Brooks Austin, director of recruiting at Sports Illustrated, extrapolated even further. From the smallest of sample sizes.
He watched Klubnik work out during last week’s Elite 11 camp, spending 45 minutes on a simple “elasticity” movement drill, trying to create “separation” between his right hip and his shoulder.
After passing drills concluded on the first night of camp, Klubnik was caught on camera sprinting sideline to sideline as everyone else milled around.
“That dude is a maniac,” Austin said in a social media post. “I don’t know if he’s gonna be the No. 1 overall pick this year … that kid’s gonna play football in the NFL for 15 years. There’s no doubt about that in my mind.”
But that love of football, which people so clearly observe, is what made it difficult for Klubnik to hear what was said during the 2023 season.
Even if he’s always tried his best to ignore it.
“It’s not that I took it all personally or anything like that. It was just hard to hear those things about yourself whenever you’re not successful at something that you love doing. And then people telling you that,” Klubnik said.
“And I will never forget having to go through that.”
The good and the bad are inextricably part of Klubnik’s journey, which allows him to deflect what’s come his way this offseason.
The Heisman talk, the first-round draft buzz, even his enshrinement on the cover of a video game he grew up playing. It hits differently for him.
Because the same people singing his praises this offseason didn’t think much of him in the fall of 2023 when he was getting food delivered to his house and didn’t even want his classmates to see his face.
“It’s just I hadn’t experienced anything like what I experienced,” Klubnik said. “I’ll definitely never forget that season and just the flip that it kind of switched in me and my work ethic and sacrificing things and leading this team.”