ESPN Host Gives His Biggest Playoff Takeaway for Clemson
By: Robert MacRae December 23, 2024

This ESPN host gave his top takeaways from the first round of the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff, and one of his takeaways is about Clemson’s starting quarterback and highly touted freshmen wide receivers – both of whom lived up to the hype in their first year with the Tigers.

ESPN/SEC Network studio anchor Peter Burns took to social media with his biggest first-round playoff takeaways, weighing in on Cade Klubnik and the true freshman receiver duo of Bryant Wesco and T.J. Moore.

“Cade Klubnik and those Clemson freshman WR’s are legit,” Burns wrote.

Klubnik, playing in his hometown, threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns in 12th-seeded Clemson’s 38-24 loss at No. 5 seed Texas on Saturday in Austin.

Meanwhile, Moore recorded a career-high nine receptions — one off the school freshman record — as well as a career-high 116 receiving yards with one touchdown. The 100-yard game was the first of his career.

Between Moore and Wesco, Clemson has now had multiple freshmen record at least five receiving touchdowns in a season for the first time since 2015 (Deon Cain and Hunter Renfrow).

Moore finished his freshman campaign with 45 catches for 651 yards and five touchdowns in 14 games, while Wesco ended his first year in Tiger Town with 41 receptions for 708 yards and five scores across 12 contests.

As a junior this season, Klubnik (308) set a new single-season career high in completions and finished with the third-most completions in a season in Clemson history, trailing only two seasons by Deshaun Watson (388 in 2016, 333 in 2015).

Klubnik’s 36 touchdown passes this season tied Tajh Boyd (2012) and Trevor Lawrence (2019) for the second-most touchdown passes in a single season in Clemson history. Klubnik passed for 3,639 yards and racked up 4,102 yards of total offense while accounting for 43 total touchdowns in 2024.

–Clemson Athletic Communications contributed to this story