Cade Klubnik learning to lead through adversity, never wants to become numb to losing

Klubnik says he doesn't want to become numb to losing (Photo by Merrell Mann).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Oct 30 12:46:34 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – After Cade Klubnik’s desperation pass to Tyler Brown fell incomplete Saturday in Raleigh, ensuring a 24-17 loss to NC State, he walked over to the sidelines for a conversation with head coach Dabo Swinney. It was a conversation about winning, and not getting used to losing.

The Tigers are 4-4 overall and just 2-4 in the ACC after being picked as one of the two teams in the ACC Championship Game. Instead, it’s a team that will use the final four games to try and become bowl-eligible.

Klubnik detailed what was said between the two competitors.

“What he's done for a long time now is win,” Klubnik said Monday. “For a long time, a long time, that's all I've done is just win. We spoke on that. We're not used to losing. And he said, ‘We're never going to get used to it. We're never going to get used to that. I think that people who love to win will never get used to losing because they hate losing. So, every time that a loss happens, they don't grow numb to it. It hits me just as hard as it did the first time. That's something that I'll never let become numb to me is a loss.

“It feels the same to me in this one that I did the first one of the year. I'm just continually coming back to work every single week, and this team is coming back to work every single week. We just have to keep fighting. It's not the record that we want or the record that I saw us having coming into this year.”

What will it take to finish strong, starting this week against Notre Dame?

“Just continue to put our head down and come back to work every single week and keep fighting and not give up,” Klubnik said. “Continue to keep our eyes on this program and just staying inside out. This is a winning program at the end of the day. So when we have a record like we have, nobody's used to it. So it's learning how to handle that.”

Klubnik then made it a point to say that he supported Swinney and the coaching staff and isn’t going anywhere.

“I would much rather be at a winning program than a losing program. I'm not going anywhere,” he said. “I'm sticking to this place. I trust everybody here, and I trust Coach Swinney with this. Earlier on in his career, he had some ups and downs, but look at what he did after that. We're just going to create momentum and just continue to put our head down to work.”

Another positive through this downtime is that Klubnik is learning how to be a leader when adversity hits.

“I don't think I would be able to be as good of a leader if we were 8-0 right now,” Klubnik said. “I think this might be the best thing (from a leadership standpoint). I've been saying all year that this could be the best thing for me and for this team and for the players on this team. I'm just having to step up to another level of being a leader. But I remember one of my older mentors coming in this year, something we had talked about just continually being a bigger leader in this program.

“And as many of you all know, I'm very strong in my faith. And we looked at, how should you lead? Well, we look at the greatest leader ever, who is Jesus. And He tells us, All is joy in my brothers. When you meet trials. Trials of various kinds, where you know that these tests of your faith produce steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete. And I've just been leaning on that more than anything is when we meet these trials and we go through these times, my happiness might go up and down, but this game, it's never going to bring my joy up or down. I get to walk in this building, and I always want to have a smile on my face.”