The McShay Show - Scouting Clemson’s Cade Klubnik: Could He Be Bo Nix 2.0?

Episode Date: June 5, 2025

Welcome back to The McShay Show! Todd and Steve are back with their Summer Scouting Series to break down Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik’s tape. The guys talk player comps, his upside, and where Klubnik needs to improve to be in consideration for QB1 in 2026.In the next episode, they’ll be diving into the tape on Penn State’s Drew Allar.  (0:00) Welcome to The McShay Show! (3:18) Summer Scouting Series: Evaluating Cade Klubnik(17:03) Breaking Down Cade Klubnik's Tape(27:50) Preseason Grade for Cade Klubnik(33:00) Takeaways from Klubnik's 2024 Season with Clemson Be sure to subscribe to The McShay Report for full written breakdowns of every player discussed in the Summer Scouting Series. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Todd McShayGuest: Steve MuenchProducers: Tucker Tashjian, Mark Panik, Conor Nevins, and Daniel ComerSocial: Eduardo Ocampo  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you have the disease, if you're sick like us, then you agree. There's nothing wrong with getting knee deep in quarterback evals for the 2026 class in early June of 2025. Because if this is sick, who the hell wants to be healthy? It's Ked Klubnick's turn on the summer scouting series, 332 days from the NFL draft, of course. Mench, you good? I'm good, man. DJX. Summer playlist, please.

We're going to find out if Mench just hates Clemson. Stop. Or if he's a non-biased evaluator today. It's Keg Club Nickday. I love this series. We're going through all the top quarterbacks. We're going to go through different position groups. We're going to focus on a couple teams specifically in their talent level,

how different it is than normal years. Might circle back on Clemson later on. Every board I'm looking at has got a lot of those orange paws on it, man. Yeah. This is the most talented team. I think that Davos had in a decade. But it starts at the quarterback position. Before we get to Kate Klubnik, we really appreciate you being here.

We hope you're having as much fun as us. Hopefully you can stack some of these shows, enjoy them while you're on the beach, hanging out by the barbecue, whatever it is you're doing this summer. And mensch-we're getting quicker, too. You don't have to wait too. We're getting quicker, too, so you can rip through them. Is that a dig at me? Because I, because I caught you a homer?

I would never, no. Okay. Never. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, we're, we're, we're respecting the time of our audience during the summer. Because admittedly, I tend to be a little long-winded. But I don't have producers in my ear yelling me rap.

And so I'm probably a little, you know, I've gone too far the other way. Tell the people, tell the folks, tell our good friends. Tell friends of the show. How can they support us? This is what you are. Our friends can tell their. friends to go to the YouTube channel, hit the subscribe button. Go to Spotify, hit the follow button.

Our socials are at McShay 13 and at you good mensch. It's M-U-E-N-C-H. Please consider subscribing to the McShea report. Again, you can do that for free, but I'm telling you right now, you might as well. And the McShea reports out again today. We had Lenora Sellers early in the week on Monday morning. Today it's Cade Clubnick, and it's a deep dive. It's all the, it's every specific play.

it's it's NFL comps it's all the position specific stuff the grades everything and just save yourself the time if you're going to subscribe for free just you just get the subscription pay for it because i promise you mcshay is good at once once he's got his teeth into you once he's got the hooks at he's going to get you so might as well to save your time and put i got my hooks in you when you were 18 years old coming from andover mass down to richmond virginia and i've never let him out east guys reliance Okay, I'm just saying. All right, Cade Clubnik. Cades come a long way, man.

Texas legend, Cade Clubnick. Legend. Yes. I love Texas. I like my quarterback to be a Texas legend, right? Of course you do. All right, he's six foot two, 210 pounds. Not ideal size, but not not red flags, especially in today's NFL.

Again, estimated time. I couldn't even get like a huddle report time or a combine time from him. I'm estimating in like the four six four six five range okay all right during his first three seasons at clemson that's every every bit of what he's when he's been there 20 22 to 2024 37 career games 28 career starts 2,137 snaps match okay kids played some ball yeah he's played some ball he's completed 63.4% of his throws over seven almost 7 200 yards 57 touchdowns just 18 interceptions pretty good ratio okay um better than three three to one also rush for 784 yards and 13 touchdowns on 286 rushing attempts so obviously back ended most recently this past year

full-time starter and um and really i thought he it's funny because i loved him when he first came in with DJ Oweyungale and I felt like every time he came in the game for Clemson is a pup. He brought a little different energy. It felt like the offense wasn't so stagnant. You know, and I really like- He came off the bench in the ACC championship game in 2022 and won the MVP. Yes, yes. And then goes and makes his first start of his college career against that Henan Hooker, sixth-ranked Tennessee team in the Orange Bowl. and it was pretty up and down, but he did throw it for 320, I think, in that game.

