Tom Herman sees the progression in Cade Klubnik

Cade Klubnik looks to build on his first home start performance in game three of the season hosting FAU this weekend.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Sep 14 12:59:03 GMT-04:00 2023

Florida Atlantic head coach Tom Herman is familiar with Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik after watching Klubnik play in high school, and Herman thinks the Tigers’ signal-caller is getting better with every snap.

Clemson hosts Florida Atlantic and Herman this Saturday at 8 p.m. (ACC Network) in a battle of 1-1 teams. The Tigers won last weekend over Charleston Southern, while FAU lost to Ohio.

Herman has been watching film of the Tigers and likes what he sees out of Klubnik and running back Will Shipley.

“I love Cade Klubnik, a kid I had a chance to watch quite a bit in high school and really fell in love with him and his game. My son went to the same high school for a year as Cade,” Herman said. “He is a player that you can almost chart the growth in every rep, every series, every game. The young man is getting better and better. They've got arguably the best all-around dynamic weapon in the ACC in Shipley. He's a do-everything guy, very, very similar to Christian McCaffrey in his time at Stanford.

“And then the sophomore receiver No. 0 (Antonio Williams), too. I mean, he's a heck of a player, too. So offensively, really, really explosive. And I think I read somewhere four out of five returning starters on the offensive line. I think 7,600 combined snaps in their career, which says a lot when you've got an experienced offensive line. And then defensively, very, very multiple, very athletic. When Coach (Brent) Venables left, you don't sense a whole lot of deviation from his stamp and his time there.”

The Owls trail the series 1-0, falling 54-6 on Sept. 2, 2006. The game was played at Clemson, and clips from that game have been seen in the Disney movie “Safety.” (Other shots were filmed in Memorial Stadium in 2019 when the Tigers played Charlotte). The Owls were in their third transition season from FCS to FBS and would go to the program’s first bowl game (New Orleans Bowl) a year later, becoming the youngest startup program to do so.

Herman knows his team will have to play well to win.

“We know we're going to we've got our work cut out for us, not just schematically, but certainly from a personnel standpoint,” Herman said. “And we're going to have to play our best to give ourselves a chance to win.”