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YOUR BALANCE
Cade was playing better statistically as a first year starter than he is as a
Tiger Boards - Clemson Football
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Cade was playing better statistically as a first year starter than he is as a

2

Sep 24, 2025, 11:57 AM
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an experienced senior. Speaks volumes about Cade’s mental regression in 2025.

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military_tech thumb_downthumb_up

Or a lack of player development

4

Sep 24, 2025, 12:06 PM
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Definitely been an issue at WR since Grisham took over from Scott.

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"You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs—Victory in spite of all terror—Victory, however long and hard the road may be..." - Winston Churchill


In 2020, Grishams first year, we had the most productive passing game in

1

Sep 24, 2025, 12:20 PM
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Clemson history.

When DJ was here he may not have had the assortment of talent at WR Cade has, but the primary issues were exactly the same.

Even with DJ we had guys open. Much like Cade in 2025, there were open guys all day but the QB was panicky and terrible on his feet. He didn’t see the guys open and was inaccurate much of the time when he did.

This isn’t a developmental issue of WRs. It’s an issue of the QB being able to consistently get the ball to them.

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That was all Covid Stanley...We handled it a lot better than most...and we


Sep 24, 2025, 5:53 PM
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had Trevor and Travis and only played an FCS team and ACC opponents

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More accurately, it speaks to...

1
9

Sep 24, 2025, 12:06 PM
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the utter lack of ANY QB development at Clemson. It has become abundantly clear that no one at Clemson has any ability to coach up QBs. When we had guys like DW4 and TL 16 it didn't really matter; those guys could teach Streeter, Riley or Dabo more about what makes a top QB the second they stepped on campus. Now that we've had a couple of highly-rated high school QBs who needed a lot of coaching up to reach their potential, we've learned that no coach at Clemson is capable of that; and Dabo has done nothing to fix that gaping hole of a deficiency on his coaching staff. THAT'S what troubles me the most; that and an OL that never gets any better.

These coaches are soft, ALL of them. They work for a HC who no longer has any real hunger, and that mentality gets passed down to them; then it is BLAMED ON THEM when we reach the "heads must roll" point.

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DJ was developed as much as possible and Cade progressed


Sep 24, 2025, 12:22 PM
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into one of the best QBs in the country last year and became a Heisman front runner.

Clearly this isn’t a QB developmental issue. The QB has been developed as seen from his junior season. He’s simply a head case right now and the issue is 100% his and his alone.

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Re: DJ was developed as much as possible and Cade progressed

3

Sep 24, 2025, 12:25 PM
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Against sub par competition. What’s his stats against the top 25?

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He was great against SMU and Texas, the 3rd ranked defense in the country.***

2

Sep 24, 2025, 2:29 PM
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His QBR vs SMU was only 68.2 and he didn't hit 300 yards of total offense on


Sep 24, 2025, 5:57 PM
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55 touches, that is far from great QB play

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Thats because some people watch the game within the game.

2

Sep 24, 2025, 12:36 PM [ in reply to DJ was developed as much as possible and Cade progressed ]
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The competition he “statted up” was atrocious. And before you throw in Texas …….that was after the game was over and Texas let their guard down

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Every player pads stats against lesser teams.


Sep 24, 2025, 2:30 PM
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And Cades beat game was against the best defense (#3) we played all year.

If Cade was playing like that we’d be a minimum of 3-1 and possibly 4-0.

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ELITE teams and players get stats vs the best........

1

Sep 24, 2025, 3:27 PM
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we have not had ELITE ANYWHERE since 2019...........2020 we were insulated by our conference b/c of COVID. You saw that year what happens when we step out of our insulated safe zone and play the ELITE teams (ND found out that year too)...............and it's happened to us every year since.

Talent across the board is NOT ELITE (NOTHING compared to 2015-2019)
Talent acquisition/development is NOT ELITE (NOTHING compared to 2015-2019)
Coaching is NOT ELITE (NOTHING compared to 2015-2019)

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UGA and Texas, followed by SMU. Those were the best teams we played.


Sep 24, 2025, 3:42 PM
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And Cade did great against 2 out of 3.

Our schedule was 22nd. Cade became the 15th rated QB and a frontrunner for the Heisman. That’s 3rd party evaluation.

We finished #3 in the country in 2020. Everyone played a COVID schedule and in fact Ohio State played 6 games while spending their whole season looking to play us again. #3 in the country is elite. No question whatsoever about the validity of that.

We had the talent we need to be great, but it doesn’t matter what the talent level is if the QB can’t execute the offense.

2021 was DJ. He was shook all year long. Same stuff Cade has been doing this year.

2022 was DJ, and he led us to the cusp of a 4-team playoff before going 8-29 and 99 yards against USuC. Completely on DJ and it’s why he was replaced.

2023 we had the 8th ranked defense in the country (no talent? lol) but we couldn’t consistently do anything with Cade as a true sophomore.

2024 we had the 11th ranked offense but a porous defense. Still made the playoffs.

Maybe we haven’t had 2018 talent over those years, but how many teams do?

2025 Cade is playing worse than 2023. We have TONS of players who have displayed talent. The talent is being brought down by the QB playing worse than he ever has.