He had a decent day. Right. And then the next season wasn't as good. No. But then this past season, he finally showed us what he can be. I'll say this about 2023. I don't think he was necessarily as bad as,

I'm not saying you're saying as some other people might, but the long short of it is Clemson had four losses before you hit November. and if you're the quarterback at Clemson and you have four losses when you get to November, I think a lot of that's going to fall at your feet right or wrong. I think that's just the reality of being the face of that program and being the quarterback there. I mean, they beat Notre Dame. They beat the 14th ranked Notre Dame team.

They played some teams tough. They played that Florida State team that was so good that year tough. But at the end of the day, it was an up and down year for him, I think. And when you have four losses going to November and you're the quarterback Clemson, it's going to reflect poorly on you. So we're not tweaking our scouting process. That's the whole point of this. That's the reason why we're sharing all this.

We've never been able to do it before. We've never had a platform to do it before. And it feels freeing and wonderful. And honestly, I didn't take it lightly when we asked for, what do you want to hear? What do you want to, you know, we asked our audience. And a lot of it was this. Like stick to the NFL drafts to get us, get us prepared for the season. Let it.

I want here's my mission, Mench, I want our audience to be the, smartest audience when it comes to the NFL draft. And if you were following us back to October of last year or even after the combine when we started in on something's amiss, this, this, this, uh, Shador Sanders stuff isn't right. I, again, we started. I felt like I feel good. My head goes on the pillow at night feeling like, you know what? Our audience was smarter than every other other audience out there when it came to the NFL draft. And that's, that's the whole, that's my whole mission in this. And I know, you share that mission with me. That's why we're doing this, okay? I want to change the narrative about all this stuff. I want to stop coming in in March. The draft doesn't start in Mobile.

I love you, Nagy. It was a great tagline. But for a lot of people, it does, but it doesn't. It starts now. It starts with NFL scouts in their areas. And that's what we're doing. So we haven't tweaked our process, but we're tweaking the way we're presenting it. And we're even in-game tweaking it. Like with Arch, I went on for like an hour and 20. You assisted me, but I was the problem. I enabled you. You weren't completely innocent, but I'm getting more jail time than you,

deservedly so. Right. So we got better. We refined it. We got down to like 50 minutes with Garrett Nussmeyer, provided probably more content, but we broke it up into all the position specific stuff, mental makeup, accuracy, release quickness slash arm strength and pocket mobility. But we went like five, seven minutes on each one.

And we felt like beholden to it. Didn't feel right. So we talked to Tucker and Connor and Dan and Mark and Eduardo. And we came together like, how can we make it more conversational like you and I are hanging out? And let's strike all these like parameters and things that we have to do. Let's just talk the player. We did that last last time out, Lenora Sellers on Monday. and it felt natural.

That's how you and I talk. When we're sitting there watching tape in a hotel room, when we're going out to dinner, when we're on the phone talking players, that's how we talk. So we're going to do it again today. I do want to start with this because there is some housekeeping. There are those position specific traits.

I liked how we did it last time. Let's just rip off the numbers. Let's self-admit when we think maybe we're too high or too low. Let's rip them off and then let's get into the player. Cade Clubbedic. Mental makeup. And I want for people, the reason we do mental makeup, it's not like intelligence or even football.

It's like, how do they handle all of it? We've got an intangible section for the universal traits, okay? It's not about intangibles. It's about how much do I trust this guy? How is he protecting the football? How fast does he read his progressions? In critical moments, in the clutch, two minutes left, gets the ball, the drill, all of it. How does he handle himself?

That's what this kind of. all encompasses this mental makeup grade. It's decision making in every aspect of playing the quarterback position, okay? One being exceptional, outstanding, two grade being good, three average, four below average, five is marginal. Like I said in the last show, it's kind of like playing golf. The lower the number, the better the score. Okay.

So one is one to five, one being the best, five being the worst. Where did you have Cade with your mental makeup? Two. I want one point five. So we're in the same neighborhood. Not there yet, but see a lot of promising things. This is all new to me, the point fives. I feel like I'm getting kipered here with the draft trades in the mock drafts, man.

Yeah, I've been doing this forever. Forever. If I had sent you a point five in 2017, you would have called me immediately. I would have suspended you. You were like, bro, we don't do point fives. There's no such thing as a point five. Get off the fence. And I'm not saying.

you're allowed to do them yet either i'll let you know yeah no i'm still probation apparently go ahead accuracy one to five one being best five being the worst where do you where do you fall on club nick accuracy two one point five i don't know that i've given out a grade in the last month that doesn't have a point five but honestly here we go honestly two's two's a better number okay's a better number There was some interesting stuff I want to get to, some ups and downs and some research I did to try to figure out of, if, if, like, health factored into it as well. Uh, release release arm strength. Where, would you have him? Would you give him one point?

