A year ago, it didn't take long for an early-enrolled Will Shipley to make his presence felt within Clemson's football team.

Six months later, Dabo Swinney didn't hesitate in saying Shipley was already one of the team's foremost leaders.

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It's a rare dude who comes in right away and makes that type of impact as not just a superb talent but an integral part of a team's leadership.

While we hesitate to say Cade Klubnik will present a carbon copy of what Shipley brought as a freshman, it's hard to get away from the feeling that Klubnik is another of those rare pieces who is advanced not only as a talent but as a person.

We spent a good part of December learning more about Klubnik for a series of articles we released around Christmas. And the more conversations we had, the more we believed that Klubnik is exactly the type of presence this offense and team needs as it tries to get back to the rare air of the College Football Playoff.

Don't misunderstand: We're not making any predictions about Klubnik overtaking DJ Uiagalelei for the starting quarterback role. As Dabo Swinney and OC Brandon Streeter have said both publicly and privately, this is Uiagalelei's job and someone will have to beat him out (and past experience tells us a freshman has to make a prolonged, slam-dunk case to unseat a starter).