TAKE ADVANTAGE → Get THREE Months of CST+ for just $1.00
Clemson opened its 2025 season with a 17–10 loss to a top-10 LSU team at home in Death Valley. The scoreboard stung, and the Tigers fell from No. 4 to No. 8 in the latest AP poll, which was released on Tuesday.
Quarterback Cade Klubnik struggled, the run game never found traction, and too many chances slipped away. It was, in Dabo Swinney’s words, a case where the Tigers’ “best player didn’t play well.”
Then came the fire.
“Say we suck again. Tell everybody we suck. Coaches suck. Cade stinks. Y’all start writing that again. Bring that on,” Swinney barked at his press conference. “If No. 2 ain’t a dude, we ain’t winning. Dudes gotta be dudes. This is big boy football.”
The message wasn’t subtle. Swinney is daring his team, and more importantly, his quarterback, to respond.
The numbers tell the story of a wasted opportunity. Klubnik finished 19-of-38 for 230 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception. Clemson’s run game barely existed, managing 31 yards on 20 carries, an average of 1.6 yards per attempt. No back gained more than 16 yards. Twice, the Tigers went for it on fourth down and failed. There were points left on the table in a tight, tight game.
Swinney didn’t sugarcoat it. “We didn’t even give it a chance [the run game],” he admitted about Garrett Riley’s game plan. “That’s an area we’ve got to do a better job in.”
As for Klubnik, one of the most talked-about quarterbacks in America this preseason, Swinney didn’t hold back.
“He just didn’t play well. Routine stuff, basic, not complicated. He knows it. He’ll respond, he’ll bounce back.”
The missed chances were everywhere. Swinney walked reporters through them like a film session. The third-and-12 scramble?
“The read is Tyler Brown. He’s the read. It’s a 50-yard touchdown if he just throws the ball. For some reason, he came off, and then he started scrambling.”
The final snap? With a chance to tie the game?
“Tyler Brown is wide open. The easiest thing. Cade just took off running.”
Watching it back, Swinney is correct; it was a scoring opportunity, but the illusion of a stunt by the defensive end created the belief in Klubnik’s mind that he could scramble right for an easy first down.
What he didn’t know was that LSU defender Harold Perkins was making his way across the field, ultimately surprising Klubnik and forcing the throw away. It was a beautiful call by LSU. It fooled Klubnik. It was a huge risk, and it worked.
Even with the offensive failures, the game hung in the balance. That was the difference in a one-score season opener between two top-10 teams, according to the two-time national championship-winning head coach.
After the final whistle, more people now believe in LSU, which vaulted up to No. 3 in the polls. As for Clemson, you could say the same, which is why the Tigers only dropped four spots. I posed the question after the game—the voters had indicated that the issue was how good the Bayou Bengals were, not that Clemson was bad—and Swinney agreed.
“I’ve got a lot more confirmation on who our team is and what they’re gonna be — not what they can be, what they’re gonna be,” Swinney said. He even quipped that he’d rather open with LSU than cruise through a 50–3 win over a weaker opponent.
“I know what I’m looking at,” Swinney noted. “That’s what I do for a living. I got confirmation on what this football team’s gonna be.”
Confirmation, in Swinney’s mind, came from the defense. They limited LSU to just 2.8 yards per carry for 58 minutes, forced the Tigers to nickel-and-dime on the perimeter, and swarmed the ball. The D-line, he said, “was disruptive.” Linebackers Wade Woodaz and Sammy Brown “were awesome,” according to their head coach.
Safety Ronan Hanafin (12 tackles) drew special praise after he transitioned to the position from wideout last season.
“The kid is violent. He’s physical. He disrupts the ball. He just plays unbelievably hard. That was his biggest stage,” Swinney said. “He’s only going to go from there.”
Swinney also circled back to offseason chatter.
“A lot of narratives in the offseason. The only one that held up was Tom Allen and that D-line and them linebackers. The rest of them — nah, none of them held up. All these great wideouts we got — hey, great wideouts make those contested plays to win the game. If you’re a Heisman quarterback and all that and first pick in the draft and all that crap — hey, you don’t show up and play like that.”
The opener, then, wasn’t about endings. It was about lessons. “Until you learn to play every play with the attention, the effort, the detail that that play deserves, you don’t really ever have the confidence to make the play that’s required in the moment that presents itself.”
For Klubnik, the lesson was to be sharper.
“He ain’t a freshman. He’ll respond, “Swinney said. “But if our biggest issue coming out of that game is our best player didn’t play well, we’ll be all right.”
Now comes Troy, a home opener in Death Valley at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. They bring a new style to the table and the nation’s leading rusher after Week 1. “If you don’t want to tackle in this game, you better pull a hamstring,” Swinney cracked.
As Swinney reminded everyone, they’ll take the criticism. Just don’t forget the context — this was a one-score game against a top team. The margin is slim.
The response is coming.
