Cade Klubnik excited for showdown against Carson Beck in marquee opener

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik spent time with Georgia star Carson Beck this summer at the Manning Passing Academy. Klubnik has a shot to return the Tigers to the top of the ACC. Beck has a shot to return the Bulldogs to the College Football Playoff and then the top of the country.

The two of them are squaring off in a marquee, season-opening matchup Saturday afternoon in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It’s No. 14 Clemson versus No. 1 Georgia, and it’s a showdown between two household quarterback names Klubnik is excited for.

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“It was definitely fun to hang out with him and kind of chat about it a little bit,” Klubnik said Wednesday of his time with Beck at the Manning Passing Academy this summer.

“But he’s a great player, and [I’m] excited to kind of see how the rest of his his career goes. Obviously, he’s going to have a long NFL career. So, excited to see him.”

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Once the On3 Industry Ranking’s top quarterback in the 2022 class, Klubnik is looking to break out in Year 3. He completed 63.9% of his passes last season but had six games where he was below that mark. He also posted a 19:9 touchdown-to-interception ratio that teased the story of his inconsistencies.

Luckily for him, he’s equipped with one of the best running backs in the ACC, Phil Mafah, and a future NFL tight end in Jake Briningstool. Klubnik’s also got a pair of highly-touted true freshman receivers — TJ Moore and Bryant Wesco — bursting with potential.

Beck, on the other hand, enters the 2024 campaign as the fifth-highest rated NFL Draft prospect in the 2025 class, according to ESPN’s Field Yates. Beck threw for 3,941 yards while completing 72.4% of his passes and tossing 24 touchdowns, as opposed to only six picks.

Not only is Klubnik looking forward to the chance to play Beck, as well as the rest of the preseason AP No. 1 Bulldogs, but his head coach, Dabo Swinney, is amped for the opportunity to face Georgia, too.

“I mean honestly I wish we played Georgia every year, just because it’d save a lot of money for everybody, especially our fans,” Swinney said Tuesday. “Because I mean we’ve had to go out to [Texas] A&M. I think we go to LSU in a couple years. I mean we’ve tried to always play 10 you-better-bring-your-A-game type games, plus a top Group of Five type of team, which obviously this year we’ve got that with about as good as you can find in [Appalachian State].”

Because of the history, the proximity and more, Swinney believes Clemson and Georgia would be an ideal matchup year in and year out.

“These schools are close, there’s tradition. It’s a hard game,” Swinney said. “I mean this is a tough, tough game but there’s a lot of great history with Clemson-Georgia. I grew up, you always, you knew Clemson-Georgia was going to play each other. It was just one of those games that you wanted to watch as a kid. So I think it’s good for our fans, it’s good for college football.”

Georgia has won seven of the last eight meetings and leads the all-time series, 43-18-4. Over the 25-year span between 1962-87, Clemson and Georgia played every season but two.

This year’s head-to-head will feature two of the more well-known quarterbacks in college football, Clemson’s Cade Klubnik and Georgia’s Carson Beck.