Cade Klubnik could barely walk this week, according to Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney. But the Tigers’ quarterback managed to tough it out Saturday night.

Klubnik led Clemson (4-5, 3-4 ACC) to a 24-10 win over Florida State (4-5, 1-5) at Memorial Stadium, completing 20-of-27 passes for 221 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. The senior signal caller also scored his third rushing touchdown of the season on a 4-yard score on Clemson’s opening drive.

Following the game, Swinney said Klubnik was dealing with a quad injury this week, not the ankle injury that he suffered at Boston College on Oct. 11, which caused him to miss the SMU game one week later.

“Cade’s awesome,” Swinney said. “He’s just a warrior. The dude is a competitor. That’s back-to-back weeks he’s barely been able to practice. This week, it was a quad. His ankle was fine, but he couldn’t hardly walk all the way till Thursday.

“Each day, he’d take very limited reps. I’d say, ‘Cade…’ And he’d say, ‘I’ll be ready by Saturday. I’ll be ready.’ And Thursday, I said, ‘Cade…’ He’s like, ‘I’ll be ready.’ He’s just unbelievably committed. He’s tough as they come, and the kid cares so much. I’m just really proud of him.”

Swinney said Klubnik hurt his quad in last week’s loss to Duke.

“Yeah, on the corner cat that got us. Hit him right in the thigh,” Swinney said. “He could hardly walk. It was swollen up. So yeah, he really couldn’t even practice much. He got just a little bit better each day. Did nothing Monday, hardly anything Tuesday. A little bit on Wednesday, a little bit more on Thursday.

“But he’s just a relentless competitor, and I’m just proud of his leadership. The kid plays with a lot of joy, plays with a lot of toughness. He’s taking care of the football.”

Klubnik has now gone three consecutive games and 108 consecutive pass attempts without an interception.

Early in Saturday’s game vs. FSU, Klubnik (10,217) became the fourth player in Clemson history to record 10,000 career yards of total offense (total yards thrown and/or gained), joining Tajh Boyd (13,069 from 2010-13), Deshaun Watson (12,094 from 2014-16) and Trevor Lawrence (11,041 from 2018-20).

Swinney added that “it was a miracle that he was even out there running at all” on Saturday night against the Noles.

“I think he’ll get better,” Swinney said. “I think it’s one of those things it’s getting better each day. So I’d say he might be a little sore tomorrow. But probably by Monday, he’ll be even better.” 

Klubnik and the Tigers will hit the road to face Louisville on Friday at the Cardinals’ L&N Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.