Evaluating Cade Klubnik's biggest area for improvement: 'Stop throwing the ball into harm's way'

Since Trevor Lawrence’s departure, Clemson just hasn’t re-found the secret sauce at quarterback, but the Tigers are hoping that changes with a more mature Cade Klubnik in 2024.

Like his predecessor DJ Uiagalelei, Klubnik’s tenure as the Clemson starter has been rocky, and he has far from exceeded expectations, if he’s even met them at all. So, heading into a crucial season for him, On3’s Andy Staples and Clark Brooks broke down the weaknesses he needs to shore up.

“What does Cade Klubnik need to do to unlock this offense, make this offense more dynamic?” Staple asked Brooks on an On3 YouTube live stream Monday morning.

“Stop throwing the ball into harm’s way,” Brooks gave as a quick answer before providing some deeper analysis.

“If you’re going to be a conservative Checkdown Charlie consistently targeting shorts, you don’t have that much margin for error, you cannot afford to give defenses mistakes.

“The (Clemson offense) banks on being able to execute double-digit plays every single drive. You might not be able to get a lot of chunk plays, but if you’re just methodically marching down the field, then it works. But if you’re throwing in contested tight windows and you’re giving defenses chances to get you off the field, then it just completely nixes that operation.”

In a more conservative style Tiger offense, Klubnik just needs to take care of the football, per Brooks.

“He’s just absolutely got to stop putting the ball in harm’s way and be a better decision maker, where he’s not tricked and not overly pressing trying to find completions. Because I can get he might be a little frustrated as consistently running the five S‘s of conservative football: spot, slants, screens, stuff like that.”

But Brooks is also unsure whether Klubnik is capable of getting more vertical with his passing attack.

“He’s just got to add a little bit more teeth, and I don’t think he’s going to be able to do so, because last year, his deep pass rate was the lowest in college football, under 7%. So those are passes over 20 yards downfield. That’s just a way to add margin for error, just consistently targeting short again and again giving defenses the opportunity to get you off the field. “

Staples jumped in to note that combination is a treacherous one at QB.

“See, that seems like a bad cocktail. You know, conservative and putting the ball In harm’s way feels like a really bad cocktail.”

And Brooks notes that’s why Cade Klubnik is not viewed as a sleeper Heisman candidate or anything of the sort.

“That’s why he is not inside our top 25 impact quarterbacks ahead of this season. So yeah, a lot to fix in that regard. He has a lot of perception to build upon this season to get people back in his corner.”