Greg McElroy believes Clemson's Cade Klubnik is the best college football quarterback entering 2025

Greg McElroy, like several analysts, had one quarterback atop his offseason rankings earlier in the spring. As the season gets closer during the summer and into the fall, he has made and defended that point again.

On ‘Get Up’ on Thursday, McElroy again chose Clemson’s Cade Klubnik as his best quarterback in college football. He noted that it’s Klubnik looking ahead to what he could be in his senior season but considering the step he made as a junior, it’s a prediction that McElroy feels good about.

“I’m going to go with Cade Klubnik,” McElroy stated. “It’s a bit of a projection because this is a guy that, two years ago, had the weight of the world, the expectations on his shoulders in the first year as a full-time starter, and it wasn’t good. It wasn’t great. It got better as the season went along, but it really wasn’t very good throughout the course of the entire season. But last year, what a jump he made. He was fantastic. Now, I think the sky’s the limit with a veteran receiving corps and a really good offensive line.”

After being the No. 1 QB recruit in his class, Klubnik didn’t really live up to it as an underclassman at Clemson. In 23 games played with 14 starts, Klubnik completed 62.5% of his throws for 154 yards per game with 21 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, which had him at 27 scores and 16 turnovers in total. That includes his first full season as a starter as a sophomore at 63.9% completion for 2,844 yards, at 218.8 a game, with 19 passing touchdowns and nine picks, to have a total of 13 turnovers.

Then, last season, it clicked for Klubnik with one of the better offensive seasons in school history. He posted 63.4% completion for 3,639 yards, at nearly 260 yards a game, with 36 touchdowns and six interceptions, bringing him overall to 43 scores and seven turnovers. That led the Tigers to being Top 20 in scoring offense at 34.7 points per game and Top 12 in total offense at 451.9 yards on average. That, paired with a decent defense, got Clemson back to the successes of their previous seasons by winning the ACC and returning to the CFP.

Now, Klubnik is back for a final season, trying to top that one before, which could make him a Heisman candidate and the Tigers a national title contender in the College Football Playoff. He’ll have his chance to do all of that with his top three receivers all back and with it not just being his fourth season in total, third as a starter, in his development, but with it being his third season in the system as well under OC Garett Riley.

Klubik is, for good reason, broadly within the Top Five to Top 10 quarterbacks when it comes to many rankings for next season. McElroy is among them as he again says he has him at No. 1 at the position going into 2025.