CLEMSON – Every year, roughly 4,000 Clemson undergraduate students–future engineers and teachers, writers and lawyers–funnel into Littlejohn Coliseum in a frenzy of anticipatory excitement.

These students–mostly seniors– gather in their Sunday best to walk across a freshly-hoisted stage, shake hands with administrative big-wigs, and at last, receive their Clemson class ring after completing at least 90 credit hours towards their desired degree.

The Clemson Ring, as a former Military School is a longstanding tradition at Clemson, which “recognizes the accomplishments of Clemson graduates and, as a ring that has changed very little since it was presented to the first graduating class in 1896. It is widely recognizable among alumni around the world.”

One especially recognizable Clemson alum joined the ring-bearing ranks last year.

At one ceremony last April, sudden cheers rose from fellow students and attendees as the words ‘Cade Klubnik’ flashed across the jumbotron, and the then-Tigers’ starting quarterback, sporting a sheepish smile, was presented with his Clemson ring.

“I love this place,” Klubnik said after the Duke game. “I got a few more days here, and I want to just give it everything I have. The fans that are here and the community, everything of what it means to be here, it’s just been a dream come true.”

When Klubnik was presented with his ring, donned with a block-letter “C,” and a palmetto tree, he, alongside his classmates, also received a commemorative coin, with two words that aptly fit the signal-callers’ collegiate career.

“Ever loyal,” the shiny, black, quarter-sized piece of metal read.

After nearly 200 quarterbacks entered the transfer portal ahead of the 2025 season, Klubnik decided to live by the coin’s creed, turning down the NFL Draft and other collegiate offers to return to Clemson for a third season as the Tigers’ starter. 

Though he entered his senior year as a potential Heisman Trophy candidate, strapped with loyalty and experience unclaimed by many in his position, Klubnik’s 2025 season did not turn out the way he, or many national pundits, envisioned. 

In 2025, Clemson fell to a 7-6 record, its worst finish since 2010, after starting the year ranked No. 4 in the nation. Klubnik, a two-time ACC Championship MVP, sustained an ankle injury that sidelined him for a game and kept him limited far longer as his statistics dropped off after a dynamic junior season.

Despite the adversity, Klubnik believes his loyalty to Clemson, and lessons learned in 2025, have prepared him for a professional football career. Now, he uses his Clemson career, warts and all, in “job interviews” with NFL teams ahead of the 2026 Draft.

“I tell them about my career,” Klubnik said, explaining his conversations with NFL staffers to The Clemson Insider on Monday. “I’m a competitor, and I’m resilient. Being able to fight through adversity and through injuries and fight through negative times.

“I feel like I am really just telling my story. I have my story, and I think that it’s a really unique one, a really special one that just gets to show who I am.”

In Klubnik’s early meetings with professional staffers at the NFL Combine, conversations resembled more traditional job interviews — a time to tell his story.

“Where are you from?” Klubnik said, recounting questions NFL teams rattled off. “What made you who you are? What have you been through?”

And, just as he mastered the art of giving a self-oriented elevator pitch in Indianapolis, where the Combine was held last month, Klubnik was extracted from postgrad interviews and placed right back into the classroom by countless NFL offensive coordinators and quarterback coaches. 

“Now, I have like two to three Zoom calls a day with teams,” Klubnik said. “After the Combine, all of the Zoom calls are all really about football IQ.”

Those calls, Klubnik said, start with a staffer teaching him an “install,” or “protection,” in approximately three minutes. After the mini-lecture, not fully unsimilar to the business classes Klubnik took at Clemson, he watches film and points out what he sees — blitzes and coverages, goals and downfalls of any given scheme. Finally, 45 minutes later, he is quizzed on the initial play from the opening moments.

“You pretty much have to regurgitate and teach them back those plays and those formations and the protections as well as you possibly can with no mistakes, with their terminology in every little detail in about half as long as they did it,” Klubnik said.

“You got to lock in. You start doing a lot of them and you can kind of get in the flow of things, but every single one is a job interview with another company, so you’ve got to treat every one like it’s the most important one that you are ever doing.”

Like many of the ring-receivers that Klubnik sat with a year ago in a bustling Littlejohn Coliseum, the quarterback is unsure of his next employer, city, or salary after leaving Clemson. Despite having over 10,000 career passing yards, 90 total touchdowns, and 40 starts under his belt, Klubnik is “in the dark” about where he will be this time in a year, or even in a month, after the NFL Draft concludes on April 25.

Still, being in the position to discuss the NFL Draft and have lengthy conversations with “household names” feels surreal to the former All-ACC selection.

“I think that it is really going to hit me on that night,” Klubnik said. “I think for me, I’m just trying to really get better every day and be the most prepared I can be.”

His preparation will include a few more weeks of training in California with quarterbacks coach Jordan Palmer, after an Easter Weekend in Austin, Texas for some long-awaited family time.

Now, with two ACC Championship rings from Clemson’s success on the field and one from the University itself for personal scholarship, Klubnik hopes to achieve another milestone — this time to hear his name called by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at the 2026 NFL Draft, which will be held in Pittsburgh, Pa., from April 23-25.

No matter where Clemson’s former signal-caller ends up, however, he will undoubtedly, always be known as “Ever loyal.” 

And he has the Clemson ring to prove it.