Clemson QB Christopher Vizzina "Walking Away With Some Confidence" After First Start

After the announcement of Clemson Tigers starting quarterback Cade Klubnik being out last week, it was two years in the making for backup Christopher Vizzina to make his first collegiate start against SMU.

Despite the loss last weekend, Vizzina had the missing piece that he needed to grow: trust from the coaching staff and playing time in a high-stakes game.

However, if you ask the redshirt sophomore about what’s next, he says that there is plenty of improvement that is needed, using that as his fuel for practices of the course of the next two weeks.

“Obviously, first start, a lot of things to learn,” Vizzina said on Tuesday. “I was proud of myself for just how I took the situation and ran with it.”

The Birmingham, Alabama, native had an idea that he could have played throughout the week due to Klubnik’s sprained ankle, but the idea of him starting came true towards the end of the week. Vizzina was bummed out most about the team’s slow start, where Clemson didn’t score any points and barely made it across midfield.

The quarterback thinks a lot needs to be fixed, despite throwing for 317 yards and three touchdowns.

“I look at it, and there’s definitely some throws I want back, definitely some plays I want back,” Vizzina said. “Obviously, I’m really disappointed that we didn’t win. One thing that sticks out is just the slow start, and then I don’t think I made enough plays with my legs, and I don’t think I made enough plays in general to win the game, so that’s disappointing.”

On the optimistic side, there’s no better teacher than playing in meaningful games, and that was Vizzina’s first chance to prove that he’s Clemson’s next quarterback. He says that he 100% “some things I learned about myself this week.”

“Obviously, there’s a little bit more excitement throughout the week because I knew I was going to get to play,” he said, “but there’s a lot of things taken away from the prep side and the game side of just ‘Man, there’s things I can learn and things I did well,’ so I’m excited for the future with just the things I’ve learned.”

As for the future, it’s uncertain whether Klubnik will return to the team’s next game against Duke on Nov. 1. As he continues to return from the sprained ankle, eyes could move to Vizzina to make another start and get more comfortable with the offense.

The third-year quarterback doesn’t view the future like that, however. Similar to every week, he says that he can always end up playing any week, and preparation doesn’t change.

“There’s always a chance of me playing, so I have to prepare like I’m going to play, and that’s how it’s going to be this week and next week and every single week after that,” Vizzina said. “It doesn’t matter if they tell me if I’m playing or I’m not playing, like I’m going to prepare to play.”

As Clemson goes through the open date this weekend, Vizzina will be going into it with a lot more confidence than the weekends before. For him, all he had been waiting for was that chance, and he got it.

Now, it’s all about stacking days of confidence.

“I’ve kind of been waiting on that: just the opportunity to get in there and all the things,” Vizzina said. “I do it at practice all the time, but you get out there and you don’t know if you’re going to get to play on Saturday, that sucks sometimes. But I went out there and played as hard as I could, and we had some good things happen. You’re definitely walking away with some confidence.”