Swinney says he's sticking with Cade Klubnik, details offensive line struggles

Swinney hangs his head in frustration after the loss to Miami (Photo by Merrell Mann).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Oct 22 19:41:29 GMT-04:00 2023

Dabo Swinney is sticking with Cade Klubnik next week in Raleigh.

Clemson (4-3, 2-3) will travel to Raleigh to face N.C. State (4-3, 1-2) on the CW Network next Saturday at 2 pm.

Clemson fell to 4-3 on the season with Saturday’s 28-20 double overtime loss to Miami. The Tigers had a chance at a touchdown in the second overtime, but Klubnik ignored the play call of a give to running back Will Shipley and kept it instead. He was tackled for an eight-yard loss to end the game.

During his Sunday teleconference, Swinney was asked if he was thinking about sitting Klubnik and giving Hunter Helms a chance.

"No. Cade gives us the best chance to win. We really believe that. His good is really good,” Swinney said. “We just have to grow through some growing pains with him. I really believe he's going to be a great one. Just definitely some miscues as well. We have to grow through it with him right now. That's where we are. He gives us the best chance."

Swinney reiterated that the call was simply a straight handoff, and Klubnik didn’t have the latitude to change the play.

"There was no green light. That's just a handoff call. There was no other option,” Swinney said. “You have to play within the system. It was perfectly blocked. The only guy left was the safety, and we needed just six inches. For whatever reason, he pulled it.

"That guy is busting his butt and trying to make a play. I don't have any problem with his will to win and effort and toughness, but you just have to play within the system. There are times when you have those green lights, but that was not one of those times. He'll learn from it."

Swinney then broke down his film review of the loss to the Canes.

"Tough film to have to watch and relive that. Incredibly disappointing loss. My heart hurts for our players. Just incredibly disappointing to be in position to win but not get over the hump,” he said. “I give Miami credit. They made one more play than we did. We've had a lot of good times around here, and we're going to have a lot more. We've had some bad times, too, and this is one of those times. We'll try to finish well. Good news is we get another opportunity to play this week.

“Obviously the biggest disappointment is the turnovers, and that is my responsibility. Defensively we played an amazing first half. Offensively we came out with back to back scores in the second half, and then we couldn't get the ball. They had the ball for 13:40 in the fourth quarter. It was a tale of two halves. But again, the turnover margin continues to be a big problem for us. We lead the country in fumbles. We were not efficient at all running the ball. You have to be efficient running it, and we were not. And we did not do a good job stopping the run in the fourth. It was our worst game in terms of third down stops. We had a 10-point lead with eight minutes and 30 seconds left, and we didn't finish.

"The 80-yard run there early, we had a guy there who was outside, and he should have been inside. We had some missed tackles and missed fits on a few other plays. Offensively, the positive was our passing game. We made a lot of big plays, almost 17 yards per completion. Tyler Brown, Jake Briningstool, Antonio Williams, they all made some plays. We had a couple of good drives in the first half but didn't score ... one we have a touchdown if we just hold onto the ball for another millisecond. Jonathan Weitz hit two big kicks, so that was a positive for us. Obviously the last play was incredibly disappointing.”

Swinney then said the Tigers have to find a way to climb out of the valley.

"We have a huge job to do as coaches. We're down in the valley right now, and we have to rally around each other and block out all the noise,” Swinney said. “If we can put it all together, we can be a good team, but we have to play complementary football. Everyone is incredibly disappointed with where we are.”

On the five sacks allowed and offensive line struggles

"It was mostly on the offensive line. We didn't protect well and didn't pick up the twist game well at all. Mostly the offensive line ... It's just a poor job. We didn't play as well as we needed to right there. Really just struggled at one spot. We had some miscues. It's never perfect anywhere in the offensive line, but it was mostly one spot where we have to clean up some things. We had a couple of penalties that we needed to eliminate. We have to look at our personnel, and we have a couple of guys who need to play better. We need to put our best foot forward there. When you lose the way we lost, everything gets magnified as it should. And we've played better, but I thought that was probably our worst game in one or two spots there."