Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney joined Out of Bounds with William Qualkinbush and Kelly Gramlich on WCCP 105.5 FM The Roar on Tuesday.
Swinney was asked what he has seen from junior D.J. Uiagalelei and freshman Cade Klubnik as they’ve competed at the quarterback position this spring, and what he’s looking forward to seeing from the two signal-callers during Saturday’s 1 p.m. spring game at Memorial Stadium.
“Just them doing their job,” Swinney said. “We know what we’re looking at as coaches. So, the main thing is just them doing a good job with the things that they control — playing at the quarterback position with good decision-making, good accuracy, and just taking care of the football, doing a nice job managing the run game and all the things that we evaluate day in and day out.”
Following Uiagalelei’s stellar freshman debut in 2020, when he threw for 781 yards and four touchdowns with no picks in two starts vs. Boston College and Notre Dame, the former five-star prospect completed just 55.6 percent of his passes for 2,246 yards and nine touchdowns with 10 interceptions in 13 starts last season.
Swinney, though, feels Uiagalelei finished his sophomore campaign on a high note and that he’s “had an excellent spring.”
“I’m really proud of him,” Swinney said. “He had a great freshman year. Last year, he had some rough spots, for sure. But as I’ve said many times, we weren’t very good around him, either. But man, he really finished well, and I think he’s carried that momentum into the spring and has done great.”
As for Klubnik, who enrolled early at Clemson in January, he has had a strong spring as well.
“Klubnik is this young guy that’s come in here, and man, he’s given us another guy at that position that is a real high-level player there,” Swinney said. “So, that’s a blessing.”
Klubnik completed 71.3 percent of his passes for 3,251 yards and 43 touchdowns against just three interceptions as a senior at Westlake High School (Austin, Texas) in 2021, despite missing three games with an injury. He also rushed 70 times for 465 yards and 12 scores.
The former five-star prospect and nation’s top-ranked QB in the 2022 class completed 70 percent of his career passes for 7,426 yards and 86 touchdowns vs. just seven interceptions, adding 197 carries for 1,319 rushing yards (6.7 average) and 31 touchdowns.
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