Over his time as Clemson’s head coach, Dabo Swinney has seen a lot of quality from his offense, mainly at quarterback. The Tigers have had high expectations for this position since the early 2010s, having about 15 years of consistent quarterback play that has allowed the program to be one of the winningest programs in the sport. For now, let’s rank the top eight that he’s had that have picked up multiple starts since coming it. For now, we will leave out the expected starter this season, Christopher Vizzina, although he has the talent to be considered one of Clemson’s best by the time his career is over. 8. Cole Stoudt, 2011-14Clemson quarterback Cole Stoudt won Most Valuable Player during the 2014 Russell Athletic Bowl, his final game as a Tiger. | BART BOATWRIGHT/Staff, The Greenville News via Imagn Content Services, LLCStoudt only had one season as Clemson’s main quarterback in the 2014 season, sandwiched between Tajh Boyd and being the starter in front of freshman phenom Deshaun Watson. However, he still had some winning moments that Tiger fans reminisced on. He started in eight of thirteen games, with Watson starting in the other five. Stoudt’s most memorable win came in the 2014 Russell Athletic Bowl, taking down Oklahoma 40-6 in a game where he threw a career-high 319 passing yards and four total touchdowns in his final game as a Tiger. Clemson picked up a 10-win season with Stoudt mainly at the helm, important for a transition year looking back. Stoudt threw for 1,892 passing yards and nine touchdowns, but was turnover-happy at times with 10 interceptions. Nevertheless, that bowl game win where he was named MVP for ended up kickstarting the College Football Playoff runs. 7. DJ Uiagalelei, 2020-22Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei had a standout freshman season in limited appearances, but struggled once a full starter. | Matt Cashore-Imagn ImagesClemson fans believed they had the next great program quarterback when Uiagalelei, as a true freshman, threw for 439 yards and three total touchdowns against No. 4 Notre Dame in South Bend. Those next two seasons, that hope would deflate. Uiagalelei took the Tigers to two 10-win seasons in 2021-22, enough for other programs to be satisfied with a quarterback if that ends up being the case. However, with Clemson having high expectations for the position, he ended up falling down the all-time charts when it came to winning the big game. A loss to No. 5 Georgia and No. 23 Pitt in 2021, falling short against Notre Dame and South Carolina in 2022, he finished his time as a Tiger trending down, but that shouldn’t take away from games he won against No. 10 NC State and No. 21 Wake Forest in his final year. Uiagalelei just struggled in the big moments, while other players on this list didn’t. 6. Kyle Parker, 2008-10Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker was a two-way player who decided to go to the MLB to pursue baseball in 2011. | Joshua S. Kelly-Imagn ImagesClemson’s two-way phenom on the gridiron and baseball diamond was Swinney’s first starter when he took the official head coaching job. He redshirted in his first season, and he broke records in his first year as the starter. The first-team Freshman All-ACC signal caller and second-team Freshman All-American in 2009 had a streak of seven games with at least one touchdown pass, which was a program record at the time. He was also the quarterback to first take the Tigers to the ACC Championship under Swinney. Although they didn’t win, he was the first freshman under center to win a bowl game, winning the Music City Bowl against Kentucky.Parker finished his time with the Tigers with 4,739 yards and 32 touchdowns, throwing 23 interceptions over two seasons. While he wasn’t the flashiest on this list, he was a lot of firsts for Swinney that helped put the program in the right direction. 5. Kelly Bryant, 2015-18Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant took the team to an ACC Championship and College Football Playoff appearance in 2017. | Jeremy Brevard-Imagn ImagesSimilar to Stoudt, Bryant was the guy between Watson and Trevor Lawrence, both national champions with the Tigers. The Calhoun Falls, South Carolina, native had big shoes to fill, and although he did to an extent, it wasn’t on the magnitude of the other two. 2017 was Bryant’s year, finishing with 2,802 yards, 13 passing touchdowns, 665 rushing yards and 11 ground scores. In that season, the Tigers won the ACC Championship against Miami before not scoring a touchdown against Alabama in the College Football Playoff. As the story goes, in 2018, Bryant’s poor start made way for Trevor Lawrence, who finished off Clemson’s perfect season that featured an elite defense. He transferred in the middle of the season and was not given a ring. That 2017 year was