AUSTIN, Texas – Like an old cowboy movie, Cade Klubnik stood in the middle of the dirt road and fired his best shots on his return home to Austin, Texas. However, even in those old western movies, the good guy does not always win.
Such was the case at Royal Texas Memorial Stadium Saturday. Though Clemson’s gunslinging quarterback outdueled the heavily favored Texas Longhorns, he and the Tigers took one too many shots in the end to survive.
Though Clemson had the best gun in the West, the Longhorns had more, as the No. 5 seed knocked off the 12th-seeded Tigers, 38-24, in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
“This kid just absolutely played his ass off tonight,” Clemson offensive coordinator Garrett Riley said.
Klubnik did play his butt off. He guided the Tigers back from a 21-point deficit in the second half and had them in position to possibly tie the game, before Texas put them to sleep for good thanks to Jaydon Blue’s 77-yard touchdown run and a goal line stand with 7:24 to play.
“I hate losing. I hate losing, and I hate losing in the playoffs,” Klubnik said. “But nobody picked us to be here in the beginning. Nobody believed in us. Nobody really wanted us here. But we believed in each other, and this group of guys that have fought together.”
Trailing 31-10 following a 22-yard field goal from Texas’ Bert Auburn with 8:10 to play in the third quarter, Klubnik came out firing as he tried to get the Tigers back in the game.
Following an exchange of punts, he led Clemson on a 4-play, 55-yard drive, capped by a 25-yard TD pass to running back Jarvis Green. He also threw a perfect 28-yard strike to tight end Jake Briningstool to set up the TD.
After Clemson’s defense stopped Texas on downs at its own 36, Klubnik found T.J. Moore for a 12-yard gain, and then went deep down the left side for 18 yards to Antonio Williams to the Texas’ 29.
Another pass to Moore, this time for seven yards, and then an 11-yard run, Klubnik had the Tigers at the Texas’ 11-yard line with 13 minutes still to play in the game. On fourth down-and-six from the seven, the Clemson quarterback moved right to buy a little more time for Moore, who came back to his quarterback wide open in the end zone for an easy touchdown.
Just like that, the Tigers were back in the game, 31-24, with 11:43 to go.
“Down in the red zone, you want to just kind of — sometimes they cover it, and I want to be able to use my legs and stretch them out, and T.J. did a good job just kind of finding the window, and we made a play late,” Klubnik said.
Following Blue’s TD run, Klubnik continued firing to Moore. The young receiver finished the afternoon with a career high nine catches for a career best 116 yards.
Klubnik first found Moore 29 yards down the right-side line to the Texas’ 43, and then a play later he found the freshman again down the sideline, this time for 30 yards to the Texas 10. Moore made an outstanding one-handed grab that set the Tigers up with a first-and-goal.
“Put the ball in our quarterback’s hands,” head coach Dabo Swinney said. “We just played kind of two-minute tempos. We just put it in Number 2’s hands, and he made plays, receivers made plays, tight ends made plays.”
Klubnik ultimately ran out of bullets in the end. He finished his afternoon 26 of 43 for 336 yards and three TDs. His 336 passing yards were the most allowed by the Texas defense all year, so were his three scoring tosses. The Longhorns had allowed just 4 touchdown passes all year in the mighty SEC.
Klubnik’s return to Austin was a valiant homecoming. However, he did not have enough bullets to win his hometown back.
“It was fun to be home, but I wish we would have won,” he said. “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 and win a football game, and we didn’t do that. That really sucked. It’s nice to be home and all that, but I wish we would have won.”