Reaction: Clemson WR on Klubnik - "He’s going to have a great, great season this year”

Cade Klubnik had a tough beginning to his third career start, but he finished out the game well.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Sat Sep 09 22:37:14 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON - After a rough first half against Charleston Southern, the Tigers showed the country that this offense can put up big numbers.

The first quarter, in particular, was rough for quarterback Cade Klubnik. He not only fumbled a snap on fourth-and-one, which ultimately resulted in a Buccaneers touchdown, but he also threw an atrocious pick-six that gave Charleston Southern the lead. But, the Buccaneers did not reach the endzone for the rest of the game following that interception.

“The way that we climbed back, it was just, it was beautiful,” Klubnik said. “You got a glimpse of what our offense is really like. I think everybody kind of got to see that.”

The inconsistent play from Klubnik does appear to be a bit concerning. However, it is important to note that he is in his first season as a starter, and as such, he has a lot of time to develop into his full potential, something that redshirt sophomore receiver Troy Stellato reminded fans of.

“He’s talented. He’s really talented … He’s still young, he’s still learning,” Stellato said. “We see him every day at practice. That kid is one of the most talented kids I’ve ever seen. I’ve been playing with a lot of guys, just growing up my whole life and everything. He’s one of the best quarterbacks I’ve ever seen, talent-wise, and we have all the trust in him to lead us talent-wise. He’s going to have a great, great season this year.”

Clemson went into halftime with a 24-17 lead. Charleston Southern received the ball at the beginning of the second half, and after a defensive stop, the Tigers just started to click on offense. In the third quarter alone, they put on 28 points, led by Klubnik. Clemson scored the most points in one quarter since their 49-3 victory against South Carolina State in the 2021 season; they scored 28 points in the first quarter in that contest. The high level of production that Klubnik had in the third quarter shows his ability to bounce back from adversity, an attribute that players like receiver Beaux Collins appreciate in his quarterback.

“That’s motivating to us as an offense. I feel like, to me, if I played quarterback, throwing an interception would be, like, the worst thing on this planet,” Collins said. “So, him, like, being able to bounce back is motivating for us.”

As a freshman last season, Antonio Williams led the Tigers in receiving yards with 604 yards. This signaled a problem that Clemson had with their receiving corps, and that was also a little bit of a concern heading into this season. However, the game against Charleston Southern seems to have put those fears to rest a bit. Collins led the team in this game with 137 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions. Stellato also had a solid performance, catching all five of his targets for 51 yards, 41 of those coming after the catch. In total, 16 different players caught a pass in this victory.

“It just goes to show, like, the depth that we have,” Collins said regarding the number of players that caught a pass in this game. “We can roll guys in whenever we want, and there’s really no dropoff at all. Like, we have dudes galore … It’s just exciting to see, like, all the guys that I know for a fact can go out there and play on any other college team and start.”

For the junior receiver from California, this was a game that Collins truly needed to get back on track. Last season, he was only able to play in 10 games, missing the rest due to injury. In those ten games, he had 373 receiving yards and five touchdowns. He is a guy who makes Klubnik’s job a little easier because he is versatile. That talent is surely something the starting quarterback recognizes.

“Everybody knows what he can do. He can stretch the field, he can be vertical, he can run every single route,” Klubnik said of Collins. “You can throw it up to him, and you know he’s going to go get it. So, I’ve just got so much confidence with him out there.”

Stellato is another person who needed to prove what he could do. Coming into this season, he had only played 23 snaps because he missed all last season due to injury.

“A lot of people stopped believing in me, I felt like. Hopefully, I can prove a lot of people wrong,” Stellato said. “I feel like a lot of people just kind of forgot about me, definitely had some doubt, like, I wasn’t available ever. I saw that stuff, and kind of, it was fuel. All that stuff was fuel … It really just fueled the fire in me. It obviously helped, I feel like.”

We cannot forget about the performance of the offensive line. While they struggled early on in the game, they were able to make some adjustments and open up some huge holes for running backs Will Shipley and Phil Mafah. The Tigers had a total of 274 rushing yards, 73 of those from Shipley and another 59 from Mafah. Klubnik referred to this duo as “the two best running backs in college football” but also emphasized how the rest of the running back group performed.

The longest run of the day actually came from redshirt sophomore running back Tristen Rigby, who had a 35-yard run on the last drive of the game. Redshirt junior running back Dominique Thomas also had a solid game with 42 rushing yards, while redshirt freshman running back Keith Adams Jr. had 32 yards. True freshman running back Jay Haynes also had quite the day, with both a rushing and receiving touchdown. But, again, this running back group could not have had all of this success without the offensive line's work.

“It all starts upfront,” Klubnik said. “We played every single offensive lineman today and just the way that we got to get them in, and that’s what I’m most proud of. We got guys who have been working their tail off all year. We got them into the game. There was no dropoff.”