I want to, I want to give him 1.5. I think yes. I gave it two. I, yes, I did too. All right. I gave it two. And I was like, I wanted a reason to give me, honestly, if you're going to give me shit for it. I thought you might think it was too high.

pocket mobility one one to five one being the best five being the worst i gave him a three i feel like really i feel like it's a two i feel like it's a two yeah it's a two i want one point five again we have i watch sellers right before him and i think that that maybe swayed a little too i was too harsh on sellers he should have been a one i gave him a one point five I can't, I can't sleep at night knowing that I have the same number for Clubnick and Sellers. So I'm going. Right. I think a fair assessment is Sellers is closer to one than he is two.

And Clubnik is closer to two than he is one. That's fair. It's a one. I think three is a little harsh. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. All right.

So we get some stuff to work through here. Yeah. Let's hit it. I also like, you know what? My sweet, my sweet girl, Allaire, always. says let mensch talk and it worked. I like the way he worked and I can kind of react to your thought. So why don't you get us started on Clubnet? So look, let's look at the season and and I was very vocal during the year about I didn't think Clemson played anyone. And

Clubnik had some really good tape, but I was still, there was a big part of it for me was, like, who's he played. Like, I just don't know who he's played. They played Georgia and they weren't ready. Clemson wasn't ready as a team, I think. I think that's not all in Clubnik, I don't think that Clemson team was ready for that Georgia team. And it showed up. I mean, they got handled. There was a 31 point blowout. So that was the only team they really played until you get to the South Carolina game.

Really, that I thought was a significant test for that team, as talented as is. And they lost the South Carolina by three. But I love the way Clubnick played in that game. And by the way, he threw a game-ending interception in field goal range. I understand that. I understand that the ball. You can't hit. It went off the running back's hands, but it was behind the running back.

It's got to be a better ball. I understand all that. But I love the way he played. And then the way he played against SMU, I love the way he played in that game. He had sub-60% completion percentage in that game. I don't care. I thought he was awesome. Four touchdowns.

He played great. And I thought he played pretty well against Texas, too. And I thought that Texas team, that defense, when you look at how well that defense played late in the year for Texas or really the whole year. I thought Cubsinic played well in that game. So yeah, I thought he had a good year overall going in. I mean, look at this kid at end of the year with a 36 touchdown to six interception ratio.

He got away with some things. All quarterbacks do, but that's an impressive number, man. To throw for 36 touchdowns and only six interceptions? I mean, that stands out as a stat. I'm not a huge analytics guy. I'm not a big numbers guy. That's one of those ones you can't ignore. I thought overall he had a really good year.

And then the way he finished was super encouraging me and kind of shut the big guy up a little bit about who they had played. Because when they finally got to it, he didn't excel necessarily. He could have played better at times, I guess, is the way I want to say it. But he played pretty damn well.

I liked him a lot on TV last fall. And I saw the improvement on TV. I liked him a lot more on tape. Yeah. Even that Georgia game, man. Even that Georgia game, he played well. Like that first quarter throw, 327, like, the hell of a throw. He made some plays.

Dropping the ball in beautifully in the sideline. I thought in the third quarter there's a play that jumped out. He's scrambling. Scambling again, no protection. Gets outside the pocket, starts directing his target. You could see the experience, especially coming off of Lenora's Sellers, and even Nussmeyer. And even Nussmeyer, but especially off of sellers, okay?

Because Nussmeyer's been around five years, just one as a starter. Sellers is still a pop. But you could see the experience in some of the stuff, right? Game experience, life experience, you could just see the difference in experience. I thought the Georgia game wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. NC State, I thought he was really good. running threat pulled the option it was like 1345 first court early in the game runs for 55 yards touchdown how about when he's there was the uh i think was a 10th offensive play for clemson where he's looking

left doesn't like it the linebacker blitzes the a gap late he senses it spins out to his right and throws a 31 yard touchdown pass i think that was in that game no yeah that was nc state unbelievable play. The way he sensed the pressure, the way he got away from, he's looking left. He's not, I don't even know,

he must have just seen it out of the corner of his eye. And then to go move to your right and throw a great, to Antonio Williams, great ball, touchdown 31 yards. I was like,

wow, that is a big time play. There were parts of his tape. Here's what I mean, let's just get into it. Okay. I think he thrives in chaos. Okay.

I think he, And that's a, that's a very important trait. I think he's great when the initial play breaks down, when he's got to climb the pocket, when he's got a side step. It almost like, it's like soothing to him, which is, I love that. I loved it in Jackson Dart.

