Cade Klubnik learned a lot from his sophomore year as starting quarterback a season ago.
There was a lot of adversity experienced in the Tigers’ 9-4 season in 2023, which included four tough losses, all to ACC opponents.
So when the junior signal-caller spoke about Clemson’s loss to Louisville last Saturday, a tone of growth and focus was the approach that he took.
“Sunday and Monday were definitely tough, just coming after a loss, but I think yesterday and today, just kind of turn around and look to the next week and excited to go play football again,” Klubnik said on Wednesday. “Excited to go win a game and it’s fun to challenge ourselves and see what we get continuously better at and look at the man in the mirror.”
And Klubnik is challenging himself. He admitted to the media that he has been in the facility from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day.
“I’ll do everything I can to go be the best I can be and get this team ready to go win on Saturday,” Klubnik said, “and that’s my version of ‘that’s how I am going to win today.’”
The offense was on the field over 100 times, which in perspective, presents opportunity, but the Tigers had 29 third downs on Saturday night, leading to poor execution on early downs, which the team has been efficient with so far this season.
“To have that as an offense, it means you are not doing well on first and second down,” the Austin, Texas, native said. “So really, pay attention first play of the drive [and] getting positive yards.”
Being a leader means bringing everybody up during the losses too, which Klubnik was vocal about after the Georgia loss as well. He did the same trying to bring up the offense against Louisville.
“Had some good talks with the guys,” he said. “After the game, with our offense and just telling them who I’m going to be for y’all and challenging them to be the same for me. I was up here from like 12:30 to 7 and the one thing that I kind of learned is you can’t push away the feelings.”
So flushing it and turning over a clean page is the decision Klubnik has made, heading north to Blacksburg, Virginia, to face the Virginia Tech Hokies in an important ACC affair. The Hokies give up the third-fewest passing yards per game to opposing offenses, as well as hosting a tough environment at Lane Stadium for a November football game.
“They’ve got some dudes up there. I think that it’s probably one of the best defenses that we play this year. Great backers, good secondary, so we will do some good things on the back end, for sure, do some good things up front, but it’s definitely an exciting matchup. [I’m] excited for the plan that we have and consistently getting ready for it.”
The Tigers, from a wider lens, saw their ACC Championship hopes nearly all dwindle, but a window of opportunity is still present. While slim as well, the College Football Playoff is not too far away, but a lot of things that the team can’t control need to occur.
“I think it’s easy to think about the outcome a lot and I think that’s something you really have to train your mind and stay off everything, but just focus on the task at hand,” he said. “We are not in full control of our destiny anymore, and that’s a tough thing to accept, but we are in control of going to play the best game we can this week, and forget what happened last week, but still learn from what happened last week. We don’t let it linger into this week.
For Klubnik, it’s about Saturday, not about December and January, and a one-game-at-a-time mentality will be what is needed for that glimmer of hope.
“It’s going to be a fun place to play,” Klubnik said about playing in Blackburg. “I love playing on the road so let’s go.”
