Cade Klubnik, Garrett Riley's relationship is Clemson's biggest question in 2023

How Cade Klubnik and Garrett Riley get along on the field is the biggest question going into the 2023 season for Clemson, according to On3’s J.D. PicKell.

Klubnik is a former five-star quarterback and took over late last season for D.J. Uiagalelei, who transferred to Oregon State. Clemson hired Riley, young brother of Lincoln, over from TCU.

PicKell broke it down on The Hard Count.

“My big question for Clemson is (do) Cade Klubnik and Garrett Riley click,” PicKell said. “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. 

“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.”

Clemson’s defense isn’t really a question. And it hasn’t been for some time under Dabo Swinney.

“Because I believe in this defensive unit,” PicKell said. “I’m just curious if Cade Klubnik is the upgrade that a lot of people believe he’s going to be. To be transparent, I believe it’s going to work. I think it’s going to be great (and) I believe in Kade Klubnik. My question though, is how quickly and how effectively does it click because a lot of people last year if you had a gripe with Clemson. 

“It was, how explosive were they downfield? That’s kind of you know, multifaceted. So a lot of people were  quick to blame D.J. Uiagalelei and, I mean, I think you always have to give some blame to the quarterback, but I also look at the receiving corps, you got to separate. Also look at the offensive gameplan, we got to scheme stuff up so we can set up the defense and get explosive plays. I don’t think you just put the blame on DJU.

“And so that’s the reason why my question is can Cade Klubnik and Garrett Riley create some magic with scheming up explosive plays? And by result of that, scoring a whole lot of points because if they do now, it’s going to be a very, very big deal for Clemson.” 

With an efficient and high scoring offense, Clemson could very boat race other teams.

“That puts the pressure back into the opposing offense,” PicKell said. “And if the game is in your defenses hands, I think nine times out of 10 you feel really good if you’re a Clemson Tiger fan, so that’s the big deal for Clemson.”