The Davey O’Brien Foundation announced today that quarterback Cade Klubnik has been named as one of 36 members on the 2025 watch list for the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award, presented annually to the nation’s top quarterback. Additional information from award organizers is included below.
Visit the 2025 Preseason Honors hub for more preseason accolades garnered by Clemson.
FORT WORTH, Texas (Aug. 7, 2025) — The Davey O’Brien Foundation unveiled the 2025 Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award Preseason Watch List today, a group that includes three dozen of the nation’s top returning college quarterbacks.
Compiled by a subset of the Davey O’Brien National Selection Committee, this year’s list was selected based on previous Division I career player performance as well as expectations heading into the 2025 college football season.
The preseason list features 16 seniors, 13 juniors and seven sophomores. Six players – Drew Allar (Penn State), Blake Horvath (Navy), Kevin Jennings (SMU), Cade Klubnik (Clemson), John Mateer (Oklahoma) and Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt) – were semifinalists in 2024.
The Big 12 Conference leads all leagues with eight quarterbacks honored. The Big 12 is followed closely by the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference, both with seven.
The official Davey O’Brien Midseason Watch List will be released on Tuesday, Oct. 21, and will contain active quarterbacks from the Preseason Watch List, players honored as weekly Great 8 recipients through the season’s first eight weeks and any additional quarterbacks approved by the selection subcommittee.
The 35-player Davey O’Brien QB Class of 2025 will be announced on Tuesday, Oct. 28. For the fifth straight year, fan voting on social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) will earn players bonus selection committee votes during the semifinalist, finalist and winner voting rounds. First-round fan voting will begin Oct. 28 following the QB Class announcement.
The list of semifinalists selected from the QB Class will be named on Wednesday, Nov. 12. The Foundation will announce the three finalists two weeks later (Tuesday, Nov. 25). The 2025 Davey O’Brien Award winner will be unveiled live on ESPN on Thursday, Dec. 11, during The Home Depot College Football Awards.
The Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award is presented annually to the nation’s best college quarterback and is the oldest and most prestigious national quarterback award. The 49th…