The optics of the move are not great, considering Dabo went out and easily pulled in the biggest OC name in the game, while we hired a guy named Dowell. We come off looking like Golden Corral while Clemson looks like a 3 star Michelin rated restaurant. The move is justifiably getting a lot of hype, but I'm not pushing the panic button just yet.
For one, Klubnik isn't a generational QB talent like Watson or Lawrence. However good he may or may not be, and I do think he will be good, he's not THAT good. Watson and Lawrence were top 5 college QBs from the moment they set foot on campus and could have started at any program in the country. That's not Klubnik, at least at the moment. He looked scintillating against UNCs terrible defense in the ACCCG, leading to all the "if only he had played against USC!" talk. But then against UTs 30th ranked defense, he looked very pedestrian. Obviously, he's a true freshman, so he'll get better, but he doesn't give the sense of unavoidable doom that came with Watson and Lawrence. Yet.
As far as Riley, he appears to be a good OC, and he was at the top of my wish list, along with many other USC fans. But I have to wonder how much hype there would be around him if he wasn't Lincoln Riley's younger brother. He'd obviously still be regarded as a good OC, but a fair amount of hype is unquestionably linked to him becoming the next Lincoln. We shall see. As far as his offense, it's hard to tell from his days at SMU. They played a terrible schedule. The one good team they faced, Cincinnati, shut their offense down both times. He has one year of P5 OC experience, and his offense looked good, albeit in the Big 12, which isn't exactly known for defense. Of course, we know what happened to his offense against UGA. There are no adjectives in the English language to describe what UGA did to their offense. But it IS Georgia.
I'm not sticking my head in the sand over the hire, but I'm not 100% convinced it's the absolute slam dunk hire it would immediately appear to be. The jury is out on how good Klubnik will be, and the landscape of college football history is littered with the carcasses of "the next big thing in coaching" who never lived up to the hype. I'm 85% sure this will work out well for Clemson, but I think there's at least a chance it doesn't lead to spectacular results.
Of course, if we had hired Riley, I would have ignored all of the above and just said it was a slam dunk.
For one, Klubnik isn't a generational QB talent like Watson or Lawrence. However good he may or may not be, and I do think he will be good, he's not THAT good. Watson and Lawrence were top 5 college QBs from the moment they set foot on campus and could have started at any program in the country. That's not Klubnik, at least at the moment. He looked scintillating against UNCs terrible defense in the ACCCG, leading to all the "if only he had played against USC!" talk. But then against UTs 30th ranked defense, he looked very pedestrian. Obviously, he's a true freshman, so he'll get better, but he doesn't give the sense of unavoidable doom that came with Watson and Lawrence. Yet.
As far as Riley, he appears to be a good OC, and he was at the top of my wish list, along with many other USC fans. But I have to wonder how much hype there would be around him if he wasn't Lincoln Riley's younger brother. He'd obviously still be regarded as a good OC, but a fair amount of hype is unquestionably linked to him becoming the next Lincoln. We shall see. As far as his offense, it's hard to tell from his days at SMU. They played a terrible schedule. The one good team they faced, Cincinnati, shut their offense down both times. He has one year of P5 OC experience, and his offense looked good, albeit in the Big 12, which isn't exactly known for defense. Of course, we know what happened to his offense against UGA. There are no adjectives in the English language to describe what UGA did to their offense. But it IS Georgia.
I'm not sticking my head in the sand over the hire, but I'm not 100% convinced it's the absolute slam dunk hire it would immediately appear to be. The jury is out on how good Klubnik will be, and the landscape of college football history is littered with the carcasses of "the next big thing in coaching" who never lived up to the hype. I'm 85% sure this will work out well for Clemson, but I think there's at least a chance it doesn't lead to spectacular results.
Of course, if we had hired Riley, I would have ignored all of the above and just said it was a slam dunk.
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