Swinney's Patience in QB Paying Off

A part of it comes from Swinney’s second season with the Tigers, where the team went 6-6 and many believed that he would be fired in the offseason, including the head coach himself. Terry Phillips, the athletic director at the time, relayed a similar message that Swinney would eventually have for Klubnik more than 10 years later. 

“My second year as a head coach, I won six games, and my AD, I thought that he was going to fire me,” he said. “Instead, he calls me and says ‘Hey, I believe in you more now than I ever did, and I know you’re going to get this thing right. You just keep doing what you’re doing, I just want you to know I believe in you... You’re my guy.’”

A part of it, Swinney says, is from the lack of adversity that Klubnik faced in his young career. With Westlake High School, he won three state championships and moved onto Elite 11 shortly after, where he won the MVP in 2021. 

In one of his first full games with Clemson, he won the ACC Championship game against North Carolina and won the MVP of that game as well. Fast forward to November 2023, and the Tigers were 4-4 in Klubnik’s first season as the starter. 

“Well then, in his first year as a starter next year, he took some sacks, he turned it over, he wasn’t perfect but he was growing,” Swinney said. “And for the first time in his real football career, he had a lot of football adversity and a lot of criticism. "

It took off from there, and the pieces began to be put together. Wins against Notre Dame, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, South Carolina and Kentucky saw the Tigers run the table, and Klubnik only grew from the end of that season into 2024, where he saw a second team All-ACC selection at the end of the year. 

Swinney saw his quarterback overcome that adversity and begin to shine, which sets him up for a potential fairy tale story in 2025. 

“It either shines you up or grinds you up, it’s about what you’re made of, and he’s made of the right stuff,” Swinney said. “I’m just really proud of him and now he’s the absolute leader of this football team, and he’s a kid that’s the epitome of what we talked about.”

Klubnik has a chance to grow even more with a Week 1 home matchup with the LSU Tigers, and the sky is the limit for his growth into next offseason, where he looks to go into the NFL Draft. 

"He's a kid who loves where he's at,” Swinney said. “He blooms where he's planted. He loves ball, he's a gym rat. I'm just really proud of him."

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