No. 5 Clemson eases past Syracuse behind Cade Klubnik – but there’s no quarterback controversy

CLEMSON, S.C. –  Nothing to see here. Move along. Enjoy No. 5 Clemson’s 27-21 comeback victory over No. 14 Syracuse and don’t dare arrive at the conclusion that Tigers quarterback DJ Uiagalelei lost his starting job Saturday in Death Valley.

Lord knows, Uiagalelei played terribly. He committed three of Clemson’s four turnovers, giveaways that put the Tigers in a 21-7 hole. In the second quarter, he fumbled the ball near the Orange goal line, and watched as safety Ja’Had Carter took it 90 yards the other way for a score. Uiagalelei threw two interceptions – one a late delivery, the other an overthrow. The longer the game went, the more his Elmer’s became unglued.

Freshman Cade Klubnik replaced Uiagalelei with 4:53 remaining in the third quarter and the Tigers down 21-10. Klubnik, a five-star recruit from Austin, Texas, played like a talented freshman, mixing his considerable ability with enough inexperience to remind you that the Trevor Lawrences of the world arrive on campus only once in a generation.

But Klubnik led Clemson to 17 fourth-quarter points. There was a “changed the momentum” and a “provided the spark,” and someone else may have used another cliché to describe the effect Klubnik had on his team. Whatever he did or didn’t do – like turn the ball over – kick-started the Tigers to their 14^th consecutive win and their 38^th in a row at Clemson Memorial Stadium, an ACC record.

OK, Game Show Network. It’s time to play – here’s where the studio audience shouts the title – “NAME! THAT! STARTER!”

There is “absolutely not, a thousand percent not” a quarterback controversy, Clemson offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter said after the game. “DJ is no question our quarterback. There’s no question about it.”

Coach Dabo Swinney didn’t mention it until nearly the six-minute mark of his opening postgame soliloquy. “Made a little change at quarterback,” Swinney said, as if he swapped out a tackle on the point-after team. “Just one of them days. DJ’s been awesome all year. Sometimes the ball doesn’t go in the basket. The best of the best, sometimes you go 0-for-5. Sometimes Steph Curry goes 3-for-22. Sometimes it just won’t go in. Sometimes you’ve got to give somebody else an opportunity.”

Sometimes you’ve got to realize that Uiagalelei took a big step backward Saturday.

“I’m definitely frustrated,” he said. “I just wish I would have played better. That’s the biggest thing, man. You put in all the work during the week and expect to go out there and play great. Sometimes, it just doesn’t happen. That was today.”

Uiagalelei opened the game with a 41-yard strike to tight Davis Allen. He completed four of his first five passes for 59 yards. From there, he went 9-of-16 for 79 yards with two interceptions.

We’ve seen that Uiagalelei before. We saw him play this way for an entire season. In 2022, he has been different. His weight is down (265 to 235). Through seven games, his interceptions have been down (one every 35 passes last season, one every 65 in 2022), his completion percentage up (.556 to .640). The improvement that Uiagalelei showed put enough credit in his account that, to hear the coaches speak, he’ll be able to draw on it as the Tigers head into their bye week.

Clemson has a difficult time with Syracuse. Last season, the Tigers won by three points. In 2018, by four. (Chase Brice, the off-the-bench hero of that game and now Appalachian State’s quarterback, was in attendance for this one.) And in 2017, not at all. The Orange won that one. Hey, everyone has a tough opponent. Aaron Judge may have hit 62 home runs this season, but he was 0-for-15 with 10 strikeouts against Michael Wacha.

And to be fair, Syracuse is a tough out for everyone this season. The Orange have a 1-2 offensive punch in quarterback Garrett Shrader and running back Sean Tucker, a chain-moving receiver in Oronde Gadsden II and a sure-tackling, ball-hawking defense.

But Clemson dominated both lines of scrimmage after halftime. Klubnik had the advantage of having a punishing running game at his disposal, and Streeter, the offensive coordinator, didn’t ask Klubnik to do anything fancy. The freshman took 29 snaps and threw four passes. You can do that when your offensive line is knocking the Syracuse defensive line back, when sophomore Will Shipley is running for a career-high 172 yards and two touchdowns, the second a 50-yard burst through the right side.

“My favorite play? Probably ‘Ship’ breaking that long run on the second play of that drive,” Klubnik said. On the first play, “I almost fumbled it, and he picked me up, said, ‘Let’s hold onto that ball.’ I said, ‘How about you go score it?’ Well, I thanked him first.”

Shipley raced past a safety coming at him on an angle, ran through the end zone and Lambeau Leaped onto the low stadium wall to be engulfed by his fellow students. He has scored plenty of touchdowns, but never done that before. Shipley said he wanted to keep the fans engaged. He got the idea from his position coach, C.J. Spiller, a former Tigers All-American running back. Spiller told Shipley to celebrate that way last year.

“I was just a freshman and didn’t have the guts to do it,” Shipley said.

Maybe that’s why he was so impressed with Klubnik’s poise. Here was a freshman with the guts to bring Clemson back.

“It’s tough for anybody to seem comfortable in that situation,” Shipley said. “How he did, how he handled the situation, was just something to respect. So much respect, so many props to (No.) 2.”

Let’s not forget Clemson’s defense, which pitched a shutout and held the Orange to 114 yards in the second half. Syracuse coach Dino Babers said fatigue may have been a factor on both sides of the ball. Clemson ran 84 plays, Syracuse 50. The Orange committed eight of their 10 penalties in the second half. A late hit by tackle Elijah Fuentes-Cundiff on Klubnik on a third-and-25 toward the end of the third quarter kept alive the freshman’s first drive. Clemson went in for the touchdown and cut the deficit to 21-16.

“You can’t be sloppy with the ball and expect to win games like this very often,” Swinney said.

Time, maybe as little as two weeks, will tell if this game marked the end of the Uigalelei Era at Clemson. But there’s no question that it marked the beginning of the Klubnik Era.