On Sunday, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney reaffirmed that DJ Uiagalelei remains the Tigers’ starting quarterback and will run out first in Saturday’s ACC Championship Game against North Carolina.

“Yeah, he’s still the starter. Still the starter,” Swinney said. “He’s not the reason we lost the game. He can’t catch it, and again, he doesn’t play safety. He doesn’t return kicks. So, he’s got his share of things that he can do better. But he will definitely start the game.”

On Monday night, during his radio call-in show, Swinney once again fielded questions about Clemson’s quarterback situation.

The first question Swinney was asked is whether Uiagalelei is still the QB1 or if there will be a change at the position.

“Yeah, DJ will start the game,” Swinney said. “That’s where we’ll start at.”

Swinney was later asked by a caller to walk through his process of evaluating the quarterback situation with Uiagalelei and true freshman backup Cade Klubnik.

“The process is knowing reality,” Swinney said. “I know what the issues are, not what some people think they are. Sometimes everybody’s on the same page. But DJ, the reality is, he’s had a good year. He’s had a much better year. He’s a great leader. He’s unbelievably respected. He works incredibly hard, and he can really do it. But his worst game was the Syracuse game. He really did not play well. But at that point, we had won 14 in a row and Cade’s coming, but you’re not going to bench a guy that’s won 14 games in a row for you. Cade went in and got some good experience, and so you come back the next week, and then he didn’t play well at Notre Dame.

“But again, he wasn’t the reason we lost. If it was, we would have made a change. That game was a disaster. We put Cade in that game, and he threw the pick there on the 5. So, it kind of went into the next game with alright, this is where you are, and you got to play well. And he played lights out against Louisville and Miami. So, we got to get Cade in there a little bit in both of those games, but he really played well.”

Swinney went on to reiterate that he feels Uiagalelei is not the reason Clemson lost to South Carolina last Saturday.

“I mean, he’s just not,” Swinney said. “I know everybody wants to blame the quarterback, but he doesn’t hold the ball, he doesn’t cover a punt, he doesn’t play safety, he doesn’t do any of those things. He doesn’t return a kick or the punt. So, he’s got some ownership, too. He certainly didn’t play perfect. But we dropped, I don’t even know how many balls that we dropped. … Again, he missed some plays… There were some things that he could do better, but he’s not why we lost the game.”

Swinney added that he believes Uiagalelei deserves the chance to lead the Tigers to an ACC title on Saturday against the Tar Heels.

“I’m never going to compromise what I think is right. I’m just not going to ever do that,” he said. “I don’t care what people say. So, I know what’s right and I’m going to do what’s right. So, he’s not done anything to not have the opportunity to go lead this 10-2 team to win an ACC Championship. Does he got to play well? Yup. There’s no room for error there. But he’s shown that he’ll respond. So, there’s really not much more than that.”

As for Klubnik, Swinney sees a bright future ahead for the former five-star prospect from Texas — and said he’ll be ready if his number needs to be called on Saturday.

“Cade is a special, special talent,” Swinney said. “His time is coming, and I think he’s going to be a great one. I do. I think he’s going to be a star for us, and excited for that opportunity. He’ll be ready on Saturday to go in there if we need him, and hopefully DJ will bounce back and play great and we’ll all play better around him, and again, we’ll play better defense in the pass game, we’ll take care of the ball on special teams and we’ll catch it when we throw it and do the things that we need to do to win the game. So, there’s really not much more to that.”

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• Footballs signed by the Clemson 2022 class discounted by 30%.
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• Free #Team 4 unsigned poster with purchase of any signed softball
• Free unsigned Valerie Cagle card with purchase of any signed softball poster
• Free unsigned Bakich to Omaha poster with purchase of any signed baseball

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