North Carolina woefully unprepared for Cade Klubnik

Cade Klubnik's entrance threw UNC off.

by Nikki Hood - Staff Writer - Sun Dec 04 10:03:56 GMT-04:00 2022

CHARLOTTE, NC – The North Carolina Tar Heels have lost their last three games. The common denominator? All of their opponents played backup quarterbacks.

Georgia Tech used a combination of quarterbacks. NC State used fourth-string quarterback Ben Finley. And, Clemson turned to freshman Cade Klubnik after its second unsuccessful possession early Saturday.

Klubnik went 20-for-24 for 279 yards and a touchdown in the 39-10 dismantling of North Carolina in the ACC Championship Game at Bank of America Stadium

The Tar Heels got off to a hot start, but head coach Mack Brown said momentum quickly flipped to Clemson after the quarterback change.

"They brought pressure the whole game," Brown said of Clemson's defense. "I think momentum changed when they brought Cade in, and he had an easy score, and the fumble really hurt us because it led to a quick score. That changed momentum in the game.

"Then we got down there again and had the blocked field goal, which we haven't had all year, and they brought two off the outside, and the guy made a great play. Then we get down there again and have to kick a field goal. We just kept having negative things happen throughout the game, and I thought we lost some confidence."

"We felt like with DJ; we were going to make him beat us," Brown said. "We were going to stop the run, so we stocked the box. They put in Cade, and Cade played great, so we had to adjust and try to come after him with really young secondary people in the second half. So that really put us in a bind.

"And we had two turnovers that led to 14 points, one at the 24-yard line, one an interception for a touchdown. You're not going to beat a good team with those circumstances."

When Dabo Swinney made the change to Klubnik on the third offensive series, Brown said his coaches and players were not prepared.

"No, Cade had played very little all year, and when he went in at Notre Dame, I think he threw an interception, so we totally thought we would see DJ because they hadn't changed all year," Brown said. "We stopped them the first two, three times. DJ was struggling. That is exactly what we thought would happen, and we were hoping would happen because he's played good at times.

"But he didn't play well last week, and he was really struggling. They weren't trying to run the ball. We thought they'd try to line up and run it down our throat like Notre Dame did, and then Cade came in and hit 20 out of 24 and 10 out of 11 the first half and really played great."

After Clemson turned to Klubnik, Brown was forced to rely on his secondary to make plays.

"Well, it's very difficult, and we've got to do a better job of it," he said. "The other thing is we've got a sophomore and two freshmen starting in the secondary, and you don't want to blitz because if you do, you leave them out there by themselves. That's what we had to do the second half and gave up some big plays."