Cade Klubnik gives blunt assessment of greatest areas of improvement in Year 2 as Clemson's starter

Cade Klubnik’s first season as a starter didn’t go exactly as planned for Clemson. However, as he heads into this next season leading the Tiger offense, Klubnik has sought offseason improvements in hopes of better results this Fall.

Klubnik spoke about his offseason work while in Charlotte during the multi-day ACC Kickoff on Thursday. He said a lot of his progression is coming from it being his second year in Garrett Riley’s system. That has allowed him to get a better feel for how he has to operate both pre-snap and within the actions.

“Yeah, I mean, honestly, being able to be in the same offense again two years in a row has been incredible,” Klubnik said on the ACC Network. “Just learning how to get through progressions faster, get the ball out of my hands faster. You know, knowing protections well, knowing how to get to my hot options. Knowing the checks – when to get in, when to get out of stuff. Maybe, if we’re in a bad play, how can I check out of it to get in a good play.

“That has been one of the best things,” Klubnik continued. “Just looking at the mistakes I made last year, our team made last year. How can we just eliminate the things that are just totally in our control?”

With that, Klubnik says their offense has also looked back at what didn’t go well for them last season. That tape has been a blueprint of what they’ve needed to focus on correcting over the course of these periods since the end of the previous year.

“I think it’s looking at what we did last year. You know, having the disaster cut-up that we have, seeing all the bad plays that every team has, seeing that. Then having the great plays and seeing, ‘Alright, how can we repeat these things at a very, very high level?'” Klubnik said. “Then it’s being very, very intentional in everything that we do.”

Of course, it wasn’t all bad for Klubnik in his first season as Clemson’s QB1. He threw for 2,844 yards, 19 touchdowns, and nine interceptions on 63.9% completion over his 13 starts. The negatives included 10 fumbles, including four lost, as well as 28 sacks.

From there, Klubnik also wants to be a louder voice for the Tigers. In his second year starting as a junior now, that’d be another step in his role within the program.

“Then just being the best leader I can be, you know. Just creating better chemistry with guys that maybe I wasn’t very close with,” said Klubnik. “Just trying to be the best leader I can be and pushing guys.”

There’s still plenty of potential to work with in regards to Klubnik as a player. It’s now just about refining his overall game with the help of those experiences, both the positives and negatives, to be the quarterback many believe he can still be.