Cade Klubnik shares biggest difference in Garrett Riley’s offense

As Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik enters his second season with the Tigers, he’ll do so with a new offensive coordinator. Clemson hired former TCU offensive coordinator and Broyles Award winner Garrett Riley in January, and following their first spring practice, Klubnik spoke about the new offense.

“We went into a game last year with like 80 plays in the play call sheet and we’re going with like 30 now, so just being able to run less plays and getting really really good at it,” Klubnik explained. “But he’s even said it doesn’t matter if they know that the play is, we’re still going to be able to beat them at it. So just being really really good at what we’re doing and we had 15 plays today in our install and we ran the same 15 plays for two hours.”

The playbook may be less thick this season for Klubnik this season, but his attention to detail may have to increase. As he’s now tasked with dissecting defenses with the same concepts while giving them different looks, as well as making audibles to receivers pre-snap.

“You’re just getting really good at doing the same play in a a bunch of different ways and it’s just reps and reps and reps, and it’s just hard to defend because you’re running the same thing out of different personnel, different formations and it’s fun. And then you’re getting to tag receivers, put them on different routes.” Klubnik said. “If you’re seeing things on the field you can just give them one little signal and they’ve got a completely different route or play. So just the speed of it and just the freedom in it is really awesome.”

TCU’s run offense run by Riley was the only one in the Big 12 to rank in the top four for rushing and passing, a balanced yet effective attack that took the Horned Frogs all the way to the national championship. But Klubnik believes the offense is more reminiscent of the one the Tigers faced in the Orange Bowl last season.

“Yeah 100%, just the speed,” Klubnik said. “You look at what Tennessee can do and everybody talked about how fast they played, I think that’s gonna be a lot similar to what we’re going to be doing this next year. Just the speed that we can play at but also the efficiency, it’s not a bunch of guys running around figuring out what we’re doing. Even in the first day it’s, after the first 10 minutes, it’s guys running around, getting to their spot, and snapping the ball 15 seconds later.”

The use of tempo with offense is becoming more and more popular across the college football landscape, and it will definitely be interesting to see how the uptempo Tigers offense looks next season with an optimistic Klubnik under center and Riley calling the plays.

“I don’t know the exact time, but it’s fun, you’re running around and you’re getting set and you’re snapping the ball and you’re getting six more yards and you’re taking a shot and you’re getting six more and you’re getting six more you’re taking a shot, it’s just fun. That’s the best way to describe it, it’s just a fun offense to play in and like I said it just reminds me a lot about my high school offense,” Klubnik said.