I underrated it in Bo Nix. Right. I see a lot of Bo Nix in this kid. Wow. I see a lot of Bo Nix in Cade Clubnick. That's interesting. What do you, like, how do you feel about, his accuracy when he's making off platform throws.

I feel like it suffers a little bit. That was the one thing I had. There were some. It happens to every quarterback. Don't get me wrong. It happens to every quarterback. And I know he there, he, three is way too high. I mean, the more we talk about it, three is too high.

He can move around the pocket. He can extend. He makes plays. I get all that. He can scramble. He feeds on it. He feeds on it. I actually think he's better in the pocket.

What would you give Jackson dart right now? And is the pocket mobility? Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's what he is. I think Jackson Darts more. What about Bo Nix?

I don't know. I probably gave him a three, but probably should have been a two. Listen, I like him. I actually like him. I also think both both better. Yeah. I like him in the pocket better. And here's the thing.

The other thing is they both have elastic arms, Bo Nix and him. Watch his arm. like how loose and the ball cut it has more energy than it looks and i said the same thing about bow and and i put too much emphasis on all the problems at auburn and not enough on the development at oregon i don't ever think bow nicks is going to be exceptional i don't i think he's in the perfect place i think he's going to have ups and downs like he did as a rookie they're not going to be as extreme as he gets older but i i absolutely understand undervalued Bo Nix.

Never going to be Mahomes, never going to be Josh Allen, never going to be Lamar J. He's never going to be one of that top, top tier. All right now, I got to stop you right here because this is, this is, we're getting into it now about what you're looking for in quarterbacks and you're talking about how you like Bo Nix and you like that. So on the spot right now, can the Denver Broncos win a Super Bowl with Bo Nix? And if not, what are we doing? you could say all these nice things about about bow necks but you're going out to get quarterbacks

to continue can they or do i think they will you're such a lawyer answer i don't care you answer one of them whatever one can they yeah yeah they can if their defense continues to get better they had a hell of a draft this year they've got more weapons around him i'm not saying it's going to be this year but the next couple years can they make a run to the super bowl like can Can they? Can they? Yeah, they can. Okay. They've got a great coach. He's going to get the most out of Bo. Will they? Not with the quarterbacks in this league right now, man. Josh Allen doesn't have one, man. No, I know. Josh Allen doesn't have one. So let me ask you this. Are you, now you're like, so you see a lot of Bo Nix in him. Is that, is that right now in the process, again, let's keep

this all in perspective, always important to do that. It's June. It is. June. We haven't played the last season. I mean, we haven't played. There's a lot of football to play. Is that how you feel about Clubnik? He's a guy that can come in and be really good for your team. I hear you. All I'm saying, what I'm saying, Bo Nick's like look at the size. Look at the mobile. Yes, I hear you. Look at the elastic arm. Great. Look at, look at kind of the chaos pressure stuff. And, and Cade, Cade's doing, see, here's the thing with Cade. And I wrote this in the scouting report, McShay, the McShay report. Google it, please, subscribe them. What are we? doing 200,000 is worth it it's starting to piss me off 200,000 people watching us on YouTube draft night and we got like 15,000 subscribers I wanted it 100,000 so let's go just

Google it subscribe for free for now let me let me tickle you a little bit before I go before I make a move on you I love when I make you know where are we we already exactly Um, but so Cade's still in his development, he's still in that. Yes. Okay. I'm not saying this. I'm not saying the ceiling is Bo next. I'm just saying when I watch him, I see a lot of the same stuff.

But he's, he's coming off. He doesn't have the same experience that, that Bo did leaving Auburn. Bo played a lot more ball there. Bo finished at the time with the most starts in college football history in FBS. So my point is with more like, if he's all. here and you mentioned this and we're not big stats people but the but protecting the football and here's the other thing he only got sack 23 times in 14 games we just on monday talked about lenora sellers 33 times in 12 games okay so like i've got this guy who's really athletic thrives in

chaos stronger whether you think he's a two arm or i think he's a 1.5 whatever it is is it's a it's a it's not it's not we can get by or it's got to overcome it's a plus arm with the creativity the mobility the running element and he's protecting the football and he's not taking negative plays i like this guy i agree with you i am going to be the over-the-top comp on this guy uh on this show okay i went with josh allen for lenora sellers so i'm going to go with fucking irresponsible. Totally irresponsible. Totally irresponsible.

But it's fun to talk about, all right? Yeah. I'm going to go with another Texas. I went with Jalen Hertz, which seems like reasonable. Seems by the way. An outstanding quarterback coming after office. A Super Bowl. Yeah.

I went Josh Allen. You're going to raise the. Yeah. Look, I'm not afraid to say it. I have a lot to make up to the fans of the Clemson football program. So I'm just going to go in. It's see if you can pick up on who this guy is. Similar frames, both Texas high school football legends.

