Dabo Swinney defends Cade Klubnik's Week 1 performance vs. Georgia

The Clemson offense and quarterback Cade Klubnik struggled with consistency last season. Those struggles continued over to the opening game of 2024 as the Tigers managed only 3 points in a blowout loss to Georgia on Saturday.

Despite the stats and points not being what Clemson hoped for, Dabo Swinney insists that he still came away encouraged by what he saw from Cade Klubnik against the Bulldogs.

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“Everybody thought he was bad? Was that the consensus? OK, well good. I didn’t think he was bad,. And the people in this building didn’t think he was bad,” Dabo Swinney said. “Are there things he can do better? Yea. Absolutely. He definitely made some big-time plays. Definitely, in a game like that, first time live and getting tackled, and you’re playing the No. 1 team. Was there a couple of times where I thought he could have reset in the pocket? Absolutely.

“But he saw the field well, he’s seeing things. And we’re very confident in Cade and where he is and where he’s going. He wasn’t the reason we lost the game.”

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Cade Klubnik was 18 of 29 passing for 142 yards with no touchdowns and one interception against the Bulldogs. The junior was also sacked twice.

However, Klubnik also suffered from a couple of drops and on other occasions receivers seemed to lose the ball in the air. All in all, Swinney feels like his QB didn’t play great but did some positive things.

“We’ve played one game, and you saw a lot of the things that he needs to do. He needs to lead the team, manage situations. He did all of that. But let’s just reduce the negative plays, don’t put the ball in jeopardy. He had a lot of fumbles last year, ballhandling, the fundamental stuff,” Swinney said.

“He did a nice job with the ball. Obviously the one [interception], that’s just a competitive play. That’s football. Their guy made a play. And that’s the way it is. You’ve got tight coverage, you’ve got to put the ball up. And he made just an amazing football play. But he did a good job, not a great job. We don’t have our head in the sand. We coach him hard every single day, but man, he’s our guy. He’s our guy.”

Klubnik has been criticized in the past for not seeing the field well or making quick enough decisions.

Swinney was pleased with what he saw in that aspect and believes there are plenty of positives to build on heading into this weekend’s matchup with Appalachian State.

“He did a lot of good stuff, he really did. It wasn’t too big for him. The things systematically that we needed him to do. And he saw the field well. He really was seeing things the right way,” Swinney said. “It just was unfortunate that rhythm and momentum are a big part of games like that. His worst play was the first play. That was the worst play he had. Just missed it.

“But other than that he put the ball on the money. … He made some nice throws. You’re just not going to make a living in third-and-long. … But I was proud of Cade. I thought he competed well. I thought his leadership was really, really good. We’ve gotta make a couple of plays that were there to make, and we’ll get better from it.”