The Class 6A level of Texas high school football is the Lone Star State's largest and routinely its most competitive. Teams with Division I talent are the norm, and some rosters are loaded with blue-chip recruits.
So when Southlake Carroll High, just outside of Dallas-Fort Worth, met Westlake High out of Austin in the 2020 6A Division I state championship game on Jan. 16, 2021, it was a big deal. Not just because it was a clash of two storied, powerhouse programs. The game had family ties, with a father (Westlake's Todd Dodge) coaching against his son (Carroll's Riley Dodge). It also had two future five-star quarterbacks: Quinn Ewers and Cade Klubnik.
Ewers, who went on to be the nation's top quarterback recruit in the Class of 2021, led Carroll against Westlake and Klubnik, who became the top QB in the Class of 2022.
Four years later, the two will meet again when Ewers and fifth-seeded Texas host Klubnik and No. 12 seed Clemson in the first round of the College Football Playoff, as Klubnik returns to his hometown for the highly anticipated showdown.
"Those two quarterbacks ... they were both just fantastic players," Klubnik's Westlake coach, Todd Dodge, said of the former five-stars. "Those two kids played the way you would expect (with the way) their college careers are going in that their third year of college, they've got their teams in the College Football Playoff.
"They played like that that day and then all throughout their career."
Klubnik and Westlake got the best of Carroll that night with a 52-34 victory, delivering the Chaparrals the second of what would be three consecutive state titles.
Klubnik, who'd injured his AC joint in the semifinals the week prior, entered the matchup having only taken visual reps in practice that week. Yet he finished the night 18 of 20 passing for 220 yards and a touchdown, in addition to rushing 17 times for 97 yards. Ewers went 23 of 39 for 351 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions. Both of those picks came courtesy of Klubnik's Westlake teammate Michael Taaffe, now an All-American safety with Ewers on the Longhorns.
"(Ewers) is the No. 1 player in all of high school history. Nobody has gotten the type of grade that he had coming out of high school," Taaffe said this week. "It felt pretty good to know just a walk-on is picking off the No. 1 player in the country. So I gave him a little bit of crap."
Taaffe is one of Klubnik's five high school teammates now playing for the Longhorns, making Saturday all the more of a homecoming for the Clemson quarterback. Texas defensive ends Ethan Burke and Colton Vasek, as well as offensive lineman Connor Robertson and wide receiver Bryce Chambers, also played for Westlake.
When the matchup was announced, Taaffe and Klubnik -- who are still close friends -- exchanged a few text messages.
"We communicated when we found out we were playing each other and it was all love: 'Love you, dude,' 'Love you, too,'" Taaffe said. "Feels a little weird watching Cade on tape, knowing he was my quarterback for a couple of years. Now, playing against him, it's going to be so fun.
"The tendencies that he has, I'll take those to my advantage. But vice versa -- he knows what type of player I am."
There was a healthy dose of familiarity to Ewers and Klubnik's high school meeting, too. Todd and Riley were the first father-son duo in Texas history to coach a high school state championship game against each other, in what was dubbed the "Dodge Bowl." (The two also won a title together in 2006, with Riley playing quarterback for Todd at Southlake Carroll.)
Taaffe said Todd Dodge told his Westlake players, "Don't make this about me, go win it for each other."
"But in the back of our head, it was like, 'We're not going to let father lose to son,'" Taaffe said.
After the COVID-19 pandemic had canceled a highly anticipated Week 1 matchup between the two teams in 2020, both Dodges figured they wouldn't face each other that year and confided in one another about their respective teams as the season went on.
"Riley's defensive coordinator had come off my staff the year before, and so we ran the exact same defense," Todd Dodge said. "To be successful against that defense, you better have someone that's got an arm that can reach all 53 yards, and the first two series of the game, there were some unbelievable throws by Quinn Ewers and some unbelievable calls by Riley, my son.
"The first two drives of the game. I don't know that the ball hit the ground for Southlake in those first two drives. He was just -- laser shots. I'm talking about deep outs, post corners and deep sail routes. Just things that were in the air for long distances and he obviously has the arm to reach those places. And so that's what I remembered. Him just surgically picking us apart."
The following summer, Ewers and Klubnik got to know each other better when they participated in the Elite 11 regionals and eventually made the finals in California. Both of their families, as well as both Dodge families, made the trip out west in June of 2021.
"That was really the first time we've gotten to spend a lot of time together and hung out for a week at Elite 11, and then spent some more time this summer at Manning Passing Academy," Klubnik said. "So we've definitely got a great relationship."
"Me and Cade have a good relationship and he's a cool dude," Ewers said, "It's definitely cool to play each other again. It comes full circle and whatnot."
Ewers reclassified to enroll at Ohio State early, elevating Klubnik to the top quarterback in the Class of 2022 by 247Sports Composite ratings. Ewers spent one season with the Buckeyes before transferring to Texas and now has the Longhorns in their second consecutive College Football Playoff. Clemson is back in the Playoff 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 present in Austin to see their former players duke it out for a berth in the CFP quarterfinal against Arizona State because they'll be at AT&T Stadium in Arlington for another state championship game -- though not against each other. Riley will be on the sideline trying to lead Carroll to a championship against Austin Vandegrift in the 6A Division II title. Todd, who retired after Westlake's 2021 title but returned to coaching this year at Lovejoy High (a Class 5A school in Lucas, Texas, northwest of Dallas) will be watching his son instead of competing against him. Carroll kicks off at the same time Texas and Clemson do. Later Saturday night, Westlake meets North Crowley for the 6A Division I title.
"There's nothing more I want in my life, and in my wife's life, Elizabeth, than for Riley to ... win it," Dodge said. "That'd be huge."
Klubnik said he expected the Clemson team flight into the Austin airport on Thursday night to feel surreal but knows once the ball is snapped, he'll need to be all business.
Ewers said he's glad to have Taaffe, Burke and Vasek on his side this time, and Dodge joked he has no doubt that his former players will be chirping at each other all game.
Taaffee dismissed the idea that he'd have any issue delivering a hard hit to Klubnik when asked.
"I'm a competitor," Taaffe said. "My job is to take down my opponent. ... It doesn't matter if it's my best friend or the guy I hate the most on this planet."
Todd Dodge, who played quarterback for the Longhorns in the early 1980s, will still keep close tabs from Arlington on the developments on the Forty Acres.
"Being a Texas fan, the scary thing is Clemson's playing with a little bit of house money right now," Dodge said. "Teams that are that talented are dangerous under those situations."
Klubnik is excited for his homecoming and a chance to compete against familiar faces.
"I can't believe that was four years ago," he said. "Quinn's had a great year, and he's a tremendous quarterback and somebody that everybody has seen as one of the premier quarterbacks in college football the last couple years.
"To be able to go face him again, it's gonna be really exciting."