Dabo Swinney 'absolutely' trusts Clemson QB Cade Klubnik to play early

CLEMSON — DJ Uiagalelei is Clemson’s starting quarterback entering the 2022 season.

Dabo Swinney made it clear at the ACC Kickoff event last month that he has full confidence in Uiagalelei to lead the Tigers to a great year.

However, if Uiagalelei gets banged up, or if he starts to struggle, Swinney believes in freshman quarterback Cade Klubnik, as well.

“Absolutely,” Swinney said when asked if Klubnik is ready to play. “That’s why we put him second the day he got here. We didn’t want to waste a rep. We didn’t want to waste a minute. He needed all of that work. Obviously mentally we’ve come a long way since January.”

As Swinney pointed out, Klubnik was here throughout the spring, which was a big boost to his development.

Klubnik was 15-for-23 for 126 yards and a touchdown during the Tigers spring game but, he held the ball too long and clearly needed to add some weight.

He did that this summer and is all the way up to 197 pounds.

“I think he was 179 pounds or something like that when he got here. Now he’s 197,” Swinney said. “So physically he had a lot of work to do and he’s done it. He’s in a great spot. I don’t think there’s any question he’ll be ready.”

Clemson has much more depth at quarterback as a whole than it did last year when the options were very limited behind Uiagalelei.

Klubnik is obviously a talented freshman, but sixth-year senior Hunter Johnson is also back at Clemson now after spending time at Northwestern.

The Indiana native has starting experience at the Power 5 level and knows Clemson’s offense well.

Behind the top three are returning players Hunter Helms and Billy Wiles, who both had scholarship opportunities coming out of high school but chose to walk on at Clemson.

Freshman Trent Pearman was also added to the Tigers roster this offseason.

“We’re very blessed with this quarterback room,” Swinney said. “We’ve got six guys that could really, functionally play quarterback. And could win games for us in situations. … So we’re really fortunate that way.”