Klubnik ready to go hiking, get away from football during much-needed break

Cade Klubnik says the break is needed (Photo by Merrell Mann).

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Oct 11 07:00:06 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Cade Klubnik thinks the open date is necessary, and while he will get away for a day of hiking later this week, his thoughts will never be far from football.

Klubnik and the Tigers are coming off a 17-12 victory over Wake Forest last Saturday and have this week off before traveling to Miami to take on the Hurricanes the following weekend. The break is welcome for a group of players that have been together every day since July.

“I think it's definitely very necessary. I think that there's a reason that they do it,” Klubnik said. “And every team has a bye week just for the physical aspect of just getting to kind of reset. And football is a very physical game, so even if you're not injured or have an injury, your body's still getting beat up starting through fall camp. Even at the end of fall camp, your body's hurting just because you're going 20 days straight, and then you just kind of go right into the season.

“So you take a lot of hits and stuff like that. My body feels really good right now, thankfully. Super thankful to not have any injuries, but it's also just a time to kind of rest the arm and kind of get everything just kind of flushed out and reset, and then also get guys that are kind of maybe tweaked up a little bit and get them right. But there is also the mental aspect - maybe take a day or two and not think about football for a day. In the position that we're in, we're truly seven days a week, 24/7. I'm up here for six or seven hours on our day off on Sunday.”

In other words, Klubnik and the rest of the players have been on a strict schedule for months and will practice three times this week before earning that much-needed break.

“There's not a day that I haven't gone (to the football facility) since we started fall camp, and I haven't been either up here or thinking about football,” Klubnik said. “So it'll definitely be nice to kind of just take a day or two this weekend and kind of reset and get ready for the second half of the season.”

Klubnik admits that, unlike a lot of his teammates who relax by playing video games, he doesn’t get into gaming. Instead, he’s always been an outside guy, and when it comes time to relax, he wants to be outdoors.

“I'm thinking about going to the mountains for the day and just going hiking. I like hiking and getting out in nature and stuff like that, so just kind of doing a little bit of a reset,” he said. “My birthday is tomorrow, so I'm going to spend out with my parents, and we have tomorrow off as a program. We're doing a little bit of community service, but my parents are in town, so I'll hang out with them. And then this weekend, I'll just kind of go to the mountains and just hang out and get away for a little bit and then come back Sunday and get back to work.”