Analyst Shares How Clemson's Cade Klubnik Can Improve This Season
There are tons of expectations on Clemson heading into the upcoming season.
It feels like they have lost their dominance over the rest of the ACC, and based on the results where they've only made one conference championship game the past three years, there is evidence pointing to that being the case.
When DJ Uiagalelei was struggling, many of the Clemson faithful was calling for their highly touted five-star quarterback Cade Klubnik to take over.
They got their wish in the 2022 ACC Championship game, and when Uiagalelei transferred out of the program, the keys were turned over to Klubnik for the 2023 season.
With him at the helm, the Tigers were expected to have a great year and be contending for a national championship.
Instead, they had their first non-10-win season since 2010.
Klubnik didn't live up to the hype that many people expected from him with 2,844 passing yards, a 63.9 completion percentage, 19 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He added 182 more yards on the ground with four touchdowns, but he's primarily a pocket passer and needs to do his damage through the air.
So, with there being tons of pressure on Clemson and their star quarterback to put together a good year and get into the CFP once again, analyst Clark Brooks of On3 talked about some things Klubnik needs to improve on during this season to help the Tigers achieve their goals.
The first thing he points out is decision making.
"Stop throwing the ball into harm's way. If you're going to be a conservative Checkdown Charlie consistently targeting shorts, you don't have that much margin for error, you cannot afford to give defenses mistakes ... He's just absolutely got to stop putting the ball in harm's way and be a better decision maker, where he's not tricked and not overly pressing trying to find completions," he said.
That's certainly fair.
Klubnik can't be forcing the ball into tight windows and giving the defense opportunities to change the momentum of the game if they plan on methodically moving the ball down the field.
Offensive coordinator Garrett Riley has gotten some criticism for his lack of aggressive play calls, but with the profile that Klubnik has shown so far, there is a very good possibility that nothing is going to change in the offense this year.
"He's just got to add a little bit more teeth, and I don't think he's going to be able to do so, because last year, his deep pass rate was the lowest in college football, under 7 percent, So those are passes over 20 yards downfield," Brooks added.
Klubnik has a lot he needs to do for Clemson this season so that he can be looked at in the favorable light he entered the program with.
Winning games will certainly help that, and improving on the little mistakes he made last year should help him and the Tigers accomplish that as well.
BRAD WAKAI