Clemson got the daylights scared out of themselves against Dino Babers and Syracuse Saturday. Since 2017, Syracuse has played Clemson 6 times, and 4 of the games including Saturday were decided by single digits with Syracuse winning the 2017 game.
Syracuse led 21-10 in the 4th quarter before QB Cade Klubnik helped lead Clemson to a stirring 27-21 victory.
Was QB DJ Uiagalelei hurt? Nope, Dabo Swinney made the switch after Uiagalelei had his third turnover of the game.
Then Twitter went into a frenzy. Cade or DJ? DJ or Cade?
Dabo Swinney had this to say after the game.
Dabo on benching DJ Uiagalelei: “Sometimes Steph Curry goes 2-for-25 … We just needed a change. DJ’s our quarterback … you can write that right now, DJ’s our guy. But how about Cade Klubnik coming in there and leading these guys?” pic.twitter.com/MRHlQJLiYP
— Marc Whiteman (@MarcWYFFNews4) October 22, 2022
Dabo’s statement is not going to stop folks from speculating on the future of the QB situation at Clemson.
That said I think Clemson needs to stick with Uiagalelei as well for the time being. Uiagalelei did struggle Saturday no question, but let’s not forget he had been playing some fine football in the last month. It was Uiagalelei who was largely responsible for Clemson getting out of Wake Forest with an OT win when the Tiger defense was getting sliced to pieces by the Deacs offense.
By the way that Wake Forest team will be ranked in the top 12 and maybe top 10 tomorrow.
I would argue in the last month he’s been Clemson’s best player, but this where you have to give Swinney credit. He has as good a feel for his personal as any coach in America and his decision will pay dividends the rest of the year.
Not only did Clemson win the game of course, but Swinney now has confidence he can go with either QB.
If Uiagalelei has another slow start, Swinney can go to Klubnik looking for a spark, or even just to have a change of pace.
That’s an immense luxury to have, as what coach doesn’t want QB 1A and QB 1B when needed?
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