How Clemson QB Cade Klubnik bounced back for a signature win vs. South Carolina
When he threw the end zone interception, it felt like the same old story.
At that moment, late in the first quarter of Saturday’s Clemson-South Carolina football game, Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik had thrown 71 career passes against the Gamecocks. And early in his third career start vs. USC, those passes had amounted to three interceptions … and zero touchdowns.
When you remember he overthrew a wide-open Antonio Williams in the end zone the previous play, that critical red-zone turnover looked even worse.
But in Clemson’s 28-14 win against rival USC at Williams-Brice Stadium, Klubnik bounced back from his early errors and earned a legacy-defining win.
He’s now 2-1 against South Carolina and the 13th Clemson QB with multiple wins vs. USC since World War II.
And according to Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, the perseverance Klubnik showed could be found all over the field from other Clemson players, too. Otherwise, Swinney said, Clemson wouldn’t be sitting at 7-5 after a 3-5 start.
“At a place like Clemson that’s won so much, there’s so much noise, especially when expectations are high. ... Just really toxic stuff — like nasty,” Swinney said. “But they just block it out. And that’s not normal. I get to witness that every day.”
Preseason No. 4 Clemson got off to a 3-5 start that had the Tigers teetering on the verge of missing a bowl game, despite bringing back what most people viewed as the most talented roster in the ACC and one of the best in the country.
They made critical mistakes and just looked off through eight games.
That same group has now won four straight against Florida State (home), then-No. 20 Louisville (road), Furman (home) and South Carolina (road) and has put itself in position for win No. 8 in its bowl game. Only Alabama and Georgia have eight or more wins each of the last 15 years. Clemson can join the group next month.
“We love football,” Klubnik said. “We love to play, we love to compete and we love each other. And that’s really what it comes down to.”
Klubnik’s big day after early mistake
Things looked bleak for the Clemson offense after its first three drives, which ended in a punt, a punt and a goal-line interception.
But Klubnik and a starting unit down multiple starting offensive linemen scored on their next three possessions to take a 17-14 lead into halftime.
Clemson went up 20-14 after a third-quarter field goal and — although the offense missed a few chances to completely put South Carolina away — played with a balance and efficiency rarely seen this season.
Klubnik was 24 of 39 (62%) for 268 yards and had seven completions of 15 or more yards. He was also 7 of 10 passing on third down, averaged a stellar 11.2 yards per completion and had a highlight-reel touchdown in the first half where he dropped back, fumbled the ball, picked up his own fumble and outran a USC defender for a 3-yard score on third and goal.
Oddly, Klubnik ends his career with zero passing touchdowns and three interceptions vs. South Carolina. But he did hit a two-point pass to running back Adam Randall in the fourth quarter and played his best overall game vs. USC.
Klubnik (26-13) also moved past Charlie Whitehurst (25-15) for sole possession of the fifth-most wins by a Clemson starting quarterback since World War II.
Not bad for someone who sat in his car crying for an hour after throwing a game-ending interception at home vs. South Carolina last year and told reporters this week he’d been thinking about that specific play “every day” since it happened.
Was Saturday a redemption of sorts for Klubnik?
“Absolutely,” he said postgame. “It absolutely was. To go out against those guys with a win at their place, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Redemption across the board for Tigers on Saturday
Those sorts of storylines were all over Saturday’s game.
Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley called a strong game, sticking to the run and feeding Randall (who had a season-high 24 carries for 102 yards and a TD) in moments where Rile had oddly gone away from the run earlier this season. Williams, an Irmo native who had a key fumble in his first game against USC, had a team-high seven catches for 66 yards on 13 targets.
And a Tigers defense that was embarrassed by South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers last year shut down USC’s star QB as a runner. Sellers had 178 non-sack rushing yards and two touchdowns at Clemson last year, including a game-winning touchdown run with 1:06 left in the game.
On Saturday, Clemson sacked Sellers five times, tackled him cleanly when he scrambled and limited the talented quarterback to two net rushing yards on 12 carries. As Swinney pointed out postgame, that’s the same number of receiving yards Clemson offensive lineman Collin Sadler had after catching a tipped pass.
Four forced turnovers — including a huge pick-six by safety Ricardo Jones when South Carolina had the ball trailing 20-14 with 3:30 remaining — helped Clemson offset Sellers’ career day as a passer. The Tigers were gashed for 381 yards and gave up two long first-half TD passes but allowed zero second-half points.
“Everybody’s had to live with that all year,” Swinney said of Sellers’ 2024 heroics. “So you turn the pain into purpose. And these guys, they came here to do exactly what they did and they got it done.”
Clemson has now won nine of 11 games against South Carolina and six consecutive games against the Gamecocks in Columbia dating back to 2015. It’s a big win for Clemson to end the regular season — and a big win for Klubnik.
“I don’t think that my legacy is my record versus a team,” Klubnik said. “I think my legacy is the impact that I’ve had on people’s lives.”
He grinned.
“But it’s pretty great to be 2-1 versus those guys.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2025 at 7:30 AM.
