Bogus car crash rumor debunked by Cade Klubnik’s mother, who asks some good questions about fake news

A since-deleted message board post from the popular independent Clemson site Tigernet.com made the rounds Sunday evening courtesy of the satirical social media account “Message Board Geniuses,” claiming star Clemson QB Cade Klubnik had been involved in a car accident near campus and could not move his arm or shoulder.

The post was bogus, Cade’s mother Kim Klubnik told CBS Sports when reached via text message. 

“Thankfully, it is fake news,” she said. “Cade is fine!”

A preseason All-American, Klubnik will be one of the main characters of the 2025 college football season — the star quarterback for college football’s No. 4 overall team, which opens the season Saturday in a titanic home battle vs. LSU. But that celebrity does not make it OK for his health to be made into a joke online, either by an anonymous troll poster or spread by an anonymous account that gives fuel to said troll posters.

In a social media landscape that is increasingly fraught with phony information, dupes, AI-generated photos and the like, bad information can have real consequences. Klubnik’s family had to deal with the real consequences of that. 

“My heart has not stopped racing since someone shared the story with me,” Kim Klubnik. “How can someone be so cruel?”

This is the second time during fall camp in which a superstar quarterback had an injury rumor go viral. It previously happened with LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, whose knee tendonitis turned into a torn ACL in the unverified rumor mill that is message boards and social media.

Nussmeier’s knee did get banged up. Those in the LSU program were baffled with how a minor knee injury — at a practice that wasn’t open to the public — could turn into a maddeningly inaccurate game of telephone on social media. 

There was no Klubnik car crash, though. And outside of a ban and a block, nothing will happen to whoever poster “JacobyMoore” is, who spun quite a yarn that caught fire on social media. Clemson fans must have identified him as a South Carolina fan trolling their board, because they had already started tongue-in-cheek retaliation posts about “Beamer car accident,” referring of course to rival Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer. 

“How can it be OK to spread rumors like this?” Kim asked.