ESPN’s lead college football analyst, Kirk Herbstreit, joined SportsCenter to discuss Clemson’s quarterback situation after starter DJ Uiagalelei was benched in the second half of the fifth-ranked Tigers’ eventual 27-21 win over then-No. 14 Syracuse last Saturday at Death Valley.
“Well we’ve been bragging about DJ’s improvement, his weight loss and how he’s involved in the run game, which is such an integral part of that Clemson scheme,” Herbstreit said. “And last week, he had a setback.”
Of course, true freshman Cade Klubnik took over for Uiagalelei after the junior threw his second interception of the game on Clemson’s third possession of the third quarter, part of a three-turnover day that also included him losing a fumble that was returned 90 yards for a touchdown.
Klubnik went just 2 of 4 passing for 19 yards in relief of Uiagalelei but helped inject life into Clemson’s offense, doing his part to ignite the team’s comeback from an 11-point deficit at the time he came in with just under five minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Klubnik’s showing against the Orange intrigues Herbstreit, who would be interested to see more from the former five-star prospect who has played in only five games this season, completing 9 of 19 passes for 85 yards and a touchdown.
“They’re very fortunate to have a true freshman like Cade who stepped in,” Herbstreit said. “And I don’t know about you, watching that game, they’re down a few scores and it was like a spark. And I know they were going some tempo and had a little bit more urgency, but he’s a young player who hasn’t really played much at all except for mop-up duty. It does start to make you say man, I want to see a little bit more of him.”
Dabo Swinney says Uiagalelei is still Clemson’s guy at quarterback, even after he was benched, and Uiagalelei said after the game that he understands Swinney’s decision to pull him — and he would have done the same thing if he were in Swinney’s position.
“I will give Dabo a lot of credit, and especially DJ and the way he handled the postgame interview,” Herbstreit said. “People of course all about, ‘What do you think, is there a controversy?’ and he was very mature in the way he handled it.”
As it stands now, Herbstreit doesn’t think the Tigers have a quarterback controversy.
“I think they have two guys that they feel good about,” he said. “I think knowing Dabo, he’s going to err on the side of seniority, the older guy, and he knows that if he runs into another little hiccup, he can always go to the true freshman to try to get him out of it. But for right now, it’s DJ’s job.”
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