The Texas 6A D1 State Championship Game ended up being a little disappointing. The start was promising enough, Southlake Carroll drove down the field with Quinn Ewers throwing bullets outside the hash marks while Westlake matched with run-heavy drives on offense.
It didn’t last. Southlake Carroll took a sack on third down in their third drive, later threw an interception before the half when Ewers was hit trying to throw a deep stop route in between a cover 2 bracket. Meanwhile Westlake kept scoring.
For many fans watching, particularly around here, this game was about Cade Klubnik vs Quinn Ewers. Both are blue chip quarterback prospects in the 2022 class, both have offers from Texas and several other schools, and both are getting high level coaching from a member of the Dodge family.
Here were the lines for each of the two quarterbacks:
Cade Klubnik: 18-20 passing for 220 yards at 11.0 ypa with one touchdown and zero interceptions. 17 carries for 97 rushing yards at 5.7 ypc with two rushing touchdowns.
Quinn Ewers: 23-39 passing for 351 yards at 9 ypa with three touchdowns and two interceptions Six carries for 25 rushing yards at 4.2 ypc with zero rushing touchdowns.
All told, Klubnik accounted for 317 yards and three touchdowns with zero turnovers while Ewers piled up 376 and three touchdowns with two turnovers. Those two interceptions were the main difference in the ball game on a results level, on a deeper level where the yards came from made a whale of difference in the outcome.
Klubnik vs the Carroll defense
The 2020/21 Westlake Chaparrals really may have been the best team in the school's history. I don't know the history of the school as well as say a Kevin Dunn, who feels this way, but I've observed it in the Todd Dodge era and it was certainly the best team since he’s been head coach.
One of the big factors in their brilliance this season was the offensive line. They weren't a senior-driven group, believe it or not, it's just they were really large.
Left tackle: Bray Lynch: 6-4, 275 pound junior.
Left guard: Aidan Kinnaird: 6-5, 305 pound senior (heading to Illinois State).
Center: Jack Griffin: 6-0, 250 pound junior.
Right guard: Ryan McMillan: 6-4, 295 pound senior. (D2 offers)
Right tackle: Connor Robertson: 6-3, 295 pound junior (3-star recruit).
A high school line averaging 6-3, 284 across the board is no joke. Especially when they're well coached, which this unit was. As was the case against North Shore, they utilized a fair amount of D-gap power and would try to punish the Dragons for how they handled the run/pass conflict between defending an added gap on the edge vs defending quick passes to the wide hash or beyond.
The Dragons responded to this challenge with bracket coverage on the slot, disguising the alignment of their nickel from snap to snap but generally having him play with outside leverage on the slot to take away quick passes to the hash. Their nickel was Cinque Williams, the highest rated talent in the Dragon secondary who goes 5-10, 170 pounds and is a 3-star prospect. Then the safeties would sit flat footed at the snap so as to close on runs while the corners played off coverage.
This was a variation on how they played the Ja’Quinden Jackson Duncanville Panthers last year. In that game they played their D1 defensive back (Clemson-bound 4-star R.J. Mickens) as the deep field safety and used a linebacker underneath him to try and outnumber the edge and force JQJ to beat them with quick passes underneath.
This time they were afraid of the quick passes underneath since Klubnik is a proven practitioner of the art of RPOs. So they sat on those and tried to force Westlake to throw it wider underneath off coverage or beat them in the box facing honest numbers. The Chaps obliged…
In this instance the Dragons are stemming into a sort of Under front to try and stuff the run with the boundary safety dropping down to serve as a weakside linebacker and the middle linebacker moving to the edge like a sam. They’re covering the slot and shading the field safety over late to the middle of the field. Westlake pops them with an iso run and while the Dragons have it theoretically stopped up on the chalkboard, the chalkboard assumes the 280 pound nose tackle isn’t double teamed off the ball so fast leaving a gaping hole the dropping safety can’t fill.
Southlake Carroll couldn’t really match up in the box. The Chaps mixed up which of their two backs (or quarterback) would run the ball and which would get tasks like this one to help prevent penetration by the opposing defensive line. Their power run game behind the big line with senior guards simply bulldozed the Dragons out of the picture.
