The Class 6A level of Texas high school football is the Lone Star State’s largest and consistently the most competitive. Teams with Division I talent are the norm, with some rosters loaded with talented recruits.
So when Southlake Carroll High School outside Dallas-Fort Worth faced Westlake High School outside Austin in the 2020 6A Division I state championship game on January 16, 2021, it was a big deal. And not just because it was a clash of two-decker, powerful programs. There was a family tie to this game, with a father (Westlake’s Todd Dodge) coaching a son (Carroll’s Riley Dodge). They also had two future five-star quarterbacks in Quinn Ewers and Cade Klubnik.
Ewers, the nation’s top quarterback recruit in the 2021 class, led Carroll against Westlake and Klubnik, the top quarterback in the 2022 class.
Four years later, the two will meet again when Ewers, No. 5 seed Klubnik of Texas, and No. 12 seed Clemson meet in the first round of the College Football Playoff. Klabnik returns to his hometown for a long-awaited showdown.
“Those two quarterbacks…both were really great players,” Klubnik’s Westlake coach Todd Dodge said of the former five-star players. “Those two kids played like you would expect them to have a college career in their senior year and the team went to the College Football Playoff.
“They played the same way that day and for the rest of their careers.”
That night, Klubnik and Westlake got the best of Carroll, winning 52-34 and giving the Chaparrals their second of three consecutive state titles.
Klubnik, who injured his AC joint in last week’s semifinals, entered the game after doing only visual reps in practice that week. Still, he completed 18 of 20 passes for 220 yards and a touchdown on the night, and also rushed 17 times for 97 yards. Ewers was 23-of-39 for 351 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. Both of those nominations came courtesy of Klubnik’s Westlake teammate, Michael Taaffe, who is now an All-American safety in Ewers for the Longhorns.
“(Ewers) is the No. 1 player in high school history. There’s nobody coming out of high school that did as well as he did,” Taaffe said this week. “I was very happy knowing I could take the No. 1 player in the country for just a walk-on. So I gave him a little something.”
Taaffe is one of Klubnik’s five high school teammates who currently play for the Longhorns, making Saturday all the more home for the Clemson quarterback. Texas defensive ends Ethan Burke and Colton Vasek, offensive lineman Connor Robertson and wide receiver Bryce Chambers also played at Westlake.
Taaffe and Klubnik, who remain close friends, exchanged several text messages when the matchup was announced.
“When we found out we were playing with each other, we communicated. It was all love. ‘I love you, dude,’ ‘I love you too,'” Taaffe said. “It’s going to be a little weird watching Cade on tape knowing he’s been my quarterback for a few years. It’s going to be a lot of fun to play against him now.
“I try to take advantage of the tendencies he has, but vice versa, he knows what type of player I am.”
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Ewers and Klubnik’s high school meeting also showed a strong sense of kinship. Todd and Riley were the first father-son duo in Texas history to coach each other in a high school state championship game known as the “Dodge Bowl.” (In 2006, Riley played quarterback for Todd at Southlake Carroll, and the two won a title together.)
Taaffe said Todd Dodge told the Westlake players, “Don’t talk about me, go win for each other.”
“But in the back of our minds we were like, ‘We can’t let the father lose to the son,'” Taaffe said.
After the highly anticipated Week 1 matchup between the two teams in 2020 was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dodgers figured they would not play each other that year, and as the season progressed We talked about each other’s teams.
“Riley’s defensive coordinator was off my staff the year before, so we ran the exact same defense,” Todd Dodge said. “To be successful against that defense, you better have a guy with the arm to get all 53 yards. The first two series of the game, we had some unbelievable throws by Quinn Ewers and some guys from me. There was an unbelievable call from my son Riley.
“The first two drives of the game. I don’t know if the ball hit the ground for Southlake on the first two drives. He just shot lasers. I’m talking about deep outs. , post corners, deep sail routes. Just the ones that were flying long distances, he obviously has the arm to get to those places. So he just remembered surgically. It just separated us.”
The following summer, Ewers and Klubnik got to know each other more by participating in the Elite 11 regional competition, ultimately making it to the finals in California. Both families and the Dodge family traveled west in June 2021.
“It was really the first time we spent a lot of time together, spent a week together in the Elite 11 and then spent more time this summer at Manning Passing Academy,” Klubnik said. “So we definitely have a great relationship.”
“Me and Cade have a good relationship and he’s a cool guy,” Ewers said. “It’s definitely cool to play with each other again. It comes full circle and all that stuff.”
Ewers changed his classification to enroll early at Ohio State, making Klubnik the top quarterback in the 2022 class according to the 247Sports Composite. Ewers spent one season with the Buckeyes before transferring to Texas and is currently in his second straight College Football Playoff with the Longhorns. Clemson is back in the playoffs for the first time since 2020 thanks to a win in the ACC Championship Game earlier this month.
Todd and Riley Dodge won’t be in Austin to watch their former players compete for a spot in the CFP quarterfinals against Arizona State, but they will be in Arlington for another state championship game, albeit not against each other. Because it will be held at AT&T Stadium. . Riley will be on the sidelines trying to lead Carroll to a championship matchup with Austin Vandegrift for the 6A Division II title. Todd, who retired after Westlake’s 2021 championship but returned to coaching this year at Lovejoy High School (a Class 5A school in Lucas, Texas, northwest of Dallas), said he wanted to watch over his son rather than compete with him. It will be. Carroll kicks off at the same time as Texas and Clemson. Late Saturday night, Westlake will play North Crowley for the 6A Division I title.
“There’s nothing I want more in my life, and in my wife Elizabeth’s life, than for Riley to win,” Dodge said. “That must be difficult.”
Klubnik said he expected it would be an unrealistic flight for Clemson University’s team to arrive at the Austin airport Thursday night, but he knew he would have to give it his all once the ball was in the air. He said that
Ewers said he was happy to have Taaffe, Burke and Vasek on his side this time, and Dodge joked that he was sure the former players would be taunting each other throughout the game.
When asked, Turfy dismissed the idea that it was okay to land a hard hit on Klubnik.
“I’m a competitor,” Taaffe said. “My job is to beat the opponent. … It doesn’t matter if it’s my best friend or the guy I hate the most on the planet.”
Todd Dodge, who played quarterback for the Longhorns in the early 1980s, will still keep a close eye on the Forty Acres from Arlington.
“The scary thing as a Texas fan is that Clemson is playing for so little home money right now,” Dodge said. “A team with that kind of talent is dangerous in a situation like that.”
Klubnik is looking forward to returning home and the chance to play against some familiar faces.
“I can’t believe that was four years ago,” he said. “Quinn had a great year. He’s a great quarterback and a player that everyone saw as one of the best quarterbacks in college football over the last few years.
“It’s really exciting to play against him again.”
(Top illustration photo: Justin Berl, Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