Not a talent issue. We are losing and have lost because we haven’t had that great QB.

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the game was over vs Texas when Cade got his numbers..........

1

Sep 24, 2025, 4:40 PM
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He was terrible against UGA.

SMU is an ACC Team.............the bar is not measure by the pathetic ACC............hence our record over the last 5 years vs OOC opponents.

Any success Clemson has had the last 5 years can be attributed to the crappy conference we're in.

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Yeah, Texas is up 18 before he starts piling up those "massive" numbers***


Sep 24, 2025, 5:59 PM [ in reply to Thats because some people watch the game within the game. ]
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more golf is key***


Sep 24, 2025, 12:09 PM
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But his best year by far was last year. He was horrible as a soph.


Sep 24, 2025, 12:16 PM
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He's bad so far this year too.

So he went, pretty good, awful, very good, bad.

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He's never been "very good".***


Sep 24, 2025, 1:42 PM
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He was 15th in QBR and showed signs of very good which


Sep 24, 2025, 2:36 PM
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led him to being a Heisman front runner.

For reference he’s 91st in QBR so far in 2025.

Two totally different stat lines and QBR.

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Re: Cade was playing better statistically as a first year starter than he is as a


Sep 24, 2025, 1:36 PM
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No it speaks to the schedule. In 23 we laid an egg against Duke when Cade had a bad game, then beat the high school teams from Charleston Southern and Florida Atlantic. The 4th game was the loss to Florida State and Cade had a less productive game than he did Saturday and we scored 0 points in the 2nd half and OT and the defense gave up 14 for the loss.

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Re: Cade was playing better statistically as a first year starter than he is as a


Sep 24, 2025, 1:39 PM
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The sample size his freshman year was essentially two games. He played lights out in the conference championship against UNC. He put up a lot of yards against Tennessee, but couldn’t get us in the end zone. I would say the biggest drop off is from last year to this year.

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Re: Cade was playing better statistically as a first year starter than he is as a

1

Sep 24, 2025, 2:26 PM
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CK2 was not well known during the early part of the 2023 season. True, there were two games in 2022 where extensive game tape was available. However, the limited amount of game tape made it harder for opposing teams’ defensive coordinators to scheme against CK2. By the second half of 2023 there was plenty of film on CK2 and his tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses.

Not surprisingly, opposing defenses schemed better against CK2 in the latter half of 2023 and the entirety of 2024.

Clemson’s coaches and CK2, in some undetermined ratio, have been largely unable to adjust to how opposing DCs had learned how to ‘mimimize’ CK2’s effectiveness. We know that every opposing team’s DC knows that a CK2 run offense doesn’t handle the blitz well. There is now ~ the equivalent of 1.5 seasons of data that proves that Clemson’s coaches + CK2 haven’t figured out how to overcome the ‘being blitzed’ problem.

No wonder that CK2, as substantiated by the stats, has been less effective now vs (first half) of 2023 season. CK2 will see blitz heavy defenses for as long as he plays CFB.

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Re: Cade was playing better statistically as a first year starter than he is as a


Sep 24, 2025, 2:42 PM
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One simple fact is that its hard to hit on the qb position every time. We got spoiled in a sense, with Tajh, and Deshaun, and TL. We hit on all those guys. KB was very solid; he just happened to have an All American coming in behind him. Same with Cole Stoudt. And neither KB or CS were ever "bad" in the way Cade has been bad or DJ was bad; again they just had obvious talent waiting in the wings that they couldn't hold off.

You start thinking every 5 star qb recruit will be that kind of player, but that's not the case.

I do agree missing on two straight guys that were not only highly recruited but very near the top of the qb class is unusual, and more than brings us back to the mean in terms of probability.

Not a little concerning either that we can't/couldn't seem to manage more from either of them.

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The entirety of 2024???


Sep 24, 2025, 3:54 PM [ in reply to Re: Cade was playing better statistically as a first year starter than he is as a ]
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Cade became a Heisman frontrunner in 2024. Had the 15th highest QBR and led the 11th table offense.

Your blitz theory doesn’t hold water.

Even against LSU where they blitzed most of the night, there were open options and simple plays the entire game. It was entirely on Cade.

We haven’t seen that blitz style since LSU, and no matter about that, Cade is failing every game, and it’s 100% on him. Plays are there each week. Pedestrian plays and a plethora of game changing plays.

The defense played winning football every week but one. In that one game Cade missed at least a dozen plays that any QB should be expected to make.


It’s not some magic defensive scheme. It’s the QB.

It’s the QB.

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Re: The entirety of 2024???


Sep 24, 2025, 5:47 PM
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Wires got crossed somehow.

Everyone blitzes CK2 now because that tactic had always worked against CK2.

Blitz works against him for the precise reason that CK2 is NOT ABLE to hit (or see / or recognize / or won’t even try to look for) the receivers that ARE open when the blitz gets unleashed on him.

Please confirm receipt of signal and recognition thereof.

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Sounds like a coaching and development issue***


Sep 24, 2025, 4:48 PM
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Replies: 25
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Tiger Boards - Clemson Football
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