Then they also landed some kill shots off the power run actions:
I’m not sure what happened here for the Dragon defense. Cornerback Ayvonne Jones seemed to think he was getting help over the top but it generally wasn’t there too often in this game by design. Jaden Greathouse, a 4-star sophomore, blew by him and it was six more for Westlake.
Klubnik had a nice day throwing some open RPOs on the edge and also throwing some underneath checkdowns to the running backs against the Dragon inside linebackers who were preoccupied with denying him scrambling lanes. It was all too much for Carroll to cover up and guys sprung free due to missed tackles, Westlake blowing open holes, or coverage busts.
The future issues from his long windup were apparent in this game, particularly on his open rollout he couldn’t hit in time to score.
Watching him windup reminds me an awful lot of a bigger, faster Case McCoy with more physical upside. How much upside is the big question. Klubnik is fast enough to run around and past high school defenders but when they catch him, he lacks the strength to get away or move forward. He has the arm to push the ball down the field but he’ll need to shorten the windup or he’ll give defenders time to close on his targets.
At the high school level his blend of athleticism, schematic knowhow, and arm talent is enough to simultaneously threaten multiple areas of the field. Combined with the return of big sophomore receivers Jaden Greathouse and Keaton Kubecka along with their starting center and tackles, the Chaps should be able to make another deep run in the playoffs next year.
Ewers vs the Chap defense
I’d argue what really put this Westlake team over the top over the second best Chaparral team I’ve seen in the Dodge era (2015) was the defense. In particular, linebacker Nick Morris. The 3-star, Duke-bound middle linebacker has P5 size and athleticism at 6-3, 220 and moved down from Connecticut for this season to have a chance to play ball.
The 2015 Chaps had a really good offense as well and while they weren’t as big and effective across the entire offensive line as this unit they did have a P5 left tackle in Stephan Zabie, some strong receivers, and future SMU star tight end Kylen Granson. They also had Sam Ehlinger. They didn’t have a Nick Morris nor defensive linemen like Hayden Bray (6-5, 260 heading to Air Force) who was effectively spelled and supplemented at times in this game by Maryland lacrosse commit Ethan Burke, who stands 6-7, 215 pounds as a junior. The other obvious star on defense for Westlake was cornerback Michael Taaffe, who’s heading to Rice next season.
They’ve slowly built up this defense into something approximating the Katy Tiger units down south, everyone who sees the field plays with great fundamentals and can close and tackle in the open field with good team leverage. Their strategy for handling Quinn Ewers and the Dragon offense was vaguely similar to what Carroll was trying to do.
They played more of their zone coverages which often end up turning into something like Tampa 2. You can see the difference in tactics and effectively quite nicely on this zone-read play by the Dragons:
The Chaps are in their flyover defense, they’d sub in an extra safety for nose tackle Taevin Brown anytime they were able to make a stop on first down and put SLC behind the chains. The safeties are a bit deep on the bubble screens but they can trigger downhill on those then there’s an extra middle safety who hawks down and blows up Ewers on the keeper.
Ewers is not anywhere near the same kind of runner as Klubnik, what makes him a 5-star prospect is the arm talent. He makes NFL throws look effortless and can threaten every area of the field. Last year the Dragons would set that up with a rushing attack featuring freshman running back Owen Allen. They had A&M bound tight end Blake Smith, a 3-star who was 6-4, 250, and Texas-bound 4-star left tackle Andrej Karic. This year they had to retool the entire offensive line and while they ended up starting three seniors those three weren’t necessarily starters all year. Marquette Seaton, the 280 pounder getting doubled into oblivion on the iso play above for Westlake, began the year as their starting left tackle.
They weren’t really up for the challenge of beating Westlake, who increasingly dialed up zone pressures and flyover defensive packages as it became apparent the Dragons didn’t have enough time or expertise up front to run the ball. What’s more, SLC has tended to be overly reliant on Ewers’ devastating downfield abilities, eschewing simpler options against pressure:
The Chaps parked their nickel and a safety underneath in the flats and would play a corner or safety in half-field zone over the top with a safety or linebacker in the middle third. Those alternating Tampa 2 coverages stymied the SLC deep passing game...enough. They picked off Ewers twice, both of which made all the difference in winning a shootout. Here was the first example which occurred just before the half:
https://twitter.com/Ian_A_Boyd/status/1351265875123462146?s=20
The aforementioned Ethan Burke flies around their left tackle and hits Ewers while he’s trying to fit the ball to the wide side vertical in between the cornerback and deep safety. The throw was actually there but he’s hit on the release and the ball flutters and the corner drifts back and picks it.
