Uiagalelei, Klubnik Both Made Plays in Clemson’s Scrimmage

Improvement on offense is leading to improved play at quarterback for the Clemson Tigers.

Jason Priester All Clemson

CLEMSON, S.C. — Dabo Swinney was really pleased with how his offense played in Clemson’s first stadium scrimmage of fall camp Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

As Swinney described it, the Tigers were a mess on offense last year. Clemson’s offense ranked eighth or worse in the ACC in almost every major statistical category, including 13 in total offense (359.2 yards per game).

But on Saturday, he saw life in his offense. He saw a unit that was confident and was making plays and doing it against a defense many considered to be the best in the country.

“Those first seven or eight offensive linemen have a lot of good chemistry. Those backs, our tight ends, the receivers are making plays and all of that … what does all of that do? Everything around the quarterback, what does that do? Does that make the quarterback better or worse? Exactly,” Swinney said. “When all of that isn’t good, does it make the quarterback better or worse? Worse. Exactly! This is not rocket science.

“It affects their confidence and all of those things. Then, you know, the quarterback starts trying to do too much because the quarterback is getting all the blame. They get all the credit too.”

Because everyone else is better, DJ Uiagalelei and Cade Klubnik are playing calmly. They are letting the game come to them, instead of trying to force things.

The result is an offense that is now competing and making plays.

“I am proud of DJ. He made two or three big plays with his legs today. The same thing with Cade,” Swinney said. “I think Cade ended up with two touchdowns in the goal line, red-zone area. So, it was good to see the quarterbacks making plays with their legs, both running it and extending plays.”

Swinney mentioned that Uiagalelei and Klubnik both made a mistake during the scrimmage but overall, they played well.

“We made some big plays in the passing game. I was really pleased with DJ. He had one mistake and Cade had one critical mistake,” Swinney said.

Despite the critical mistake, Klubnik shook it off and had a good scrimmage.

“He just kinda picked up where he left off (in the spring),” Swinney said. “The moment is never too big for him. He is just a very natural kid. He is very eager. He has a lot of natural energy. I thought he did a good job.

“He had one really bad play, but he is just a bigger, stronger version of what we saw in the spring. He is smarter.” 

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