Every college football season kicks off with several programs emerging as serious title contenders. One of those teams is the Clemson Tigers — despite a start to the campaign that hasn’t quite met expectations. Cade Klubnik and head coach Dabo Swinney’s squad still hasn’t found its footing and will need to quickly make adjustments if it want to get its season back on track.
The recent loss to Syracuse hit hard within this successful program, with many questioning whether Klubnik should remain the starting quarterback or if, instead, backup Christopher Vizzina should be given a chance to lead the team.
During a recent press conference, questions about this situation were inevitable, but it was the coach himself who dismissed any speculation about a QB change for the upcoming game against North Carolina.
“We didn’t. I thought Cade competed his butt off,” Swinney said. “And, you know, he certainly missed a couple plays, but he made some good ones too. Made a lot of good ones. I thought he was good in the first half. Just couldn’t really get the ball and … no, I did not. We did not think about that.”
Time to raise their game
Swinney knows there’s no time to dwell on being 1-3 this season, especially with a rematch coming up soon in Chapel Hill. While the opponent will be tough, the head coach trusts his players’ talent to pull through.
“They give you eight (more games) for a reason, but we’ve got no room for error,” he said. “We’re uphill and the wind is at our face, for sure. Hey, we gotta go do it the hard way. Not going to be able to do it the easy way, but we’re not out. As long as we stay together and keep competing, anything can happen. The good news is, we’ve got a good team.
“We played a tough opener, we could’ve played East-West University, right? It probably feels different right now. We’ve got two losses that came down to the last freaking play of the game, and we’ve had opportunities in both of those games. Putting it all together has been our problem, that’s really been the frustrating thing.”
Taking responsibility
True to his style, Swinney made it clear that the responsibility for this slow start to the college football season rests with him — not his players, including Klubnik.
“It all falls on me, it’s my responsibility,” Swinney said. “I’m the head coach and I’ve been here a long time, been in a lot of games. I’ve had some 2-3 starts, in fact, in my first year and we went all the way to the ACC Championship game. I think we lost down here. We’ve had a couple of those type of moments, you just keep playing the games.
“I know the world we live in, I know the world we’ve created at Clemson with high expectations and excellence. I don’t have my head in the sand. I know there’s gonna be a ton of negativity, that comes with it. We can’t do anything about that, we’ve got to stay together and go play. In the end, you don’t have the start you want, but you can have the kind of ending you want. You still control that.”