Texas Football: Elite 4-Star QB target Cade Klubnik commits to Clemson

It was figured out on the evening of March 2 that the 2022 Texas football recruiting class lost out on the battle for a hometown quarterback product to the reigning ACC Champion Clemson Tigers. But it wasn’t really newly hired head coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff that lost out on the race to land the commitment of the highly coveted four-star Westlake pro-style quarterback Cade Klubnik to Clemson. Texas landing a commitment from the elite five-star Junipero Serra pro-style quarterback Maalik Murphy caused this event to happen in all likelihood.

It was not all that long after the California native Murphy announced his commitment to Sark and the Longhorns 2022 class that Klubnik then announced he would be taking his talents to join head coach Dabo Swinney and the Tigers. The commitment of Murphy to the Longhorns 2022 class arrived back on Feb. 13. So it was roughly two and a half weeks between Murphy committing to Texas and Klubnik landing with Clemson.

The commitment of Klubnik to Clemson was announced on his Twitter timeline on March 2. He is part of a pretty new pipeline that Swinney and the Tigers are attempting to establish in the state of Texas. And Klubnik is the next in line of an elite bout of quarterbacks coming out of Austin.

How Clemson landed the former Texas football QB target

It looked like Klubnik was going to be a priority for the Longhorns once they saw the commitment of the elite five-star Southlake Carroll pro-style quarterback Quinn Ewers flip to the Ohio State Buckeyes. But landing Murphy is something that fans on the Forty Acres have to credit to Sark and his new coaching staff.

Texas originally sent their scholarship offer to Klubnik back on Oct. 31, 2020. They were in the middle of the road in terms of programs getting in on the recruitment of Klubnik by officially sending him a scholarship offer.

Clemson and Texas were two of more than 30 schools to offer Klubnik. The other highlighting schools on his offer sheet included the Auburn Tigers, Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, Michigan Wolverines, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Penn State Nittany Lions, Texas A&M Aggies, and Washington Huskies.

Moreover, Klubnik ranks as the nation’s No. 74 2022 high school prospect, No. 5 pro-style quarterback, and No. 14 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). And the Top247 ranks as the nation’s No. 99 high school prospect, No. 7 pro-style quarterback, and No. 18 prospect out of Texas.

Klubnik is both the highest ranked prospect, and the lone quarterback commit, in Clemson’s 2022 recruiting class. Clemson did do a nice job in recruiting one of the better pro-style quarterbacks available to establish a solid foundation for their 2022 class.

According to the 247Sports Team Composite Rankings, the 2022 Texas recruiting class now ranks at No. 4 in the nation and in the top spot in the Big 12 ahead of the Oklahoma Sooners. Texas now holds commitments from seven prospects in their 2022 class, with the latest coming from four-star Aledo safety Bryan Allen Jr.