Cade Klubnik put up gaudy numbers in his breakout 2024 campaign, and many people are expecting Clemson’s star quarterback to take another big step forward in his senior season this year.

Klubnik is widely viewed as a Heisman Trophy candidate and one of college football’s top quarterbacks, if not the best. But when it comes to what Klubnik is chasing this year, he says it’s certainly not his statistics.

In fact, if you ask Klubnik, he doesn’t even pay attention to his stats – and the only “stat that really matters” to him is wins.

“I don’t really pay attention to my stats or anything like that. It just doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, I want to go win. That’s the stat that really matters,” Klubnik said following the fourth-ranked Tigers’ practice Tuesday.

“I mean, if I go have eight touchdowns and 450 yards of offense, but we lose, I don’t really care. Pat myself on the back, for what? I want to go win every game and just take it one game at a time. One game at a time, and one day at a time. Can’t go win them all until we win the first one.”

Although Klubnik isn’t worried about his stats, they were nonetheless impressive last season, when he completed 63.4 percent of his passes for 3,639 yards and 36 touchdowns with just six interceptions, while rushing for 463 yards and seven more scores on the ground.

Klubnik was one of two quarterbacks in the country to throw for more than 3,500 yards and run for 400 last season. The former five-star prospect from Texas also finished second nationally in total touchdowns with 43. He was third nationally in touchdown passes with 36, and his six interceptions were second fewest among quarterbacks who threw 28 or more touchdown passes in 2024.

As Klubnik stated, winning games is what he’s concerned with at the end of the day, and he helped the Tigers win 10 games last season, including a 34-31 victory over SMU in the ACC Championship Game that gave Clemson its eighth conference championship in the past 10 seasons and earned the program a berth in the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2020.

Klubnik put on an impressive performance against Texas in the CFP first-round game. Though the Tigers lost in Austin, 38-24, Klubnik carved up the Longhorns’ defense like nobody else did last season, throwing for 336 yards — the most by an opposing player against Texas last season — and three touchdowns.

As much success as Klubnik had last year, none of that is important to him now. It’s all in the rearview mirror, and he has a windshield mentality as he puts the past behind him and locks in on the season ahead – starting with the season opener against LSU at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium on Aug. 30.

“I’m not even really focused on last year. Nothing that happened last year is going to matter whenever we go set the ball down,” he said. “The work that we’ve put in the last eight months, that’s what’s going to matter. So, not really paying attention to it.”