A popular theme for college football fans to put down Clemson Football head coach Dabo Swinney is to say he only won two national championships because he had generational talent at the quarterback position with Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence.
Never mind that Swinney led the 2016 team back to the championship game after falling short the season before, a task that isn’t considered easy. Never mind that Lawrence was merely a freshman when the Tigers won the Natty in 2018.
That said, even Clemson fans can’t help but compare the quarterbacks since then to DW and T-Law. It is understandable. Both were amazing college football players.
It is also understandable from the perspective of high school ratings and the expectations that naturally came with them.
With DJ Uiagalelei, it wasn’t just the 5-star rating that had him just behind Bryce Young for the best quarterback of the Class of 2020. He also went into South Bend that season and put himself in the Clemson record books with the 3rd best single passing game in Clemson history, a mark he still owns today.
Although the Tigers lost that night, there was comfort in knowing that Clemson had the next great quarterback to follow in the line of Tajh Boyd, Watson, and Lawrence. That comfort lasted about ten months before it all fell apart.
With Cade Klubnik, it was a belief, or perhaps hope, that the Tigers wouldn’t have two 5-star quarterbacks fail to live up to the hype back to back.
After a disastrous 2021 season, there was still faith that DJU could rebound and look like a 5-star. He was healthy after multiple injuries in 2021. He was in better shape. He had been working with quarterback gurus. He did look improved during the first half of the season, but not close to the level of play that night in South Bend indicated was possible. Then the Syracuse game happened and it all fell apart from there.
Now there are still some Clemson fans hoping, even predicting, that Klubnik can make a similar jump to fulfill the promise of a 5-star rating and the Elite 11 championship he won in 2021.
As everyone’s favorite College GameDay personality Lee Corso says, “Not so fast, my friend”.
Klubnik can be a much better quarterback. He can improve decision-making. He can improve his ability to find the open receivers. He can reduce the turnovers. All of these things will make a big difference in his performance in 2024.
The last thing Clemson needs is for Klubnik to try to play hero ball. That was the mistake he made last year. Klubnik wanted to be the man.
DJU was always slow to make decisions. That might be why he played so well in relief of Lawrence in 2020 – he didn’t have time to think. He was playing with house money. He just let the ball fly and it worked out.
When he became the starter in 2021, his decision-making was slow. Perhaps it was the burden of expectations.
Klubnik has no problem making up his mind. He just made it up wrong on several occasions in 2023. Most of the time, he was trying to make something out of nothing, which is one way of describing hero ball. Unfortunately, he made nothing even worse sometimes.
It wasn’t all Klubnik’s fault, not by a long shot. The offensive line underperformed and the skill players had injuries. The offense will need those areas to improve in 2024 to be successful.
If the Tigers are to find success on the offensive side of the ball this year, it will be because the entire unit improves and creates an environment where Klubnik has protection and options. When he has those two things, he can be an efficient quarterback.
We don’t need another hero. We need efficiency by committee. With a good season from the defense, that will get the Tigers over the hump.