Clemson had a Week 7 bye following their underwhelming 17-12 win over Wake Forest, with starting quarterback Cade Klubnik meeting with the media on Monday after the bye week as the Tigers prepare for their Week 8 matchup against Miami.
Klubnik and the offense had a lot of work to do heading into their bye week, as we saw arguably the worst performance from that unit against Wake Forest. According to Klubnik, it was the second-worst game that he’s played. The sophomore quarterback completed 18-of-28 passes for 131 yards (season-low) and no touchdowns.
Discussing the win, Klubnik gave some insight into why it was such a poor game for him. The only game worse for him this season was the Week 1 opener against Duke.
“I wasn’t really just letting it rip,” he said. “I guess I wasn’t seeing a few things… I don’t think that it was anything that anybody else did or anything like that. You play a lot of football games, you’re going to happen like that. So, just kind of get ready for this next week. It was great timing for a bye week, and just kind of ready to go after it, go play another game.”
With all of this in the past, the important thing is the future. Did the Tigers work on what they needed to during the bye week to better themselves and prepare for the second half of the season? Klubnik believes so.
“We got after it. We didn’t let a day get wasted. We had a great week, and excited to just continue that,” Klubnik said. “Last week was almost our halftime in a way, so just kind of reset and rethinking, alright, what do I want these next six weeks to really look like? My hope is we get to play these next six games with no regrets and just go play, and give everything I possibly can and look up at the end of it and be happy with what we did.”
They have a great chance to prove they did the work needed as they head to Miami this Saturday, Oct. 21, which has been announced with a kick-off at 8 p.m. ET on ACC Network.