Colt McCle. I don't, nope. Oh, my God. I'm going over the top. Nicole McCoy was great for what he was. Okay, keep going. Keep going. Give me a more hand.

Doesn't quite have quite have the arm strength as the guy I would comp him to. But still, I think he could do some of the same things. He's an old veteran, man. Oh, I was going to say Kyler Murray. is going to be ridiculous. No. Because he was a Texas high school. Yeah,

I was. To Cliff Kingsbury, and he was like, I think he's, Cliff knows Texas high school football, man. He was like, I think he might have been the best ever. On the,

on the Murray comp, Murray and Clemick, both went undefeated in their last two years playing Texas football and both won state titles in their last two years. You're going Stafford. I love Matt Stafford, by the way. Just so Clemson's fans understand this.

I, if you, if he can be underrated, I'm not sure he can be. I totally agree. I totally agree. I think he, I mean, give me Matt, Matt Stafford over Aaron Rogers. Like, Matt Stafford is, I think a hell of a quarterback. I think that's, I think that's the absolute ceiling. I don't think he has the same kind of armed talent that Matt Stafford's been more of the best, like, five, six. We could do a list.

Yes. He's in the, he's in the bottom of that like elite, elite tier. If he's not spending, right. If he's not in Detroit for as long as. he was in that situation. Now, Detroit's obviously different than when he was there. Totally different vibe. Different career, right?

That's, I see those things because I think that Stafford's mobility earlier in his career was a little underrated. I think both Stafford and Clubnick are very tough. And then I look at how they are, I think they're both very smart. I think that Clubnik's going to have to adjust to, you know, playing a pro-style offense and all of those things. But when I'm watching him get to his third read and making, you know, I'm, a tough throw on that third read.

And also this is one of the things I love about Klebnik. One of the things I love. You want to talk about confidence in a quarterback. He makes throws that are all confidence, all confidence. He knows he has the arm strength to get there. He knows he has the window as long as he gets out of time. And he knows he's got to get it out of time. I'm just, pause, pause, pause.

I'm now, and you do this to me every once in a while. You're confusing me. I rope a dope you. Which I care more, no offense audience and everyone listening. But like right now I need to, I need to sort out what Mench is doing before I try to help you sort it out. So you have shitty grades on him for the position specific. No, I didn't. I gave him two, all twos.

There was a three in there. The three was pocket mobility. I walked it back. I walked it back immediately. I gave him one point. You can do that. We established you can do that. From 1.5, 1.5, 1.5, 1.5, 1.5. And I said he reminds me a lot of Bo Nix, who was drafted 12th overall.

Right. And has outplayed 12th overall. And I've self-admitted I was over, but, but to your point, I don't think Bo's ever going to be in the top tier. Right. And it's going to be hard for him to even maybe get in that second tier. Are you getting, yeah. So what I was doing was painting you down for the Clemson faithful as a guy that thinks to Kate Club. B'nex and presenting myself as a guy who thinks to Kate Clubnick is Matt Stafford. So I want, I'm, I'm now going to pin you down. Throw Archmanning out because he's not in 2026 class. We don't have any real work on him yet. I shouldn't say there, there's not enough of a catalog. We have done Garrett Nussmeier, Lenora Sellers.

Yes. And now we're done with the tape on Clubnik and we're sorting it out right here, though you're making a mess of it. How? I just wanted you. Because you're all over the place. I don't know. So I want you to plan a flat.

I never agree with you about the next thing. I just wanted to hear where you were. I want you to plant a flag. If you had to give a preseason grade and obviously like we're talking about Lenoris has so much developing to do. We want him in the 2027 draft. I think we both agree he's the most physically gifted of the quarterbacks we've evaluated so far, right?

Yep. Nussmeyer we covered head to toe and Nussmeier was like to me I love his game but I don't think he's even as I love his game but I recognize I don't I think he's a touch below and I think he's sudden and he's got a solid to good I think he's got a good arm like I think he's the most accurate of these three. Nussmire's more accurate than sellers definitely and Nussmeyer's more accurate. than Clubnik. If you had to turn over to me as we've done 25 years in a row, several times a year, when you send over to me your grades and rankings, right now, are you ranking Clubnik ahead? Where are you with those three? Sellers, Clubnik, Nussmeier. And sellers is tough because it's a big time projection. I more wanted to know him versus Nussmeier because I think they'll both be in the 2020. six draft. I'm not sure on sellers. Right. Yeah, I'm ahead of, I have him ahead of Nussmeyer.

