Even in the waning moments of his team’s 38-24 loss to Texas football in Saturday’s College Football Playoff game at Royal-Memorial Stadium, Clemson quarterback and Austin native Cade Klubnik found a few moments to have some fun with some friends in burnt orange.
Texas safety Michael Taaffe, Klubnik’s childhood buddy who played on two state championship teams with the quarterback at Westlake High School, had his hands on a Klubnik pass late in the game but couldn’t come down with the ball.
“Michael dropped that pick at the very end, and he told me he wanted that one,” Klubnik said. “I said he’s not good enough to get it.”
Earlier in the game, Texas safety Andrew Mukuba – another Austin native and a former teammate of Klubnik’s at Clemson – almost snagged an interception before drawing some more barbs from Klubnik.
“I almost threw a pick to Mukuba, and I told him he still doesn’t have the hands,” Klubnik said. “Other than that, there wasn’t really much talk.”
But Klubnik had plenty to say after the game about the quality of Taaffe and Mukuba, two of the anchors of a Texas unit that entered the game as the No. 1 passing defense in the nation
“Those guys are great guys, great football players, great dudes,” he said. “It’s nice to be home and all that, but I wish we would have won. That’s what I came here to do. It wasn’t a vacation. It wasn’t really time to come home. It was time to come win a football game, and we didn’t do that. That really sucked.”
More than anyone, Taaffe can appreciate that fighting spirit.
“When you look across the sideline, no matter how close you are with the other opponent, they’re your opponent for 60 minutes,” he said. “Once you step through those white lines, then he’s your opponent and that’s just how football is. That’s how I’m raised. That’s how competitive I am. He’s the same way. We were definitely sharing words back and forth, so that was fun.”
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Klubnik certainly isn’t used to losing in Austin. He went 30-0 as the starting quarterback for Westlake, with one of those wins coming against a Southlake Carroll led by current Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers in the 2020 Class 6A Division I state championship game. One of those wins came in a playoff triumph at Royal-Memorial Stadium against local rival Vandegrift, which Clemson coach Debo Swinney watched from the sidelines.
Klubnik became one of the nation’s top recruits for the class of 2022 at Westlake. Offers flew in from almost every program in the nation, including some from his hometown school as well as one from Alabama, where Texas coach Steve Sarkisian worked as the offensive coordinator at Alabama in 2019 and 2020.
“I’m proud of Cade,” said Sarkisian after Saturday’s win. “I’ve known him for a long time, been recruiting him I feel like forever when he was in high school. To come out and have the season that he had this year (and) for them to get them to the playoffs, to be ACC champs, that’s a credit to him. He’s a very good football player.”
In fact, Klubnik proved good enough to become the first quarterback to make consistent plays against the Texas defense this season. His 336 yards passing was more than any other offense had amassed in total yards against Texas in 2024.
“He’s a really outstanding player because he can hurt you with his arm and he can hurt you with his legs, and he’s a tough competitor,” Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski said. “There’s no quit in the guy.”
Mukuba agreed with his defensive coach, saying “I feel like he did a good job in the game escaping the pocket and making downfield throws. They kind of had the QB run designs going a little bit.”
After the game, Taaffe and Klubnik shared a big embrace and best wishes. Taaffe congratulated Klubnik for his valiant effort in defeat while also offering up some thanks. Clemson’s passing game revealed some holes in what has been an air-tight Texas pass defense, Taaffe said, and that will help the Longhorns while they prepare for Arizona State in the CFP quarterfinals as well as any other possible postseason foes.
“Hats off to Cade; he’s a baller,” Taaffe said. ‘At the end of the game, it’s all love. He’s a great guy. He had a great game. I don’t know how many yards they had passing, but (he) exposed some things. We definitely need to improve. Myself, the defensive backs as a whole. He helped us out get ready for next (week) for sure.”
A full-time starter for two years, Klubnik blossomed as a junior this fall while ranking eighth in the nation with 3,639 yards passing and tying for No. 1 in passing touchdowns with 36.
There’s an assumption around Clemson that Klubnik will return next season. If so, he could make a run at becoming just the second player from the Austin area to win a Heisman Trophy. Baker Mayfield, a Lake Travis High School graduate, won the award in 2017 after his senior year at Oklahoma.
But Klubnik also played his way into NFL draft consideration this season, and it sounds like he has yet to make a decision about his future. When asked after the Texas loss to confirm his return to Clemson next season, Klubnik declined.
“I’m just trying to deal with the emotions of tonight and just trying to deal with that I got to play my last football game with a lot of these guys,” he said. “I’m not really thinking about me right now. I’m trying to think about all of the relationships I’ve built over the last three years. That’s really what I’m thinking about now.”
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