Maybe the roots are ok and will sprout again.It happened to mine and it came back nicely the following spring.If you don't need that space just wait and see.It may surprise you.

I'll leave it alone and see. I really hope it does come back.

Maybe too wet........or too dry? Check the drip system and the moisture of the soil.

If it blighted off suddenly then it was probably a blight (pathogenic infestation). If it got too dry it should have wilted and gradually withered away. The whole plant would have gone down, instead of fizzling in sections - which it might do if being destroyed by pathogens like bacteria or fungi. Speaking of fungi Armillaria is always a possibility in wooded areas, like other forest fungi it is a decomposer of wood. Sometimes it creates its own dead wood by growing up under the bark of trees and shrubs and killing them near the soil line. It uses dark rootlike rhizomorphs to get out of the ground and under the bark, kind of like tropical termites that build soil tubes to bypass house foundations.

Hmm. Well... I guess I'll just have to watch and see if it comes back in the spring. It's currently one crispy critter. Can't imagine it was a lack of water, being on the dripline.

I loved that honeysuckle. :(

Plants with intact potting soil or dried out field soil rootballs can and often do dry out or remain dry after planting. The potting soil will usually be coarser than the natural soil of the new site and therefore tend to shed water it to it, the finer textured natural soil having a greater attraction for water.

Claylike field soil rootballs may not be handled and stored with proper diligence between the grower's field and the final purchaser's planting site, be allowed to dry out before purchase. After this happens they may be quite slow to re-wet, so that most irrigation water applied does not penetrate very far beyond the surface.

It seems likely an emitter from a drip system may sometimes not be watering in a way that meets the needs of a newly planted specimen. Until recently installed plants root out well into the new soil they are almost in the same state of vulnerability as if still in the pot or burlap.

Doing well for a year and then collapsing suddenly later really does sound like a pathogenic infestation of the roots. Leaving the carcass in place is probably not a good idea, especially if it was killed by something like honey fungus which can gradually spread over a huge area, attacking other trees and shrubs in its path when conditions are suitable. Check to see if the stems are dry and brittle, indicating complete failure and then carefully dig it up, look at the roots and soil. Honey fungus rhizomorphs may look like roots but there are photos of them online - and the way they come up out of the ground or nearly so and connect to the crown or trunk of the infested plant is distinctive.

Water molds rot the roots and so plants damaged or killed by these may be found to have much or most of the root system rotted away when examined.

Some plants appear to have been affected by the rain this spring and since your climber is planted in a clay-like soil it's also possible it simply drowned.