I do. And I think he's going to absolutely take off this year, too. I think that you look at what Clubnick finished last year, and then you look at Antonio Williams, Brian, Brian Westcoe Jr. and T.J. Moore all going back and those receivers. And by the way, I know we're going to talk about them later, but some of those routes they were running in and some of the speed they were showing when you're just watching Clubnik's tape and you're watching those receivers run around. I'm like, oh boy, those guys, I mean, there is talent,

talent in that receiving room. And I think that sets up, sets up well for Clubnick to continue to build on that momentum, to continue to build on his confidence. He's one of those guys that I think would have a monster year and we're sitting at the end of the year and being like, wow, he really, it, the light, it really came on for him. I remember Lee Fitting was a, was a high-ranking executive,

great producer. He was the, Right. The first producer that I know of with Game Day, I'm not sure if he took the baton or not. And so I worked with him a long time. A lot of respect for him in terms of producing and is an executive. But spent a lot of time talking ball with him and, you know, it would be like me in Herb Street and Fowler. And he would be there, the whole group.

But his kids are huge Clemson fans. I can't remember if one of them went there. So he would always ask me about Clemson prospects. And I remember after the games we talked about with Clemson texting Lee be like, get DJ out of here. No offense, but offense. This is the guy. I think that's just fair. That's just honest about what the situation is.

Yeah. So my point in this was, and Lee has since gone on to WWE. But my point in this is then like I remember 2023, my last year with ESPN. being like, oh, God, you know, like, eh, it takes, like, I'm, you know, really hoping to see more development, you know, it's supposed to be like the tape studyer

and the evaluator guy. But I think, you know, I think there's a lot more there. I'm, I'm still holding on, even though he hasn't given me enough to, like, really. And then this past year, obviously, he's working at WWM where we text a little bit, but we haven't had the subject. For some reason, it came in my head.

Like, if I were to, I'm going, to shoot him a text and be like, hey, because when I was done with this tape, like, 2025 is Clemson's year, but it's Cades year. Yeah. I'm telling you, man. I agree, man. I agree. I think Sellers is more talented, and I think Nussmeyer's a damn good quarterback. And if I'm being honest, I think right now, I've got them neck and neck. But I would, I would, I would, would give a club nick a slight edge over nussmire and and for people who don't know or maybe didn't watch that episode you can check the mickshay show on um on youtube or just go to you know go to spotify apple wherever you get your podcast and just go back and watch watch or listen to the

nussmire show just a couple weeks ago um i love them i think i think nussmire's going to be a great quarterback and i'm like you man i'm getting excited about this quarterback class we haven't done drew aller yet We haven't done a couple other guys that could up the board. And there's always one guy that we probably won't even get to all of a sudden, four weeks into the season, we're like, wait, we better, we better dive in quick. I think this is his year. Here's the thing with him with Cade for me. Sellers is so very clearly a more dynamic athlete and explosive and all that stuff.

Clubnik right now is a more. functional is more functional with his mobility in the pocket i see the climbing i see the sliding i see i want you to hear this closely it's so fucking critical with quarterbacks man it is like beyond sensing pressure and not panic jackson dart you want to know why i loved him and i told you 20 times and i'll remind you right now it was that 147 play clip reel or have 100 yeah clip reel of the versus pressure because I saw the same stuff I saw out of Josh Allen. Wasn't as big, didn't have the arm, but I saw all of them. If you go back and you watch Mahomes, if you watch all the great ones,

the really good ones, when it gets crazy around them, it's cool. I'm good. No problem. Let's advance this play, advance the off. And I saw that. this kid. I call him a kid. I hope he doesn't take offense to it. But he's got an elastic arm. He's functional in terms of his mobility. He climbs the pocket when he should climb. He slides when it's interior. And he's always, I hate when I hear, hey, he climbs the pocket and he keeps his eyes

down in the field like, great. But does he, is he, is he seeing the picture? And then I watch, and then I watch, there was, there was one. And I, I say this all. There are a couple things that are concerning. Okay. I don't think he can throw with anticipation. I wrote 49 seconds off second quarter. Love seeing this anticipation on the speed out route. This is the left.

Which game is this? I'm sorry, Florida State. Okay, okay. Rips it early, perfect placement along. It wasn't anything that jumped out. If you didn't write a note about it, like I would, you notice that play. But it was, it's in there.

