Tigers welcome open week, but focus moves to improvement, next opponent

Cade Klubnik says the performance against Wake Forest was his most inaccurate as a passer, and he'll work on improvement over the bye week.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Sun Oct 08 16:27:03 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON - The Tigers eked out 17 points in the win against Wake Forest to get their second ACC victory of the season on Saturday. This marked the lowest amount of points the offense has scored since their 28-7 loss to Duke in the season opener. The offense had a hard time getting in rhythm despite having over 200 rushing yards. Sophomore quarterback Cade Klubnik attributes this partly to his performance, where he had an unusually low quarterback rating and missed some relatively easy throws.

“They had a great defense. I’m not really sure what it was, but just little things here and there. A couple of bad throws, and I’d say it was probably my most inaccurate day. I missed two or three throws that I don’t normally miss,” Klubnik said. “I have high expectations for myself, so I’m going to be rethinking those throws all night long, but we got the best defense in the country. I’ll tell you that.”

Klubnik finished the game with 18 completions for 131 yards. This marked the lowest number of passing yards he’s had in a college start. He was, however, able to make some plays on the ground to get 48 rushing yards, his highest mark since the Orange Bowl against Tennessee last season. Junior running back Will Shipley also had a good day on the ground with 97 yards and a touchdown after tallying just 11 yards in the first half.

“Going back out after halftime, knew that I needed to step up, (junior running back) Phil (Mafah) and I kind of, both of us knew that we needed to step up and help this offense out, make it a little bit easier on the defense,” Shipley said. “So, I think it was just motivation coming out of halftime to do our part and step up.”

After giving up three sacks in each of the last two games, the offensive line also stepped up to ensure that Klubnik was not sacked at all in this game. They were also instrumental in the final drive to secure the game for Clemson.

“Our offensive line - no sacks, no pressures,” Klubnik said. “They balled out today, just so proud of them, and I mean just to finish like that, talk about how to start and how you finish and to finish with that, driving down like that and to finish and ending the game with that, it was good stuff.”

The Tigers are now on bye and will not play their next game until Saturday, October 21, against Miami; this will be their fifth ACC game of the season. Clemson blew up Miami, who just suffered their first loss of the season to ACC-opponent Georgia Tech Saturday evening, in a 40-10 rout last season.

“I feel like it’s definitely a good time (for the bye week),” junior linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr said. “That we’ll definitely be able to get more study time for Miami coming up. We’ll be able to get our bodies fresh, got some guys who were out today. So, we’ll be able to get healthy.”

The defense was the key to ensuring Clemson won against Wake Forest, so now the offense looks to use this time to do their part.

“I would say just continue to work on red zone. I think we did pretty good on that today, just continue to work on that. Super proud of our defense, the way they handled red zone today,” Klubnik said. “But, really, just coming out with a lot of energy and not taking an off week. We have an opponent. In our minds, we don’t play next Saturday, but in our minds, we have an opponent in two weeks. So, we’re getting ready for them.”