Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik learned a few hours before that head coach Dabo Swinney was thinking about making a change at offensive coordinator.
The person who told him was Dabo Swinney.
“He told me in the morning he was thinking about making a decision. I was like, ‘Okay.’ And then three hours later he was like, ‘I just made a decision and come up to my office when you have a second.’ I was like, ‘Alight.’ He told me he made this decision,” Klubnik recalled on the Next Up Podcast with host Adam Breneman.
Swinney decided to fire offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter and bring in former TCU offensive coordinator Garrett Riley. Streeter, who had coached under Swinney since December of 2014, was let go on Jan. 12, and Riley was officially hired the next day.
“We were all a little bit surprised. It was pretty new,” Klubnik said.
It was also the end of a player-coach relationship that played a big role in why Klubnik came to Clemson in the first place. His relationship with Streeter, who was also his position coach, was a tight one. So much so, Klubnik indicates in the Next Up Podcast that he recently went over to Streeter’s home and hung out with his old coach.
“Probably one of my favorite people at Clemson is Coach Streeter,” the sophomore said. “Without a doubt, top two favorite people since I have been here. He is without a doubt one of the most loving people that I have ever met.”
Klubnik recalled a position meeting the day before the Orange Bowl this past season when Streeter made each quarterback go around the room and tell each one why they were thankful for them. It was not an uncommon practice for Swinney’s longtime assistant coach.
Streeter used the first 15 to 20 minutes in each meeting to see how his players were doing.
“It did not matter if we had a thirty-minute meeting or an hour and a half, at least fifteen minutes every day he would go around the room and ask how we were all doing,” Klubnik said. “He was not looking for a one-word answer. He was looking for how are your parents doing? How are your siblings doing? How is your girlfriend? How is this and how is that, really trying to get to know you. How is your faith doing?”
Klubnik remembers thinking to himself about how rare this in the college ranks, especially at a big-time program like Clemson.
“We get to sit in a room and not talk about college football, in a football atmosphere, for almost ten minutes,” he said. “I just remember sitting in the room, thinking, ‘I don’t think anybody else is doing this in the country.’
“That was just so special to me. He would just go around the room… That is so rare. That is so cool to me. Somebody just loves on people so well and does what he loves so well, that was him using that opportunity to just care on people. I am going to miss him a ton.”
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