Dabo Swinney on decision to bench DJ Uiagalelei in favor of Cade Klubnik, comeback victory over Syracuse

It wasn’t always pretty, but Dabo Swinney was excited to see Clemson pull out a close victory over Syracuse on Saturday.

The Orange took it to the Tigers throughout the first half, scoring 21 unanswered points and took a 21-10 lead to the break. After Clemson came out struggling to begin the second half, Swinney made a decision that many were waiting all season for — replacing quarterback DJ Uiagalelei with star freshman Cade Klubnik.

Uiagalelei was benched after he threw his second interception of the day, bringing his stat line to 138 passing yards, no touchdowns and two picks. Afterwards, Klubnik only completed 2-of-4 passes for 19 passing yards, but he led multiple scoring drives to bring the Tigers the victory.

Swinney made sense of the move by likening Uiagalelei to Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, and reinforcing his support in his quarterback moving forward.

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“Sometimes Steph Curry goes 2-for-25. Your best player sometimes can have a bad day and he just got out of rhythm, made some bad plays. We just needed a change,” explained Swinney, during his post-game interview with Molly McGrath. “We showed we got that guy that can come in. D.J.’s our quarterback, there ain’t no question about that. That’s our guy, that’s our leader. You can write that right now. D.J.’s our guy. He’s got to play better and he will.

“But how about Cade Klubnik coming in there and leading these guys?”

Meanwhile, Syracuse had a shot to pull off the upset with less than a minute remaining, defensive back RJ Mickens sealed the game with an interception. In doing so, the Tigers clinched the sole spot at the top of the record books in the ACC for home victories, and Swinney made sure to shout out his past teams while speaking of the accomplishment.

“This is a special moment. A lot of adversity but man, our team has shown they can win a lot of different ways. To come back, change quarterbacks — D.J. just didn’t have it today — Cade came in and got it done. This was a great team win,” stated Swinney. “Shoutout to the Valley, but man, this was a historic win and I’m so thankful for our guys of ’16 and ’17 and ’18 and ’19 and ’20 and ’21 to give us a chance to have a moment like this. It’s special.

“I hate we didn’t play very well, we didn’t take care of the ball well, but it’s a four-quarter game and we finished tonight. That’s all that matters.”

Now, Clemson enters an open-week before an all-important matchup with Notre Dame, while Syracuse will look to rebound with a showdown against the aforementioned Fighting Irish next weekend.

While the Oranges’ dreams of the College Football Playoff have been dashed, Dabo Swinney can smile with his team’s more than alive.