special, picking up 12 wins as a first-year starter, a record at that time, six top-25 wins and an ACC Championship MVP award. That season alone is enough to crack the top five of this list. 4. Cade Klubnik, 2022-25Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik is the third player in the ACC's history to win the conference championships' MVP twice. | Jim Dedmon-Imagn ImagesThe most recent Clemson Tiger, Klubnik, defined himself as “a winner”, and that he was. The quarterback won 27 games in three seasons as the team’s starter, including two ACC Championships. He was named the Most Valuable Player in both. 2024 was where he shone, picking up a second-team All-ACC honor and recording at least 200 yards in the last 12 games of the season. Those included moments like his 50-yard game-winning rushing touchdown over Pitt and a key throw to Antonio Williams to set up a game-winning field goal to win the ACC Championship as well. The reason he’s not higher is simply that the other three quarterbacks made more strides in the program. Going into 2025, Klubnik was talked about as one of the best quarterbacks in the class, but he had to do it all with a run game that was one of the worst in the country. The team also struggled to play complementary football. But the two conference championships leave Klubnik here, in addition to being one of the winningest starters in the program’s history. 3. Tajh Boyd, 2010-13Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd took the program to new heights across his four seasons as a member of the Tigers. | Joshua S. Kelly-Imagn ImagesBoyd is regarded as the quarterback who took Clemson to the next step under Swinney, setting the stage for the two national championships that the Tigers would win later on. The former top 100 recruit won 32 games as a starter, which would tie a school record before being broken by one of the next two on this list. In 2012-13, those included back-to-back bowl wins over LSU and Ohio State, which were both top 10 wins in the Chick-fil-A Bowl and Orange Bowl, respectively. In 2012, Boyd was a first-team All-American while winning ACC Player of the Year as well, being the first Clemson quarterback to give Swinney an ACC Championship in 2011. He set the tone for the remainder of the Tiger quarterbacks over the next 12 years, and by the time he was done, he left the program in a better place than he found it. It also laid the groundwork for the next two quarterbacks on this list to shine. It’s not a surprise, either. 2. Deshaun Watson. 2014-16Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson gave the Tigers their first national championship since the 1981 season. | BART BOATWRIGHT/StaffWatson took over for Stoudt after he left in 2014, and his collegiate career became one of the best stories of his time with the Tigers. 2015 saw him win the Davey O’Brien Award and the Manning Award as the nation’s best quarterback, being the first Tiger to ever win. Some other voters from various groups believed he was the best player in football, and he took the Tigers to their first national championship in four straight seasons. Then, of course, in 2016, he won Clemson’s second-ever national championship and reached the mountaintop. He totaled over 450 yards in that game as well, being the best late-game quarterback that Swinney has arguably had on the biggest stages. If it wasn’t for a phenom in Lamar Jackson, Watson could’ve been a Heisman Trophy winner as well. However, there’s one that will take the cake in this case. Look no further than this Tiger legend. 1. Trevor Lawrence, 2018-21Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence is the Tigers' winningest quarterback in the program's history. | BART BOATWRIGHT/StaffThree seasons, a 34-2 record, three College Football Playoff appearances, two national championship appearances and one College Football Playoff trophy. To cap it off, he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Lawrence broke the records Watson set, being the winningest quarterback in Clemson’s history. He also had the most College Football Playoff game appearances with a single team as the team’s starter. Most importantly, he won nearly every game he played in as a Tiger. A national champion in 2018, he was several plays short in 2019 while playing a team that some call the best team ever in the modern era, in LSU. COVID-19 had Lawrence sidelined with the virus as well, despite coming back and winning the ACC Championship for his third time in a row. I think if there was a more standard season in 2020, he would get more recognition than Watson. However, Swinney has been looking for that player since Lawrence left behind center, and he hasn’t gotten anything close just yet. Maybe that will change in the upcoming years. Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow