Around this time a year ago, Clemson football had a morning workout. And that’s where Cade Klubnik was: head down, working, an 18-year-old kid from Texas trying to prove himself. While Dabo Swinney and DJ Uiagalelei spent the better part of that same day quieting an already-brewing quarterback controversy at the 2022 ACC Kickoff preseason media event, the next big thing for Clemson football was back on campus “just trying to be Cade Klubnik every single day,” he said Thursday.
A lot has changed since then — more so than they usually do at Clemson, a program built and maintained on consistency and longevity, and especially so for Klubnik, who has gone from a buzz-creating backup to the face of a program trying to keep its place atop the ACC.
But amid two historic starts and Uiagalelei’s transfer to Oregon State and one of college football’s splashiest offensive coordinator hires, the Klubnik of July 2022 is very much the Klubnik of July 2023. Older. Wiser. Stronger. But still himself.
“I would say just take it one day at a time,” said Klubnik, now a sophomore. “I know I say that a lot, but that’s really what it comes down to. Right now I’m focused on today. ... We’ve got workouts tomorrow morning, and I’m going to be there. I’m going to be locked in where I am.”
With high expectations — down the line, of course. “The reason I came to Clemson was for two things: It was for the culture and to win a national championship,” Klubnik said. “I believe that we’re going to be able to do that while I’m here.”
As do Swinney, his coach, and Tyler Davis and Will Putnam, the two teammates who joined Klubnik as Clemson player representatives Thursday on the third and final day of ACC Kickoff. They’ve seen the journey every step of the way and know that Klubnik — from an early enrollee who needed to add weight to a backup patiently waiting his turn to an ACC championship game MVP and Orange Bowl starter — is uniquely positioned to lead the Tigers in 2023.
“This time last year, he didn’t know what he didn’t know,” Swinney said. “And now he knows what he didn’t know. That’s the great thing. There’s no greater teacher than experience. There’s no greater teacher than a little bit of disappointment along the way, too."
