Breaking News: Clement Tigers QB Cade Klubnik threatened to leave the team if nothing is done about…
The Tigers were 4-4, assured of ending a streak of 12 straight seasons with 10 or more wins, and Klubnik was on the hook for the dynasty’s demise.
At least, that’s how it felt at the time.
Klubnik had been a prized recruit, but his ascendance at Clemson had come in fits and starts — a dizzying debut in mop-up duty, a long-delayed takeover of the offense in a rollicking ACC championship game win, a bowl loss, and now this.
In another era, the roller-coaster ride would’ve been part of the deal. Quarterbacks rarely develop into superstars overnight. It requires, as Clemson coach Dabo Swinney likes to call it, time “in the crock-pot.”
In this era, however, coaches and QBs rarely tolerate the slow simmer, and so the familiar narrative began for Klubnik, too.
“It was tough,” Klubnik told ESPN. “I had a lot of people in my ear after last season asking if I wanted to leave.”
That’s the preferred path these days. Look no further than the 2022 class, for which Klubnik was the crown jewel.
Of the top 30 QB recruits in that class, just four ended the regular season as a starter, and more than two-thirds have transferred. Klubnik and Allar are the clear-cut success stories, and even they’ve been dogged by criticism and setbacks. That they’re still here, on the verge of playoff games, is borderline miraculous.
Klubnik turned down all overtures from the outside. It helped that Clemson ended the 2023 season on a five-game winning streak and that Klubnik had seen marked — if gradual — growth in each outing. But it was more about his relationship with Swinney, about the time in that crock-pot.
“I never had any doubt with Cade,” Swinney said. “If I did, I would’ve gone and taken a big-time portal guy. But I believe in Cade. He’s a worker, he’s gifted, he’s smart. He deserves all the credit because he’s really grown.”
This is how the story is supposed to unfold, Swinney said. Quarterbacks are always a work in progress, and Swinney is aware of how rare it is to see someone like Deshaun Watson or Trevor Lawrence sprint up the growth curve.
After last season ended, Swinney pulled Klubnik aside for a meeting. His message was simple: No, 2023 wasn’t good enough, but yes, he believed unflinchingly that Klubnik would become something special at Clemson.
“After a season you wouldn’t ever dream of having,” Klubnik said, “to have somebody like that come and tell you he still believes in you and trusts in you, that means a lot.”
So Klubnik stayed, and he improved, and though he still hasn’t blossomed into the latest version of Lawrence, he threw 33 touchdowns and has Clemson back in the College Football Playoff for the first time since Lawrence left town.
Klubnik isn’t so much a success story. He’s a byproduct of staying the course.
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