Steve Sarkisian sees Cade Klubnik homecoming as a fascinating storyline

Cade Klubnik is headed home for his first-ever Playoff game.

Grayson Mann - Staff Writer - Monday, December 09 2024

When Clemson and Texas meet for the first time on December 21st (4 p.m. ET/TNT), there won’t be any familiarity to draw upon.

Two of the sport's winningest programs will square off in the first round of the College Football Playoff, and the next two weeks will be spent gaining any sort of edge to survive and advance.

Steve Sarkisian’s history with Clemson, however, brings plenty of memories. He served as the interim play caller in the 2017 National Championship, and recalls his perspective as Deshaun Watson brought Clemson a title for the first time in decades.

Now, he will face another quarterback with plenty of talent.

Sarkisian remembers when Cade Klubnik was in high school, and saw the Austin Westlake (Tx.) product grow into one of the top prospects in the country.

He remembers Texas pushing to land the in-state star and bring a competitive spirit to the program that was consistently on display.

“Yeah, a big fan of Cade,” Sarkisian said. “We recruited him hard. Obviously, a local kid, I thought, really possesses a great deal of competitive spirit, and you could see that when he was at high school at Westlake. He's a winner. He's going to do what it takes. He'll throw it, he'll run it, he'll block. I mean, that guy will do whatever it takes to try to put his team in a position to be successful.”

One of the growing storylines for this matchup has been the amount of Texas talent Clemson possesses that is returning home for a postseason battle.

Alongside Klubnik, Bryant Wesco, Ian Reed, R.J. Mickens, and others were highly touted prospects in the Lone Star State, only for them to pledge to Clemson.

When Sarkisian looks back on the Longhorns’ pitch, they believed they had an edge with Klubnik, the hometown team in Westlake’s backyard.

For the future Tiger signal caller, his dream was to play in a different shade of orange.

“Honestly, I was surprised both his parents went to A&M,” Sarkisian said. “We thought we were the hometown team. He had always had a dream of going to Clemson. For him, I think what a cool story of getting into the college football playoff in the first-round game is right here in Austin, back home. So, there are a lot of really cool storylines to this ball game, and that's definitely one of them.”

The Texas head coach is all too familiar with a key component of what has gotten Clemson to this point, and will have another opportunity to study his growth from then to now.

Both teams enter this playoff matchup with not too much familiarity to work with, but two weeks of study should be plenty of time to get there.