CLEMSON – Cade Klubnik has answered the same season-opening press-conference questions three years in a row.
Each season as Clemson’s starting quarterback, he has left the locker room after a season-opening loss, sat under bright camera lights, and faced the inevitable:
“What happened?”
After a 28-7 defeat to Duke in 2023 — a game marred by two fumbles and the breakout of future NFL quarterback Riley Leonard — Klubnik’s response was blunt.
“We lost to Clemson,” the then-sophomore said, stressing the need to “flush it” and move on.
That season, the Tigers stumbled to a 4-4 start, undone by turnovers, inconsistency, and poor cohesion. But they rallied, winning five straight to finish 9-4, capped by a bowl victory over Kentucky in which Klubnik engineered a game-winning drive to secure Clemson’s 13th straight nine-win season.
Six months later, following a 34-3 loss to Georgia in the 2024 opener, the same postgame question came again. This time, Klubnik’s tone was different.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m not quitting on this team,” he said, insisting he was “more encouraged” than before the season began.
The comment puzzled outsiders. How could a blowout loss be encouraging? Was Klubnik a guy that had the ability to lead Clemson back to success?
By season’s end, the answer was yes.
Klubnik threw for 3,639 yards, 36 touchdowns, and just six interceptions, guiding Clemson to an ACC Championship, a College Football Playoff berth, and its 14th straight winning season. That Georgia loss seemed like a distant memory.
So, when Clemson entered 2025 with lofty expectations — and a chance to break its opener curse against LSU — optimism was high.
Instead, the curse continued. Clemson fell 17-10 in a scrum at Memorial Stadium. Klubnik managed 230 yards with no touchdowns, the ground game mustered just 31 yards on 20 carries, and once again the junior quarterback sat in front of cameras, each backed by a person demanding answers.
“Whether we end up winning or losing the game, we’ve got a great team,” Klubnik said after the loss. “We believe that. We got a lot that we need to get better at and we just didn’t make the plays we needed to make, didn’t make the throws we needed to make. We weren’t aggressive enough and time ran out.”
On paper, the offense was stagnant. Klubnik finished with just one rushing yard on eight attempts, and the Tigers never found rhythm.
Still, Klubnik framed the setback as a starting point.
“I think we did a really good job (of bouncing back) last year,” he said. “I wish we could have started out with a win. But just look at what you got to get better and be a hard critic and just lead them. You got to show up on Monday ready to roll and that’s really what it comes down to. I got to show up on Monday and bring the energy and bring the fire.”
This year, bouncing back to immediate success has a blueprint.
Now, after a week to flush another season-opening loss, Clemson gets its chance to rebound. The Tigers host Troy on Saturday at Memorial Stadium, with kickoff set for 3:30 p.m.