Cade Klubnik is confident he'll win a national championship at Clemson

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik made his goals and aspirations clear at ACC Media Days as he enters his sophomore season for the Tigers. He may have only started the final two games of the season last year for Clemson, but feels he’s more than capable to leading his team to the same heights as quarterbacks like Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson.

“The reason I came to Clemson is for two things, for the culture and to win a national championship. And I think I’m going to be able to do that here,” Klubnik said.

The Tigers haven’t made a national championship appearance since the 2019-2020 season when they fell to the unbeaten powerhouse LSU led by Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow.

But Klubnik could be the next Clemson quarterback to lead the Tigers back to the College Football Playoff, starting in the team’s two postseason matchups last year in two games that went two different ways.

He impressed in the team’s ACC title win versus North Carolina, scoring two total touchdowns and completing an impressive 83.3% of his passes. But he was disappointing in Clemson’s 31-14 loss to Tennessee in the Capital One Orange Bowl to end the season, where he threw for 320 yards but only completed 55.6% of his throws and threw two interceptions in the process.

“Specifically talking about that game we needed to finish drives, I think that’s what it started with. But I think honestly I’m just so proud of those guys for that game and I think that game is going to push us to the places we want to be this year. It’s put a little bit of a bad feeling in our stomach all year,” Klubnik explained.

But Klubnik and the Tigers are using that loss to fuel their fire, keeping it in their minds throughout the offseason as the seek to return to the national championship glory this program achieved not too long ago.

“Obviously we had a really successful year if you look at the overall picture of it, ACC Champions and 11-3 finish, that’s an amazing year. But to finish with a loss, it’s always gonna leave something a little dirty in your soul. So just going into this offseason it’s been great,” Klubnik said. “I think it’s been helping us and just a little bit more of a grittiness to us than I’ve seen before. It’s gonna be fun.”