The season came to an uncharacteristic end for Clemson’s offense. For Brandon Streeter and his young quarterback, it also came with some lessons to learn from heading into the offseason.

Clemson found the end zone once en route to just 14 points in its Orange Bowl loss to Tennessee despite putting up nearly 500 yards of offense in Cade Klubnik’s first career start. Klubnik, who was promoted from his backup gig after a strong performance in the ACC championship game, led the Tigers into Vols territory 11 times.

Four of those possessions reached the red zone. Yet Clemson had to send out its field-goal team six times, which was far from the normal efficiency the Tigers operated with in that part of the field this season. Clemson, the nation’s No. 5 red-zone offense, scored 45 touchdowns on its 62 red-zone trips.

Streeter couldn’t put his finger on why the offense bogged down so often on the plus side of midfield, attributing it more to collective miscues rather than any one reason. That included some freshman moments by Klubnik.

Klubnik finished 30 of 54 passing and accounted for 371 total yards, but he was also sacked four times, three of those coming in the first half. Part of the issue was breakdowns in protection up front, but Streeter said there were other times Klubnik held onto the ball too long when Tennessee brought more pressure than Clemson could block.

“There were some situations where they blitzed us and we were hot, which means we didn’t have enough guys to block. So we needed to get rid of the ball a little bit quicker,” Streeter said. “They did a good job. I need to credit them on defense on disguising a lot of stuff. We knew they were going to do it, but they did a really good job of disguising some of their blitzes, their blitz packages and then how they did on the back end, too, with disgusting stuff. (Klubnik) got hit sometimes, but two or three of those were hot situations.”

Klubnik’s inexperience showed again late in the first half, keeping the Tigers from being able to line up for yet another field goal that would’ve cut their deficit to one possession at the break. Klubnik drove the offense inside the Vols’ 15-yard line with less than 15 seconds left in the second quarter. But with no timeouts left, Clemson’s options were limited. Streeter called one last play with the intention of Klubnik throwing the ball to the end zone or out of bounds if nothing was open to preserve what few seconds were left.

Instead, Klubnik felt some pressure and tried to run for the end zone. But Tennessee closed in quickly and tackled him well short, and Clemson got nothing as the final seconds of the second quarter ticked off the clock.

“Obviously before the half and trying to scramble in that situation was not a smart decision at all, but he’s going to grow from that stuff,” Streeter said. “That’s who he is. He’s a guy that’s going to always find a way to get better, and he’ll learn from some of those mistakes he had.

“He just wasn’t thinking about that situation and understanding we didn’t have a timeout left. We’re in field-goal range already and being able to process that. A lot of young quarterbacks, things like that happen. Hate that it happened (in the bowl game), but he’ll learn from it.”

He’s not the only one.

Streeter shouldered some blame for not always putting Klubnik in the best positions to maximize success. Clemson being down multiple scores in the second half had something to do with Klubnik throwing what was easily a season-high in passes, but the youngster actually attempted more than half of his throws in the first half.

Klubnik threw 29 passes in the first two quarters while Will Shipley, Clemson’s 1,000-yard rusher, got only five touches in the first half. Shipley ended the night with just 17 carries for 72 yards despite the Tigers not trailing by more than two scores until late in the fourth quarter.

“We continued to make plays or get some pass-interference situations. We were moving the ball down the field and getting some chunks,” Streeter said. “We were having some success, and I think our guys were feeling it. Just didn’t finish a lot of thi0se drives. But, in hindsight, we probably should’ve ran the ball a little bit more in the first half and given him a little more of a breather and a little bit more of a situation where he can settle in a little bit.”

Klubnik will have to wait until the fall to make his second career start. Next season will also be Streeter’s second as the Tigers’ play caller. There’s plenty of time between now and then to implement those lessons learned.

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