Coming off a poor offensive performance in Clemson’s season-opening loss to LSU, Cade Klunbik is owning up to the part he played in the 17-10 defeat.

As the starting quarterback and one of the team leaders, Klubnik knows that in the toughest of times, everyone inside that locker room will be looking to him.

“Whether I want it or not, everybody is going to be looking to me and how I am going to react,” Klubnik said.

Coming into the season, Klubnik was on the receiving end of a lot of hype, including being one of the favorites to take home the Heisman.

The senior completed just 50% of his passes and threw an interception in the loss. The poor performance has once again shifted the narrative surrounding the five-star quarterback.

During the 2023 season, his first as the full-time starter, Klubnik was inconsistent. The narrative was that he just wasn’t the guy to lead this program back to the promised land. Last year, as a junior, Klubnik slowly changed that narrative after throwing for 36 touchdowns and just six interceptions.

One game into his senior campaign, those same questions he faced early in his career have resurfaced.

“I was pissed off after the game,” he added. “I was upset, and it took me a few days to really bounce back from it because of the way I played.”

“I felt pretty cruddy. Just upset at myself. That is really what it was. Just upset. Felt like I had really let some guys down. I know it is a team sport, but I own my mistakes. I just went around owning it, not shying away from my mistakes. I know what I did. I know I made some bad plays. I owned to it.”

While many have criticized how quickly the Tigers abandoned the running game, Klubnik doesn’t see it that way. The senior quarterback chooses to view it from the perspective of the coaches putting the ball in his hands, looking for the star quarterback to go out and win the game.

Clemson ended up passing on its final 19 plays, meaning Klubnik had every opportunity to do just that. Instead, the result was a familiar one. A third straight loss to open the season and a fourth straight loss to teams from the SEC.

“That is really the hard part,” Klubnik said. “I don’t feel like I went and lost the game, but I knew that I could have taken it over. In the second half, coach put the ball in my hands to take over the game, and I didn’t get the job done.”

Klubnik has never won a season opener as the starting quarterback, and seeing as this is his final season, he never will. However, there is nothing he can do to change that. The only thing he can do is look himself in the mirror, and once again, try and rewrite the narrative.

“Just go be me,” Klubnik said. “I don’t need to go be special and try to make plays that aren’t there. Make the plays that are there. Trust the game plan, trust the preparation, trust what we’ve been doing all week and go do it.”

Photo by Bart Boatwright