Cade Klubnik Fits Clemson 'Perfectly'

From the moment he committed, Cade Klubnik has been the embodiment of everything the Clemson culture represents.

The product of Austin Westlake, Klubnik is the top high school quarterback in the country, and one of the nation's top players overall. The highly-touted prospect just helped lead Westlake to a third consecutive state title on Saturday night, and the next step for the prized recruit is a collegiate career at Clemson, where he is scheduled to enroll in January.

"I'm fired up about Cade," new offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter said after Saturday's practice. "He fits this place perfectly. He fits it with the culture, he fits the character piece, and, you know, he's a talented kid... Talented kid."

Despite the fact that he has yet to even arrive on campus, expectations are steep. With Clemson's struggles on the offensive side of the ball this season, including inconsistent play from starting quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, some on the outside looking in are expecting a heated quarterback battle in the spring.

However, Uiagalelei was also once a prized prospect and one of the top quarterback's in the nation coming out of high school. Despite the up and down season, this is still currently his offense, and Streeter cautioned against expecting too much too soon.

"He's gonna come in and compete like all the other guys," Streeter said. "Cade's gonna come in and we got to see what he's about early on. Obviously, this is DJ's offense right now and I expect him to continue to get better. And that's what he's been able to do this season. He's been able to battle and battle and battle through these ups and downs, and it's gonna make him better."

Streeter did acknowledge that true freshman or not, bringing in a player with the kind of skillset Klubnik has will only improve the entire quarterback room, and that right now, the hope is that competition will make everyone better.

"Anytime you bring in a kid the caliber of Cabe, it just makes the whole room better," Streeter said. "That's what I take pride in with my group is that these guys push each other and there's nothing against each other. It's just, 'hey, we're competing, we're making each other better.' And they're all pulling for each other. So it's going to be an iron sharpening iron type of situation."

Deshaun Watson, who Dabo Swinney recently said Klubnik reminded him of, nor Trevor Lawrence, two of the best quarterbacks in program history, were able to win the starting job coming out of their first spring. In fact, neither won the job outright until well into their freshman seasons.

While expectations inside the fan base are extremely high for Klubnik, the coaching staff has a more realistic outlook for the quarterback's first spring practice. Past that, Streeter said the coaches will just let the chips fall where they may.

"I mean, throw him out there with the wolves," Streeter said. "That's how you do it whenever you first get here in that spring. Spring ball will be here at the beginning of March. So, as always, when Trevor got here and then all these young guys got here their first semester, you know, it's a lot. It's a lot to process. So that's going to be the key for him is to try to absorb as much as he can, not get frustrated whenever he makes a mistake, learn from it and continue to move forward. But he fits the mold and just really excited about it."

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