You got the ball out before the receiver broke. Everything was on time, perfect place, but along the sideline, picked up 12 next play. Right? But I want to see more of that. And not because I saw four or five more of those after that one. And so he's really good at throwing the speed out to the left side, but I want to see it with more of the throws. Now, I did see it a lot with him moving around, throwing receivers open, leading them on crossers, posts, different things like that. But I think he has a habit of wanting.

to see the receiver maybe open coming back to him or on on on horizontal cutting routes like cutting in cutting out cutting out cutting or comebacks or curls wants to see that number flash and i know that because it's it's it's a it's a it's a safety blanket you know what i mean yeah especially when your guys used to buying time when you're your guys used to buying time you you're like i can i can buy enough time to see this a little clear nailed it and as i was six one he's six two or when i'm standing behind you people don't see me mensch and you were a lot or you were a guard you know what but my point is you want to it's the great ones that learn to trust it you know so i want to see more of that i i know it's in i know it's in there i want to see that that next step in his development this year okay um can i tell you

of my favorite throws he made and it's one of those throws again that maybe you're not really paying attention you're like you didn't see much in it he had an rPO touchdown against wake forest inside the 10 yard line where his receiver breaks over the middle and you might look and be like oh it doesn't look like it's that accurate and he throws it on the hip the back hip of the receiver and if you watch the play it is the only place that ball can go man if he throw if he leads the receiver that receiver's going to the hospital that receiver is going to get cleared out by the I don't know if it was a linebacker or safety, but someone was sitting on it right in the middle of the field.

If he throws it too far ahead, it's going to get picked off. And he puts it right back on the back hip of the receiver, catches it, falls in the end zone untouched touchdown. And by the way, there was a defender right in his face right away. Had to be quick, had to get the ball out and the ball placement. Again, it's not like something where you're looking at and be like, oh, well, it wasn't in front of them or he didn't put it in the numbers. It was right where the ball had to be.

Here's the other thing that I'm still, I'm still to this moment scratching my head on a little bit. He had a weird little stretch in the middle of the season where I didn't think he was as accurate as I did. Even early on against Georgia when the numbers weren't great and then late in the season, and I'll come back to Pittsburgh in a minute. But there was this stretch. And I went back and looked and I'm like, did something contribute to it? He just looked a little different. with his, just with his accuracy.

The wake, he, so I went back and look, he got knocked out of the, the Florida State game. He got quote unquote shaken up, whatever that is. Okay. But then the next game was Wake Forest,

completely like 73% of his throws, had that great throw. But then the game after that was Virginia. And he started that game, like he had a nicely placed back shoulder, fade, right sideline, early in the first, early in the game.

just a few minutes later pretty wild do you remember the um against virginia rolled to his right shortly then all the way across the field right he he it was against virginia it was uh 10 minutes up in the first quarter he had this wild like cross field scramble where he kind of rolled to his right a little bit it wasn't there and he was kind of like and he rolled all the way back across the field to his left and then it kind of opened up his hips and through it wasn't a great throw he did all but he he he had extended it and it was wide open and he had it was a difficult off balance you know ripping your hips back open sprinting full speed after 40 yards of sprinting back to his left uh but it was just all he had to do was laid in there i thought you might have been talking about the Virginia pick was by

far the most baffling so so so okay go ahead you know good it started late in that first quarter five seconds left really bad interception i was he doing i watched he You guys could have picked that pass off. Eight times, bud. I don't know what he was seeing. I don't know what he was thinking. Or defenders in the area. The throw wasn't as bad as the decision, but it was bad too.

And I wrote completely out of character compared to the rest of the tape. Never saw a play like it again. Okay. But don't disagree. Yes, it was the worst play of his entire 237, you know, key play real. but then second quarter 925 badly overshoots a tight end who's wide open in the back of the end zone yeah what was that what was that the the ball hit the padding you actually saw the ball like bounced back the way the way the velocity of the ball hitting the back of the end zone yeah

and then so i so i so i that's when i went back and looked i'm like why what was so different there and those were just two there were there were there were several other I said a couple of ugly mistakes, handful, well, not like three or four, like, like seven or eight really errant throws. And I just wrote those two down to remind myself. And I just like head scratcher. Like I don't, I don't know because it didn't match up with the rest of the tape. Louisville, he misses a couple easy shots early in the game. Really easy throws, just misses. That throw to the flat that should have been picked. Yep. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. But then he got to kind of got in the like late in the first quarter he started to get back in rhythm so i'm like okay

i don't know if it was a confidence issue after that one mistake i don't know if it was something lingering from that florida state game i don't know if there was something else that happened in game against virginia they carried over a little bit in louisville i don't know um dabbo sure is hell ain't gonna tell us um i don't know i'm on his good side now and then louisville is I play 103 on my reel. I didn't write the timestamp down, but another missed, completely overshot in the middle.

And then Virginia Tech, he only completed like 58% of his throw. It was like this four games stretch, like three and a half game stretch. 47.1 in the-47.1. So it was this three-and-a-half game stretch from the second half of Virginia. They rolled Virginia, meanwhile.

So if people are listening to like, talking about mickshay we we beat them by 20 26 point whatever the number was it was over 20 that's not what comes a fan sound like by the way they're very intelligent good people i know i know live with one i live with three of them actually i would never say such things about clemson fans um yeah marissa a j and me are are going to listen to this only this show i'm sure this summer better things to do but um but right you had that stretch That stretch. Then the Pittsburgh game comes, and he's flat out phenomenal.

