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How Dabo Swinney's staff grades every Clemson player on every play, including Cade Klubnik
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- How Dabo Swinney's staff grades every Clemson player on every play, including Cade Klubnik
CLEMSON — Clemson football linebacker Wade Woodaz thought he played poorly in Saturday's game against Florida State .
The linebacker recorded a game-high 10 tackles with two quarterback hurries and one forced fumble, but he said he could have had three interceptions. A play that stood out to him came on FSU's first score in the second quarter when he leaped to intercept the pass, but he wasn't far back enough, and the throw made it past him.
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Yet, Woodaz was shocked after he watched the FSU game film and received a winning performance grade.
"I thought I played horrible,'" Woodaz said. "... I watched the tape back and saw my grade, and I was like, 'Oh, I actually didn't play that bad.'"
Woodaz's report card is a part of the weekly assessment Clemson coach Dabo Swinney and his staff make on each player after every game. Coaches grade each play with a plus or minus and give fundamental, technical and overall grades, which can fall in or out of a winning standard. Each play has descriptive notes on where players performed well or were weak.
For Clemson, winning standards differ at every position. For linebackers, they have to be 80% or higher. Quarterbacks have to have an 86% or higher, and defensive tackles must be 75% or higher. Similar to Pro Football Focus' metrics and a pass-fail system in school, Clemson has a game-by-game win-loss method that motivates Tiger players to hit these marks.
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Swinney says the game report cards are used to create accountability for players and consistency in practices and on game days.
MORE: What Dabo Swinney said about Alabama, Tennessee upsets and Clemson's 'windshield mentality'
"We don't expect guys to be perfect, but we need consistency in their performance," Swinney said.
From maintaining the edge to avoiding penalties to finishing blocks down the field, Swinney and his staff look at a multitude of things on every play when playing back game film. Swinney considers himself a tough grader, and there have been instances where players would debate coaches why they received a minus on a play or earned a low grade.
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How Clemson football 's Cade Klubnik is graded after games
Klubnik is assessed on a variety of characteristics, like his command of the offense, decision making, pocket presence, field vision, competitiveness and leadership.
"Cade's a perfect example of that from where he was last year to this year, grading-wise, it's night and day," Swinney said.
Klubnik received minuses on plays last year when he took sacks, tackles for loss and turned over the ball. Swinney said Klubnik was also reluctant to use his legs to scramble for yards and sit in the pocket to deliver accurate throws. This caused his 2023 grades to fluctuate. He didn't start putting it together in his first year as a starter until the Tigers won five games to conclude 2023.
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Through five games this season, Klubnik has emerged as an improved quarterback, having the fourth-highest quarterback rating in FBS (88.9). When he enters film study with Swinney and offensive coordinator Garrett Riley, he has trust in them both, especially Swinney, who has developed NFL quarterbacks like Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson . Swinney said
"I just feel like I'm a totally different player," Klubnik said. "My confidence and just the way that I've grown and really just seeing the fruits of my hard work really come to life has really been fun."
Klubnik looks to earn another winning grade when No. 11 Clemson (4-1, 3-0 ACC) plays at Wake Forest (2-3, 1-1) on Saturday (noon ET, ESPN) at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium.
Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at dcarter@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson football: Dabo Swinney grade system, including Cade Klubnik
