Clemson Tigers' Cade Klubnik Reminisces on History With Texas Longhorns' Quinn Ewers

Although the Texas Longhorns and the Clemson Tigers have never played a football game against each other, their quarterbacks have spent plenty of time on the same field.

Following the announcement that Texas had claimed a No. 5 seed in the first round of the College Football Playoff and would play the No. 12-seeded Clemson in Austin, Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik and Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers realized they were in for a rematch.

Klubnik and Ewers will meet again for the first time since going head-to-head in high school during the 2021 6A Division 2 State Championship. Klubnik was a starter at Austin Westlake, while Ewers was the head of Southlake Carroll, two of the most dominant programs in Texas high school football.

At Clemson's media availability on Monday, Klubnik revealed that the two go back even further than that and reminisced on his early football career.

“Quinn and I go way back,” Klubnik said. “We played each other in 7th or 8th grade in 7-on-7 and stuff. Then met my junior year in the state championship game. It was definitely a very high-profile game. My head coach was the father of Quinn’s head coach, they called it the Dodge Bowl. Then you know, Quinn and I playing against each other. It was a really cool deal. It was really fun to experience that.”

Austin Westlake led the game at halftime and ended up sweeping Ewers and Southlake Carroll 52-34. The matchup included some other familiar faces from the Longhorns, including defensive back Michael Taaffe, who is also an Austin local and played for Westlake. Taaffe even managed to intercept one of Ewers' passes during the state championship.

Klubnik mentioned that he's played alongside Taaffe since elementary school and that the excitement of reuniting with his childhood friend has been building up following the announcement.

“Obviously Michael Taaffe, 16 their safety, [I've] been playing with him since I was third or fourth grade," Klubnik said. "Maybe he was on the first football team I was ever on. Then played in a couple of state championships together, so definitely excited. I texted him earlier last weekend, ‘This is going to be cool.’”

Although Ewers' 351 passing yards couldn't compete with Klubnik's 90% pass completion percentage the last time they met, Ewers now has the chance to prove that he can rise to the occasion against a former foe. He will also have the advantage of playing on his own turf at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium despite Klubnik being a native Austinite.

The Tigers and the Longhorns will kick off at 3 p.m. CT on Dec. 21 to initiate the College Football Playoff, with Ewers hoping to lead his team to victory against Klubnik.