Clemson QB Klubnik keeps focus on field during homecoming against Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (FOX Carolina) – Clemson football plays Texas Saturday in the first round of the College Football Playoff in a homecoming game for Austin native and Tigers’ junior quarterback Cade Klubnik.

He will be facing a familiar foe.

In 2021, Klubnik’s Austin Westlake team beat, now Texas quarterback, Quinn Ewers’ Southlake Carroll team to win the Texas high school state championship.

“It was definitely a very high profile game,” Klubnik said. “My head coach was the father of Quinn’s head coach. So they called it the ‘Dodge Bowl’ and then Quinn and I playing against each other, it was a really cool deal.”

In total, Klubnik won three three consecutive state championships, two as a starter, in the highest classification of Texas high school football. Saturday, he’ll play against four of his former high school teammates who are now Texas Longhorns. But he’s keeping his focus on the field.

“Excited to see them after the game. But you have to realize they want the same thing you do,” Klubnik said. “I’ll enjoy it a little bit whenever we head up there and that flight over there but at the end of the day you have a task at hand and you have to take care of business.”

Clemson Football Head Coach Dabo Swinney has drawn on his own experience playing against his former college team, Alabama, to help his quarterback during the homecoming.

“It’s not about emotion, it’s about execution. That’s what this game’s about,” Swinney said. “All that stuff’s great. Those are great storylines when you’re on the outside and you’re not really in the game, those are natural things like, ‘oh I’m going home.’ I’ve been part of that playing Alabama. It can be surreal. All that stuff is neat, but when it’s what you do, he knows it’s about execution.”

That execution extends to Klubnik’s pregame outfit. FOX Carolina asked Klubnik if he’ll be wearing his cowboy hat when he walks into the stadium back home in Texas.

“Yea, I was thinking about it. I don’t think I will be this week. Maybe for the Cotton Bowl, but I don’t think I’m going to this week,” Klubnik said. “I think that might be trying a little bit too hard right there. But just going to rock another outfit and get going.”

Clemson’s making its first College Football Playoff appearance since the year Klubnik beat Ewers in the Texas high school championship in 2021.

The Tigers kick off in his hometown of Austin, Texas against the Longhorns at 4 p.m. Saturday in the first round of the playoff.

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