AUSTIN, Texas – Steve Sarkisian knew his Texas team was going to have a challenge stopping Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik.

He was right.

Though the No. 5 seed Longhorns hung on for a 38-24 victory over No. 12 Clemson in the first round of the College Football Playoff, they really had no answer for Klubnik, who threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns on 26 of 43 passes.

“I thought the one thing that they do, which makes it difficult, is when they call the traditional plays, he’s equipped enough to see your coverages and to throw it to the right people, and he’s got the talent to make those throws,” Sarkisian said.

Klubnik became the first quarterback all season to throw for more than 211 yards on the Longhorns and also became the first quarterback to toss three touchdown passes in a game against them.

“Then they call the designed quarterback runs, whether it’s quarterback draws or true quarterback runs that tax you when you’re trying to deploy people to defend him, and then he has the ability to extend plays, and how many times did he get outside the pocket and make some really critical throws for them,” Sarkisian said.

Texas had allowed just four touchdown passes all year prior to Saturday. Klubnik opened the game with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Williams. He then found Jarvis Green for a 25-yard scoring toss in third quarter and T.J. Moore caught a 7-yard TD from the junior quarterback in the fourth.

“I’m proud of Cade,” Sarkisian said. “I’ve known him for a long time, been recruiting him I feel like forever when he was in high school, and the fact that his career didn’t start off maybe the way he would have liked at Clemson, and there was a lot of expectations for him there, but to come out and have the season that he had this year 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.”

Klubnik finished the 2024 season with 3,639 passing yards and 36 TDs. He completed 63.4 percent of his 486 passes and had just six interceptions. He also ran for 463 yards and 7 TDs. His 43 total touchdowns rank second nationally.