Dabo Swinney and the Clemson football program have a huge season coming up with the expansion to a 12 team College Football Playoff leaving more opportunities for teams to make a run and a statement.
For the Tigers to achieve the goals they have in 2024, quarterback play will have to improve. Starting quarterback Cade Klubnik has a ton of potential, and we’ve seen him flash excellence, but that potential needs to be translated onto the field.
There are a lot of questions surrounding Clemson’s quarterback situation, with ESPN recently ranking every FBS team’s quarterback situation by tiers. Clemson ranked low here, in tier 7, which was labeled the ‘ The Curse of ’22’.
The 2022 recruiting class could go down as one of the all-time biggest disappointments for quarterbacks. Per ESPN’s rankings, there were 31 quarterbacks rated as a four- or five-star recruit for 2022. They’ve so far combined for just 68 starts, a 53.8 Total QBR, 58.5% completions and 6.5 yards per pass. Just 14 have started a game, just 12 have thrown more than 50 college passes and eight have yet to attempt a pass. Ten have transferred already.
The most accomplished of the class so far are Allar (No. 2 pocket passer) and Klubnik (No. 1 dual threat), though both spent the bulk of their first full year as the starter dealing with outraged fans and dismal performances in their biggest games. In truth, we should probably have Allar and Weigman (No. 1 pocket passer) both ranked a bit higher and, perhaps, Klubnik and Murphy (No. 12 pocket passer) ranked a bit lower, but we’re lumping them together because they’ve all been afflicted by this same curse.
It’s tough to argue with this assessment. The 2022 class has been horrid from a quarterback perspective, though I don’t agree with Klubnik possibly going down in the rankings. He’s been just as good as Allar, and I’m not sure what they’re watching that indicates he’s been better. Especially from visuals alone, Allar has been bad.
Klubnik can prove these rankings wrong with a big season, and with Garrett Riley entering year 2 with more comfort in the program, it can definitely happen.