Cade Klubnik describes Clemson stadium walk-in as 'a moment to smell the roses'

There are very few traditions in college football as well known as the pregame traditions at Clemson. The Tigers bus around Memorial Stadium before touching Howard’s Rock and running down the hill into Death Valley. For players, like quarterback Cade Klubnik, it’s part of what makes playing games at home so special.

While making a recent appearance on Field Talk, Klubnik ran through Clemson’s famed pregame tradition and explained just what goes through his head before games.

“It’s insane,” Cade Klubnik said. “I think it kind of gives you a moment to smell the roses too. You come off the bus — one of the coolest parts, I think, is coming around the corner and kind of seeing the edge of the stadium kind of go away and you just see it all open up. Then you hop off the bus and you run to the rock. You’re all locking arms and the whole stadium it’s just like a sea of orange, pretty much. It’s insane. It’s so cool.”

For Klubnik, the particularly special moment gives him a chance to look at the fans and appreciate the atmosphere he gets to play in because once he’s down the hill, the focus stays on the field.

“It kind of gives you a moment to smell the roses because you’re up there for about a minute, maybe 45 seconds. They’re finishing the band song and all that. You’re really just looking around. It’s pretty cool, and I think that if we didn’t get to do it that and you really just came straight out of the tunnel,” Klubnik said. “It doesn’t really give you a sense of what’s really around you at times. You get a little bit of that in warmups but I don’t ever really try to look around at stuff. I’m really just focused on — I don’t try to look in the stands and all that. It’s just, yeah, but I think that time is really cool. Coming down that hill and running it, all of it, it’s — I don’t think there’s anything like it. There’s nothing like it.”

The Clemson Tigers have been one of the best home teams in the country in recent years. In fact, since 2022, the first season that Klubnik was with the program, Clemson is 17-4 in home games, though he notably primarily acted as a backup in his freshman season.

Now, Cade Klubnik is set to return for his senior season in 2025. It’s a decision that comes down to showing what the program is capable of being.

“First of all, I think I need another year to really develop and keep getting better. I’ve got two years, really, under my belt starting and played some my freshman year. It’s that, I want to go get better, but I’m still hungry for what I know this program has. We’re gonna be bringing nine starters back on offense and probably seven or eight on defense. We’ve got a great thing coming back,” Klubnik said.

“I came to Clemson to win a national championship. That’s still right here for me. I think we’ve got the best team we’ve had since I’ve been here coming back. That’s really what I wanted.”

That senior season will begin on August 30th when Klubnik runs down the Hill into Death Valley against the LSU Tigers.