Dabo Swinney reveals plan moving forward for DJ Uiagalelei, Cade Klubnik

With Early Signing Day over, Clemson officially has a new five-star quarterback entering the fray. 

Cade Klubnik, the top quarterback in the 2022 class, will arrive at Clemson in a few weeks, and he will immediately be in a competition to start next fall. Head coach Dabo Swinney does not plan to waste any time with his quarterback room.

“We’ll hit the ground running, so he’ll be here Jan. 9,” Swinney said Wednesday, looking down at his watch. “About three weeks, hopefully he’ll have another third state championship to roll in here.”

Klubnik heads up the famed Westlake (Tx.) High School football team in Austin, and they will face Guyer (Tx.) High School in Dallas on Saturday night as part of the Texas state high school football playoffs. Clemson has their postseason game in front of them as well, as they face Iowa State on Dec. 29 in the Cheez-It Bowl.

Once Clemson and Klubnik finish their respective seasons, Swinney has a plan in place for the spring. 

“We’ll go finish this season, then these guys will get a little bit of a break,” the head coach said. “We’ll start our offseason program a little earlier than we have the last six plus years because we’re finishing earlier. We’ll get that rolling. These guys will go into the offseason. We’ll start the progression of teaching, of installation and getting the team ready for spring ball which will start March 1. Just jump right in and let’s go.” 

Clemson reached the College Football Playoff each year from 2015-2020 and advanced to the national championship in four of those seasons. While the 9-3 season was disappointing on the field this year, the Tigers carry their starting quarterback into 2022 unlike like year when Trevor Lawrence headed to the NFL. D.J. Uiagalelei will now be a veteran and leader for an otherwise inexperienced room.

“D.J. will do an amazing job,” Swinney said of his sophomore quarterback. “It’s going to be cool to see that junior version of D.J. now that he’s been that backup, he’s been that starter, he’s battled through injuries and some success and some disappointment and all those things.

“He’ll by far be the best version of himself, and I’m excited about that. I don’t have any doubt he’ll take him under his wing and same thing with Hunter (Helms). Same thing with Billy (Wiles). We’re going to have four good guys out there and get to work.”

Helms and Wiles are both walk-on players, but they will be put on scholarship per On3’s Matt Connolly. The former is a redshirt freshman, while the latter is a true freshman. Both have thrown a touchdown pass in their career, but their experience is limited.

The next iteration of the Clemson quarterback depth chart will start to become more clear beginning March 1.