Cade Klubnik addresses his relationship with new Clemson OC Garrett Riley, what to expect offensively

This season, quarterback Cade Klubnik is going to try and bring the Clemson Tigers back to the College Football Playoff. To help with that task, head coach Dabo Swinney hired Garrett Riley to be the Tigers’ new offensive coordinator.

During the 2023 ACC Football Kickoff, Klubnik spoke about his relationship with Riley and what to expect from the offense.

“So, far, I love Coach Riley,” Cade Klubnik said. “I think since the first day that he’s gotten here, I’ve immediately hit off a great connection as soon as I realized we had a Texas guy coming into the room. I mean, there’s not very many in Clemson. So, it was great to talk brisket and then football right after. So, that’s been really good.”

Cade Klubnik is a native of Austin while Garrett Riley comes from Lubbock. So, they have built on that connection to help get on the same page in what should be an explosive offense.

“But as far as schematic-wise, it’s been really good. It’s been really awesome. I think that it enables our playmakers to make plays and just, really, just a friendly offense and a great offense that I think is going to make our playmakers have opportunities. So, it’s been good.”

Garrett Riley was most recently the offensive coordinator at TCU, helping to get the Horned Frogs to a College Football Playoff appearance and win over Michigan. Now, as Cade Klubnik explained, he’s bringing his confident approach to Clemson.

“It’s been incredible. I would say that the biggest thing that I love from him and it just spreads out amongst our team is just confidence. Just kind of an energy that’s just, let’s go kick some butt. You know what I mean? It doesn’t matter what anybody is gonna say, it doesn’t even matter if they know what the play is, we’re just going to win on that rep,” Klubnik said.

“So, just the confidence that we’re not scared and we’re ready to go attack — that’s what I love about him, just the confidence he brings and it spreads among everybody else.”

Cade Klubnik and Garrett Riley’s relationship is a big question

Cade Klubnik shared that he feels that he has a great relationship with Garrett Riley. However, the pair still need to prove that on the field, which is a huge question for Clemson. On3’s JD PicKell explained on The Hard Count.

“My big question for Clemson is (do) Cade Klubnik and Garrett Riley click. And what I mean by click, I don’t mean personally that they get along and have any reservations about that. I think from what I’ve heard, they’re both pretty outstanding human beings. So that’s one piece of it. But the other piece of this is, if Clemson is able to be explosive offensively, be able to push the ball downfield offensively,” PicKell said.

“That’s going to apply some pressure to some teams. That’s going to force some teams to kind of have to answer scores, if you will. And I don’t know that teams are going to be able to do that against Clemson with this defense.”