LSU football head coach knows that, in order for his Tigers to emerge victorious, in their season opener vs. Clemson, the LSU defense will have to shut down Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik.
While Klubnik is very capable as a passer — he threw for 3,639 yards, 36 touchdowns, and 6 interceptions last season as a junior — Kelly is especially focused on limiting how much damage he can do to LSU with his legs.
“He's, I would say, central to their run game,” Kelly said of Klubnik, via Geaux247. “You can go back to last year's Texas A&M game. We didn't handle ourselves very well, or the Alabama game. Whoever you want to point out — South Carolina — I could keep going. We didn't do a very good job against the running quarterback, so it's important that we contain him within the run game. Look, he's going to do things outside the realm; that's what he does. He's really good at that. We've got to keep him in the pocket and make him operate from there.
“But their run game is certainly part of what they do. But they've got a lot of things from an offensive standpoint that you have to defend, and there's only a few things you can do. You want to play fast. You want to play physical. You want to make sure that you don't give up the big shots. They like to get big shots down the field, and then you've got to stop the quarterback from really hurting you running the ball. That's kind of central to what we're looking at.”
Klubnik rushed for 463 yards and 7 touchdowns in 2024, both career-highs, after tallying 321 yards and 6 touchdowns combined over the previous two seasons.
The dual-threat ability was on full display in particular moments of the season; it first popped up in Week 3, when Klubnik ran for 70 yards and a touchdown. The following week, he had 48 yards and another score before rushing for 62 yards against Florida State.
Klubnik probably had his best rushing performance of the season in the last week of the regular season in the Tigers' rivalry game vs. South Carolina, against whom he rushed for 62 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Clemson and LSU will meet on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET in Clemson. Kelly, since becoming the LSU football coach before the 2022 season, is 0-3 in season openers.