Wasn't perfect, but he is flat out phenomenal. Yep. And then he was kind of back. So we talked about this with Arch, right? There's steps in the process. The first step was getting out there and showed he's got something he can be the Clemson Quarterback. The second step was failure for him. And they're all different steps for different quarterbacks.

They truly are. like who knew Dalin Hertz got benched at half time in a national championship game and was sent off the pasture kind of got a really nice soft landing spot with Lincoln Riley the quarterback whisperer

they didn't they didn't win the way that the previous quarterbacks did but he still was a Heisman finalist and had a really good year and then then was a third round pick and was a third round pick because kind of a quarterback that had just been drafted a couple years early and Carson Wentz at number two overall and had led his team to a Super Bowl.

Okay. So everyone's got different steps in the process. And so step two for him was some failure and having to look in the mirror and kind of new, new coaching and new support staff and a young support staff, okay, in terms of his weapons. Step three was, I'm back. Here I am. but there were some mid-season bumps in the road, and it was a tough loss against short.

Like there were some stuff to overcome, but now we're iron-sharpening iron. He's going to be able to rely on all this. I was awesome as a true freshman in my moments. I really didn't have a good second year. I was really good in 2024, but there were still bumps in the road. Now, as I talked about,

now teams are coming back, and now in the ACC, and all the opponents you play, you've now faced him and you've faced the best of him. And so now they're going to know his tendencies. How does he, he's already shown week to week. He can, like we talked about with Arch. Arch's next step is full-time starter, all the pressures that come with it, week-to-week preparation, in-game adjustments, week-to-week adjustments, all that stuff.

He's proven that. He's the next step. The next step is, and I said for Arch at 2025 season, is going to be that this, past year for Clubnik the first time through. Second year is rinse, repeat, refine. That's where he is right now for Clubnet. He's,

rinse that season, all the goods and the bad, repeat it against defenses that are ready for you. And if he can refine it, Mench, with that cast that's coming back, with those young guys who are now a year older, with that defense is going to be real, you know,

they can make an awesome run. and he has got a chance to be QB1 in 2026. Yeah. I really hate the rinse repeat, refine line because it's so damn good. It's a little annoying that you came up with that. Thank you. I mean, I guess that's a thank you.

So I kind of feel like at the end of the day, even though we were like, you were throwing punches in one direction. I was throwing punches in the other direction. We were fighting for the same thing. Kade Klubnick is legit. it. Kade Klubnick, whether it's somewhere between Boe, Nixon, Matthew Stafford, has got a chance to be a damn good starting quarterback in the league. Now it's about him making that next step.

And forget about QB1. If you want to make me throw up to start, like QB1, the Nussmeier, September, it's QB1. I had him in June. I had him in September. I had him in 2022. You hadn't seen him play. He was a backup. I don't care about QB1. I don't care until we're putting together mock drafts. I care about where is he in the process. What can he become? And I think we're both agreeing.

While he doesn't have Lenore Sellers level, God-given ability, he's got a lot of the things that you look for, including and especially that trait that you can't quite coach, that calm. when everything's a mess around them, that calm to handle those moments, and that's going to bring him a long way. I don't know why I get so worked up when we do this stuff, man.

It's fun. I hope everyone enjoyed it. How do you like me now, Clemson fans? How you like me now? There he is. There he is. That's my Mench. I'm trying to go to a Clemson game this year.

I think we were talking about as a family going to Clemson, Florida State. I got to call my man Kelly down there. He just got the GM job. I mean, how we're watching, but action show. I mean, think about it, man. I'll do it from,

from, from, from, the Bohemian Hotel in Greenville. How about that? All right. All right. Maybe I'll get you down there.

All right. We'll see if it's safe first. See if it's safe. I don't even know where we're going next week. Hey, at McShay 13. Who's next? At McShay 13.

I'm on threads now, like a maw. Is that, is that good? I don't even know what that is. Talk to Marissa. Here we go. Yep, Threat.

I can get my sports stuff. I can focus, you know, but also obviously, have a massive, not massive. I have a massive appreciation for all the followers I've developed over the last 20, I don't even know, 15 year, whatever it's been on X and Instagram and all that. So you know where to find us. You know, it's you good, Mench, Y-O-U, G-O-O-D, M-U-E-N-C-H, and we'll be updating you on what's coming next week. Drew Aller, what am I talking about?

I am fascinated by this one. Me too. It's going to be, it's going to be right. There's a reason why I left, I saved him after these other guys. I wanted to, I don't know. I don't know where I'm going to land on it. But we'll see. Yeah.

See you on Monday. Have an awesome weekend. and enjoy your summer. Thanks for being a part of this. And we'll see you on the other side on Monday. Later. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C.

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