also knows what it feels like to sit on the negative side of conversations.

After starting the 2023 season with a 4-4 record and suffering a crushing loss to Georgia in the first week this year, many were ready to put all of the team’s issues on the signal-caller.

Now, Klubnik’s primary mechanism to ride out wavering opinions is to focus praise on those around him.

“Quarterbacks will always get way too much praise and they will always get way too much hate at times, but that’s the job that comes with it,” he said. “So anytime that I get a chance to honor my guys, they deserve it all because they’re doing the same work I am every single day.”

Klubnik has another chance to spread praise and the football this Saturday, when the Virginia Cavaliers come to Memorial Stadium to take on the Tigers. Kickoff is slated for noon on the ACCN.