Dabo Swinney shares where his confidence level is in Garrett Riley, Cade Klubnik

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney loves what he has seen from new offensive coordinator Garrett Riley and starting quarterback Cade Klubnik so far. But Swinney also knows that until the duo goes out and performs on game day, nothing else matters.

As Swinney pointed out at the ACC Football Kickoff event last week, it’s one thing to perform well in practice. It’s another thing to go out and impress under the bright lights.

“We’ve gotta do it on game day,” Swinney said. “I mean I saw some good things in practice, for sure. But I’ll feel a lot better when I see it on game day.”

One aspect that gives Swinney reassurance is the fact that Klubnik and Riley have both excelled in the past, even if they have yet to do so at Clemson.

Klubnik was a great high school quarterback who led his team to back-to-back state titles in high school. He was named the MVP of the Elite 11 Camp prior to his senior year of high school and was ranked by the On3 Consensus rankings as a five-star prospect and the top quarterback in the country for the class of 2022.

“The biggest thing is just track record. I mean Cade, this kid’s been a winner a long time,” Swinney said. “It’s easy to watch his practice and watch his skillset and go, ‘OK, that translates.’ We’ve got a healthy team now. It’s easy to watch [Will] Shipley and [Phil] Mafah and all of the good things that I see in our offensive line and get excited about it.”

Speaking of track record, Riley’s is pretty good, too.

He has had success everywhere he has been, including last season at TCU as he helped the Horned Frogs reach the national title game, while earning the Broyles Award, which is given to the top assistant coach in the country. Shortly after last season ended, he left for Clemson.

“It’s easy to see the confidence and enthusiasm with Garrett,” Swinney said. “But again, that scoreboard ain’t lit up yet. I’ll be more confident when we see it on game day.”

Dabo Swinney shares what he likes best about makeup of 2023 Clemson team

Culture has been a big part of the success that Clemson has had under Dabo Swinney. The Tigers head coach feels great about where the program is as far as culture heading into the 2023 season.

Swinney spoke at the ACC Football Kickoff event last week about what he likes best about the makeup of this year’s team. He believes that so many veterans choosing to pass on the NFL and come back for another season says a lot about the status of the program.

“It starts with those seven graduates that could all have gone into the NFL Draft. All graduates. I think three of them have Masters degrees. They all chose to stay at Clemson,” Swinney said. “They didn’t choose to hangout and play on the lake for a year. They came back with a very focused vision and purpose of what they wanted to do individually and also as a team. So that really is awesome.”