Dabo Swinney and the Clemson football program has a big season coming up as expansion to a 12 team College Football Playoffs leaving more opportunities for teams to make a run and make a statement.
For the Tigers will achieve their goals in 2024, the quarterback’s play will have to improve. Starting quarterback Cade Klubnik has a lot of potential, and we’ve seen him show excellence, but that potential needs to translate onto the field.
There are a lot of questions surrounding Clemson’s quarterback situation, with ESPN recently ranked each FBS team’s quarterback situation by tiers. Clemson was ranked low here at level 7, what it was labeled as ‘The Haunting of ’22’.
The 2022 recruiting class could go down as one of the biggest disappointments of all time for quarterbacks. According to ESPN’s rankings, there were 31 quarterbacks classified as four- or five-star recruits for 2022. So far, they have combined for just 68 starts, a 53.8 total QBR, 58.5% completions and 6.5 rushing yards. per pass. Only 14 have started a game, only 12 have thrown more than 50 college passes and eight have yet to attempt a pass. Ten have already been transferred.
The most successful of the class so far are Allar (2nd pocket passer) and Klubnik (1st dual threat), although both spent most of their first full year as a starter dealing with outraged fans and dismal performances in their biggest games . In fact, we should probably have Allar and Weigman (#1 pocket passer) ranked a little higher, and maybe Klubnik and Murphy (#12 pocket passer) ranked a little lower, but we’re grouping them together because they all were afflicted by this same curse.
It’s hard to argue with that assessment. The 2022 class has been horrible from a quarterback standpoint, although I don’t agree with Klubnik falling down the rankings. He’s been as good as Allar, and I’m not sure what they’re watching that suggests he’s any better. Especially just by looks, Allar has done poorly.
Klubnik could prove those rankings wrong with a big season, and with Garrett Riley entering Year 2 with more comfort in the program, that could definitely happen.
