Week 4 Scouting Notebook: Klubnik resurgence continues, Harold Perkins’ injury and more

By Jack Brentnall

Week 4 of the college football season gave us another great slate of games and there were plenty of NFL Draft prospects popping up on the radar.

From quarterbacks tearing up defenses to rising prospects sending their draft stock into the stratosphere, we had it all. Here are the players that caught my eye in Week 4.

Cade Klubnik continues his resurgence

How quickly things can change. Cast your mind back to Week 1 and Clemson had just lost 34-3 to Georgia, with much of the blame falling on quarterback Cade Klubnik. He had finished that game with just 142 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.

Two games later and it is a different story. Through his last two outings Klubnik has completed 78.4% of his passes. He has thrown for 587 yards, averaging 11.5 per attempt, with eight touchdowns and no interceptions. Since Week 1 he ranks second in the FBS with a hugely impressive 11.3% big-time throw rate.

This weekend he helped the Tigers put up 45 first half points, including a career-long 55-yard rushing touchdown. For the first time, Klubnik is beginning to look like the five-star talent that many were expecting. He showed good poise, decision making, and some nice play extension ability. The question now becomes whether he can maintain this form over the next few weeks as the Tigers enter their ACC schedule.

Kaleb Johnson continues to make a name for himself

Before the season began, the 2025 running back class already looked like it could be one for the ages. After four weeks of football it looks like it could be even better, thanks in no small part to the performances of players like Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson.

Johnson is bouncing back from an injury-hit 2023 season in spectacular fashion and has positioned himself as one of the frontrunners for the Doak Walker Award. This weekend saw him churn out 200 yards and three touchdowns against Minnesota, averaging 10.5 yards per attempt. He forced 10 missed tackles on 19 attempts, with 65.5% of his yards coming after contact.

Through four games, Johnson has a whopping 675 yards and nine touchdowns. He leads all Power Four backs in yards, missed tackles forced (30), explosive carries (18), and breakaway carries (16). NFL teams will still want to see a little more from him as a receiver, but he’s fast making a case for himself as a day two pick.

Harold Perkins suffers a season-ending injury

Entering the season, Perkins felt like one of the most divisive draft prospects. For some he was a Swiss Army Knife on defense, with high end athletic traits and impressive positional versatility. For others, he was a tweener – too small to play off the edge, but lacking the quick processing skills and tackling prowess to be an off-ball linebacker.

Perkins played a hybrid role in 2023, splitting his time almost equally between the defensive line, the box, and the slot. This year he made the transition to a more traditional linebacker role and it is safe to say it has been challenging. Through four games he has just 17 tackles. His 26.1% missed tackle rate is also one of the worst marks in the FBS.

This weekend against UCLA his struggles continued. Perkins played 54 snaps, contributing a single tackle. He didn’t have a single defensive stop and had just one pressure on 13 pass rushing snaps. To top it off, a late-game knee injury was later confirmed to be a torn ACL, ending his season.

With his underwhelming play and now a season-ending injury, it feels likely that Perkins will return to school for 2025. That may be the best bet in the long run and can give him the time he needs to develop his skills as a true off-ball linebacker and potentially improve his draft stock for the following year.

Josaiah Stewart dominates against USC

Michigan came away with a narrow victory against USC and they had their senior edge rusher Josaiah Stewart to thank. After playing a backup role on the national championship-winning defense last season, Stewart has emerged as a key contributor for Wink Martindale’s unit.

Against the Trojans, Stewart finished with a 31.7% pass rush win rate and eight pressures on his 37 pass rushing snaps. Two of those resulted in sacks, and another three were hits on the quarterback. He also chipped in with three run stops.

Stewart’s dominance forced USC to adjust their strategy at halftime, using chip blocks and leaving tight ends and running backs in to help protect their quarterback. Even then it didn’t seem to work. Stewart forced a fumble on a goal-to-go play in the third quarter and forced a throwaway on a crucial third down in the fourth quarter.

Stewart is still a work in progress as an NFL prospect, but if he can continue to have this sort of impact against high level competition he is going to rise up draft boards. His matchup against Minnesota offensive tackle Aireontae Ersery next week should be a great test.

Miami keeps rolling as several prospects shine

For the first time in what seems like forever, Miami is one again a force to be reckoned with in college football. This weekend they extended their unbeaten run with a convincing 50-15 win over USF. Quarterback Cam Ward has understandably been the focus on most of the attention, but this weekend really illustrated the number of NFL talents the Hurricanes have at their disposal.

Ward was dicing up the Bulls’ secondary, finishing with 404 yards, three touchdowns and one rather unfortunate interception. His receivers showed out too. Isaiah Horton had the best game of his career, with eight catches for 108 yards and a score. The ever-reliable Xavier Restrepo also chipped in with 99 yards and a touchdown, with former Houston wide receiver Samuel Brown adding another 75 yards and a touchdown.

The question facing this unit is whether they can continue to steamroller their opposition once they start to face other ACC teams. We’ll get our first answer to that next week as they prepare to host Virginia Tech. The spotlight will be firmly on Ward and his teammates to see how they fare.

JACK BRENTNALL

HEAD OF NFL DRAFT CONTENT

Previously the founder of The Jet Sweep, Jack joined The Touchdown as head of Draft Content in 2024. A Scouting Academy alumnus, Jack has been Covering the NFL Draft since 2020. Follow him on Twitter @Jack_Brentnall.

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