Cade Klubnik sees dream come true with Orange Crush, TD pass to his best friend |
CLEMSON –
Cade Klubnik remembers Orange Crush, and it was a dream come true when he threw his first collegiate touchdown pass on the same play. The fact that he threw it to his best friend makes it even sweeter.
Klubnik, the freshman quarterback out of Austin (TX) Westlake, saw his first game action Monday night against Georgia Tech. Klubnik stepped on the field late in the fourth quarter and engineered a touchdown drive, finishing his first college game 4-for-6 with a touchdown. It was a dream come true. “Yeah, it was so fun. It was great to just finally be out there,” a smiling Klubnik told the media Wednesday. “I've always dreamed of playing college football, and I remember just thinking to myself, man, I've been dreaming of this for a very long time. And it was really fun to just kind of be out there and live it for a little bit.” What was running through his mind? “Just enjoy every moment,” he said. “I was just so thankful to be able to go out there and just play, and I think I just approach it with a joy and thankfulness to be able to go play.” Klubnik had no idea when he would play, but he knew there would eventually be an opportunity. “Coach (Brandon) Streeter and Coach (Dabo) Swinney` had a plan from the start,” he said. “We had some hypothetical plans, but you just got to trust the flow of the game, and that was really the plan. And DJ (Uiagalelei) had a great start and just kind of went with it.” He knew it was time when another backup quarterback on the headset, Hunter Helms, told him to get ready. “Yeah, it was super fun. Hunter Helms was like, 'Alright kid, start warming up', and I was like, 'Sweet, let's go.' And I was ready,” Klubnik said. “We've had a great fall camp and we've been competing every day. But also that QB room. We're all really tight. It's been super fun, and we talk about it all the time, and I talk to other people about it all the time. I don't think it's very normal to have a group of guys like we have just all super close and no tension at all. Just a really tight group. And when I kind of got the call to go start warming up, everybody all the QBs kind of rallied around me. And it was really cool to kind of have that.” Klubnik said there was no one happier for his success than Uiagalelei. “Yeah, so awesome. Just have a guy like that kind of have my back. Hopefully he knows I've had his throughout the whole process and just through all the stuff that he's been through,” he said. “He's an incredible guy and also an incredible quarterback, so it's been so fun to just kind of go through it all with him and it definitely means a lot.” When he finally walked on the field, the jitters disappeared and he did what he does best – make plays with his feet and his arm. “At the end of the day, it's just football,” he said. “I love doing both. I mean, I love dropping back and kind of doing that, but getting outside of the pocket. I think it forces defenses to kind of not stay in the same position the whole time. It's hard to play as a defense just because you can't just play heavy inside the box. You have to be able to follow the quarterback, follow the running back outside the edge, just kind of play both.” Orange Crush, a play in which the slot receiver follows a pick by the outside receiver and breaks hard into the flat, was the play Clemson ran with Hunter Renfrow and Deshaun Watson in the final seconds of the National Championship win over Alabama in the 2016 season. A young Cade Klubnik saw that game and that play and fell in love. “I would say kind of the first time that they got to the playoffs, that really caught my radar. Austin is 17 hours away from here, so it wasn't really right down the road, but I would say that definitely put Clemson on the radar for me,” Klubnik said. “I remember a year before I committed here, my mom was like, if you could go anywhere, where would you want to go? And I was like, Clemson. But that was like the biggest stretch in the world for me because I didn't think that that could really happen because all I'd done is play three games as a sophomore. And now here I am and I just scored my first touchdown with Will.” The coaches called Orange Crush from the Georgia Tech 3-yard line, with Taylor playing the part of Renfrow and Klubnik playing the part of Watson. “I saw the plan. I was like, that's pretty cool, that’s the same play,” Klubnik said. “And then we end up running it, and of course, it went to Will. Will is my best friend. So it was super fun that I got to just experience that with him, and it's his first touchdown also. So that was awesome for him because he's been working his butt off since he got back, and he's going to be a really good player here.” Cade Klubnik and #Clemson fans had some deja vu with his first career TD pass, which was the same goal-line call as the winner to Hunter Renfrow in the 2017 National Championship game versus Alabama. "I saw the play and was like, 'That's pretty cool, that's the same play." pic.twitter.com/t93qCt5vRs
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