Following the Orange Bowl last Friday night, a former ACC and NFL quarterback gave his thoughts on what he saw from Clemson’s freshman quarterback in his first career start.

During ACC Network’s ACC Huddle show, former Florida State quarterback and first-round NFL draft pick EJ Manuel, now an analyst for ACCN, spoke about Cade Klubnik’s performance in the Tigers’ 31-14 loss to Tennessee.

“A lot of great takeaways for this Clemson football team,” Manuel said. “You gotta think, this is a young squad, man. I mean, you have a freshman quarterback in his first start of his career. Not the best day in the sense of coming up with the win. A couple decisions – end of the first half, kind of mishandled that situation as far as clocking it or getting a field goal opportunity or a touchdown. But nonetheless, a lot of things to learn from moving forward.”

Klubnik completed 30-of-54 passes for 320 yards and rushed 20 times for 51 yards and a touchdown. He was also intercepted a couple of times in the fourth quarter while trying to make plays with his team trailing by multiple scores.

Clemson couldn’t capitalize on plenty of scoring opportunities throughout the game, including one on its final possession of the first half after moving the ball inside the Tennessee 15-yard line. The Tigers were unable to put any points on the board when Klubnik decided to run the ball in the waning seconds of the second quarter with Clemson out of timeouts, and time in the half expired.

“If I’m Cade, I’m taking away all the errors that I made in this game and say OK, I could’ve did better here, this is something I’m going to learn from,” Manuel said. “And again, I mentioned that end-of-half situation. That was something that you work every day or at least every Thursday in practice, specifically in the NFL. But nonetheless, you have to have that time clock in your head to say OK, I don’t have any timeouts, but how much time do I need to have to get off one more play or to get up to the line of scrimmage to clock that football? I felt like that was a real pivotal moment because you think about Clemson in that first half, they go in to score right before half, that gives them some momentum coming into the second half.

“And then again, for him, he’s a young QB, he’s going to be fine. He also has to have that time clock within the pocket – you’re not going to outrun everybody in college football, not at this level and then not against a really tough team, an SEC defense. Those guys want to track you down… So, I think it’s a good learning lesson for him to say I can’t outrun everybody, I’ve got to beat them with my mind and my time clock.”

Manuel added that he sees the Orange Bowl as “a great learning lesson” for Klubnik going into what Manuel believes will be a strong sophomore season.

“He’ll definitely learn,” Manuel said. “Because even when I watched the tape against North Carolina, he made some great throws. But some of those throws came from him being late, three hitches in the pocket, having a bunch of time, no real pass rush from North Carolina. And (Friday night) against Tennessee, much more violent up front. The pocket was collapsing on top of him a little bit. And then those window throws, they were tighter. So, these guys play with much more speed and tempo by the Tennessee Volunteer defense.

“So again, a great learning lesson for Cade Klubnik. Don’t take this as just a loss… learn from this game, move forward. You’re going to be a great quarterback next year.”

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