Riley says all the great QBs love to watch film, and Cade Klubnik is no different

RIley and Klubnik both say you have to love watching film to be great.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Aug 30 15:31:24 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Cade Klubnik says to be a great quarterback you have to watch film, even when the coaches aren’t around. And to be even greater, you have to love it and not look at it like a job.

For the record, Cade Klubnik loves watching film.

“Yeah, I love it. I think that's one thing that, it's like a puzzle and figuring out different things, but you got to love it. If you don't, then I don't think you're going to go very far at the position of quarterback, so you got to love it,” Klubnik told TigerNet Monday. “You got to love every single part of it. In the game, but also just throwing on your own, getting extra reps and stuff like that. So I do love it. I think it's fun, and I enjoy it a lot because I know that in the end, it's going to pay off. It's going to actually prepare me for the game.

“I'm not just going through the motions, which you can get in a habit of, of just turning on the clips and just rolling through them. But whenever you actually dive in and pay attention to what you're looking for and actually have stuff to look for, then you get to game day, and you start seeing just a false step of a safety and stuff like that.”

Klubnik says that preparation during the week makes things easier during the game. And he again said he loves it.

“It's just like, okay, I know this coverage coming, I know the blitz is coming. Just stuff like that, you just start to pick up, and it's fun,” he said. “And you just figure things out along the way. And definitely, I feel like I'm much more prepared watching film and have a much greater plan of watching film and what I do day to day this year than I did last year just because in high school, I mostly watch with my coach, but a lot of it is watching on your own here. Not that we don't watch with our coaches, obviously we do, but there's only so much time we get with them, so a lot of it is watching stuff on our own, and that's been really good.”

With new offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, Klubnik found a willing accomplice, someone who not only loves to watch film but also someone who can teach him even further.

“As soon as we started watching our first game opponent, we just figured it out right off the bat, he knows ball super well, and we've known that for a while,” Klubnik said of Riley. “Obviously, all year long, we're installing, learning more about our offense, and they finally get to an opponent, and you really start learning, how do we actually use this offense to go against a defense? And how do we game plan for them? How do we use what we have and pick from our menu of plays to work against what they're going to do? And that's what I like about what our offense is, really, everything we have, we can run against whatever. So, I really like that a ton, and it's been great.”

Riley says the entire quarterback room follows Klubnik’s lead.

“That whole group is ... They're all eager to watch film, and they're always kind of watching together as quarterbacks. And so that's pretty cool as a coach to see when you have that many ... Not just your starter, it's really that whole group is doing it,” Riley said. “And so what it's done is obviously it helps them prepare and elevates their play, but now all of a sudden, other position groups are doing it, and they're doing it together. And it's not us as coaches having to be in there to meet with these guys. You got quarterbacks running meetings with receivers and tight ends and running backs. That's kind of been our deal throughout the whole summer, and that's obviously carried over here just as we're getting into a game week now.

“But yeah, I think hungry and just having the eagerness to do that is kind of one thing, but now them actually getting enough out of it and maximizing their time as players and as student-athletes, that's just what we have to manage as we get through the season.

“The great ones obviously are going to do that at that position.”