Today, as Clemson (3-4) prepares to face a surprisingly dangerous Duke (4-3) squad, all eyes are fixed on one player: quarterback Cade Klubnik.
The question isn't just if he'll play. The question is how.
Just three weeks ago, in a game against Boston College, the Clemson faithful watched their starting quarterback—the former 5-star recruit once burdened with Heisman expectations—limp off the field. The diagnosis was a sprained right ankle, an injury severe enough to do what no injury had done to a Clemson starting QB since 2014: force him to miss a game.
That missed game, two weeks ago against SMU, was a disaster. Clemson lost 35-24, dropping the team further into a hole that few in Death Valley could have imagined back in August.
But a new, complicated narrative emerged from that loss. Klubnik's replacement, redshirt sophomore Christopher Vizzina, played well. In his first-ever start, Vizzina threw for 317 yards and three touchdowns, looking poised and efficient. He didn't win the game, but he opened a door that was supposed to have been sealed shut.
A bye week gave the team time to heal and, for Klubnik, a critical window to recover. All week, reports trickled out of practice. Head coach Dabo Swinney was "hopeful." Cade was practicing, "getting better each day." Finally, on Friday, the official ACC availability report offered a single, tantalizing word: "Probable." Then the game day report arrived without his name on it.
So, Cade Klubnik is expected to play in today's noon kickoff. He will strap on his helmet and walk out as the starter, the leader of a team desperate to salvage its season. But the relief of his return is shadowed by pressing questions that will only be answered on the field.
How healthy is that ankle? Will he have the mobility that has so often been his only escape from a porous offensive line? Will he, after a season of underwhelming play (11 touchdowns, 5 interceptions), finally find the groove he seemed to be hitting just before the injury?
He'll have to find it fast. Across the field is Duke's Darian Mensah, a quarterback playing with the kind of confidence and statistical dominance—leading the nation in passing—that was once promised for Klubnik.