Roddy Jones and EJ Manuel joined Rece Davis on ESPN’s College Football Countdown show to preview the biggest matchups in Week 1 of the 2025 college football season.
As for the highly anticipated top-10 showdown between the No. 9 LSU Tigers and fourth-ranked Clemson Tigers, much of the conversation with Jones, Manuel and Davis centered around Clemson star quarterback Cade Klubnik.
Of course, Klubnik is coming off a breakout junior season in 2024, when he tied Tajh Boyd (36 in 2012) and Trevor Lawrence (36 in 2019) for the second-most passing touchdowns in a season in Clemson history.
Klubnik’s 36 touchdown passes were the most among all quarterbacks nationally with six or fewer interceptions, and his 43 touchdowns responsible for ranked sixth in school history and were the most since Trevor Lawrence’s 45 in 2019.
Klubnik racked up 4,102 yards of total offense (fourth nationally) to produce the seventh 4,000-yard season of total offense in Clemson history.
Manuel is among the many analysts who are bullish on Klubnik and the Tigers entering the 2025 campaign, with Manuel saying Klubnik potentially “could be the No. 1 draft pick after this season, and also a national champion.”
“The big thing I love about Cade Klubnik is the growth that you’ve seen year over year, but also week to week,” Manuel said. “Even if you go back to last season, when they started against Georgia, he didn’t have a great game, but he came back the following week against App State and just tore them up.
“And I think part of it, too, is the confidence that has grown with his receivers. Antonio Williams is coming back, Bryant Wesco, TJ Moore – he has some guys who can make plays for him. But also, his time clock has improved so much where he knows, hey, I’m getting late in the down, let me take off and run, and then it ends up being a big run like that for a touchdown to win the game against Pitt. Or, let me just move around in the pocket and find a receiver open, that also ends up being a big gain. So, I love where Cade Klubnik is at right now.”
Jones added that not only does Klubnik have outstanding wideouts to throw to, but he’ll also benefit from the improved play of his offensive line in front of him.
“The improvement on that offensive line was significant over the course of last season,” Jones said. “They brought in Matt Luke, former Ole Miss head coach, to be the offensive line coach last year. And what Matt Luke, the way he taught that offensive line, really helped accentuate a lot of what they did in Garrett Riley’s offense, especially with their gap scheme runs. They got so much better with that, that it helped both Cade Klubnik in the run game, and the run game in general.
“So, yes, Cade Klubnik is great and all the receivers are great. But that offensive line, which brings back the bulk of its experience from a year ago, I think should be one of the best in the ACC, if not the country.”
On the other side of the ball, Clemson ended last season by allowing 292 rushing yards in the College Football Playoff first-round loss at Texas, with Jaydon Blue and Quintrevion Wisner both running for 110-plus yards.
Davis said he thinks, with Tom Allen taking over as Clemson’s defensive coordinator, the Tigers will “return to old school Clemson up front” along their defensive line that’s anchored by preseason All-Americans T.J. Parker and Peter Woods.
“I could not agree more, and they need it,” Jones said. “This is a Clemson team that was ninth in the ACC in total defense a year ago. 16th in the ACC in rush defense, and I’m old enough to remember when the ACC didn’t have 16 teams. The fact that Clemson ended up 16th in rush defense, that’s why they needed to make a change on that side of the ball.”
Clemson and LSU are set to kick off their respective 2025 seasons at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium on Aug. 30 (7:30 p.m., ABC).
You can watch Davis, Jones and Manuel preview that matchup, beginning at the 6:40 mark of the following video: