October 8, 2025 Drew Cagle Football
Mired in a 1-3 start, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was straight and to-the-point to his senior quarterback Cade Klubnik.
“I told Cade, ‘You’re Batman,’” Swinney said. “Sometimes when guys get in those situations, they forget who they are because everybody’s telling them what they’re not. You can lose a little confidence or try to do too much, and that was kind of what I told him.”
The veteran signal-caller answered the bell on Saturday in Chapel Hill, leading Clemson to a comfortable 38-10 victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels. A sharp 28-point first quarter got the Tigers offense off and running, and sent much of the Kenan Stadium faithful to the exits early. Klubnik completed 22 of 24 passes for 254 yards and four touchdowns.
“It was a good reminder of who I am and who we are as players and individuals,” Klubnik said. “Losses do things. They either grind you up or shine you up, and I think it’s going to continue to shine us up. We can be molded by it and continue to be our best selves.”
Klubnik added that Swinney’s ‘Batman’ comments weren’t just pointed at him, but the rest of the Tigers too.
“It was really cool just having people believe in you,” Klubnik said. “The whole idea of the story wasn’t just about me. It was a reminder of the team that we are.”
That rejuvenated Clemson team heads north this Saturday to take on a feisty Boston College Eagles team (1-4, 0-3 ACC) that has dropped their last four contests. Still, Swinney isn’t shaken by their slow start to the season on paper.
“Watching the team, their record is 1-4, but this is far from a 1-4 football team,” Swinney implored. They’re four plays away from being 4-1, without a doubt. They’re very well coached, and I know they are battling through some disappointment because they’ve had some heartbreakers….They have competed their butts off….It’s a good team.”
BC sports a quality quarterback in Alabama transfer Dylan Lonergan, who averaged a respectable 255.4 passing yards per game. On the ground, feature back Turbo Richard has found paydirt four times on the season, including a 171-yard, two-touchdown performance against Cal a couple of weeks back. Defensively, the Eagles will look to pressure Klubnik into mistakes with a pass rush that has tallied 10 sacks thus far.
At the end of the day, Klubnik made things crystal-clear when he spoke to the media Wednesday: Clemson’s standard is the priority, not what an opponent brings to the table.
“We’ve got to have our A game on [against Boston College],” he said. “We’ve got to come play with effort and be relentless.”
