Dabo Swinney believes Cade Klubnik will be better for current struggles

There are high expectations being the starting quarterback at Clemson. The likes of Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence brought national championships to the program, having a great run under Dabo Swinney. But in recent times, Cade Klubnik has not quite hit the ground running yet, struggling in his first full season as the starter.

Clemson has already dropped three games this season and a poor offense is the main reason why. Klubnik has made a few mistakes but Swinney is confident he will learn from them. There is still time to improve in 2023 before running it back for another year, where Swinney believes they will eventually look back and see the tough times as a sign of growth.

“This kid is super talented, man,” Swinney said. “He ain’t going to forget all of this. It will make him better. We’ll look back on it and we’ll be able to say ‘Man, that was a tough year. Had some tough breaks.’ But he’s got a lot of great days ahead of him.

“He’s got a lot of great plays ahead of him. He’s going to play football for a while. I really love this kid. He’s an ultra-competitive dude and he cares. Just going to get better.”

It’s not like Klubnik is going out there and getting dominated by opposing defenses, at least from Swinney’s view. There would be a different discussion about the future of the Clemson quarterback room if so.

“If you weren’t good enough and you were getting your butt handed to you, it would be different,” Swinney said. “But that’s not the case.”

The stats do not look too bad on paper for Klubnik. He is completing 63.5% of his throws with 1,684 yards, 13 touchdowns, and three interceptions. However, despite having the second most passing attempts in the ACC, he is just sixth in yards. The transition in Garrett Riley’s offense has been tough for everyone.

Even so, Swinney still sees some positive plays being made by Klubnik. Sure, a lot of the mistakes have been highlighted throughout the season. Swinney is still taking note of the good things Klubnik is putting out on tape.

“His miscues have kind of overshadowed his great plays,” Swinney said. “This guy has made some plays. He’s made some big, big-time plays that you just go ‘Okay. Most normal people can’t do that.’

“So, there is a lot of encouraging things.”