Similarly, later on…
https://twitter.com/Ian_A_Boyd/status/1351270415461711872?s=20
This is just traditional Tampa 2. The middle linebacker (but Morris is to the weakside so it’s the 175 pound Brady Lamme) drops to the deep middle, the corners sit underneath, and Ewers tries to fit the ball to his favorite receiver Brady Boyd in between the corner and deep safety. The corner is Michael Taaffe and he makes that incredible one-handed interception...game over.
The primary reason Carroll made it this far into the playoffs was the potency of Ewers throwing to Boyd and Samson all over the field. His ability to reach every part of the field made it impossible for most teams to cover up the Dragons, but the Chaps were able to present a lot of layered coverages, pressure him, and stop the run without committing extra numbers to the box. They also scored over 50 points.
It was a big win for Klubnik and the Chaparrals and they’re now back to back state champions. However when evaluating for the collegiate level, Ewers’ ability to threaten the whole field and the way he dropped over 300 passing and scored 34 points on the Westlake defense was actually the more eye-catching achievement.
It’ll be very interesting to watch these two teams next season when they each return to the playoffs with these quarterbacks. As I mentioned earlier, Klubnik returns his tackles, center, and both Greathouse and Kubecka at wide receiver. Up in Southlake, Ewers loses Boyd but returns Samson and flex tight end R.J. Maryland (3-star NFL legacy), and the Dragons will have another year to retool the offensive line and defense. Ideally, we'd get a rematch, Dodge Bowl II.
It didn’t last. Southlake Carroll took a sack on third down in their third drive, later threw an interception before the half when Ewers was hit trying to throw a deep stop route in between a cover 2 bracket. Meanwhile Westlake kept scoring.
For many fans watching, particularly around here, this game was about Cade Klubnik vs Quinn Ewers. Both are blue chip quarterback prospects in the 2022 class, both have offers from Texas and several other schools, and both are getting high level coaching from a member of the Dodge family.
Here were the lines for each of the two quarterbacks:
Cade Klubnik: 18-20 passing for 220 yards at 11.0 ypa with one touchdown and zero interceptions. 17 carries for 97 rushing yards at 5.7 ypc with two rushing touchdowns.
Quinn Ewers: 23-39 passing for 351 yards at 9 ypa with three touchdowns and two interceptions Six carries for 25 rushing yards at 4.2 ypc with zero rushing touchdowns.
All told, Klubnik accounted for 317 yards and three touchdowns with zero turnovers while Ewers piled up 376 and three touchdowns with two turnovers. Those two interceptions were the main difference in the ball game on a results level, on a deeper level where the yards came from made a whale of difference in the outcome.
Klubnik vs the Carroll defense
The 2020/21 Westlake Chaparrals really may have been the best team in the school's history. I don't know the history of the school as well as say a Kevin Dunn, who feels this way, but I've observed it in the Todd Dodge era and it was certainly the best team since he’s been head coach.
One of the big factors in their brilliance this season was the offensive line. They weren't a senior-driven group, believe it or not, it's just they were really large.
Left tackle: Bray Lynch: 6-4, 275 pound junior.
Left guard: Aidan Kinnaird: 6-5, 305 pound senior (heading to Illinois State).
Center: Jack Griffin: 6-0, 250 pound junior.
Right guard: Ryan McMillan: 6-4, 295 pound senior. (D2 offers)
Right tackle: Connor Robertson: 6-3, 295 pound junior (3-star recruit).
A high school line averaging 6-3, 284 across the board is no joke. Especially when they're well coached, which this unit was. As was the case against North Shore, they utilized a fair amount of D-gap power and would try to punish the Dragons for how they handled the run/pass conflict between defending an added gap on the edge vs defending quick passes to the wide hash or beyond.
The Dragons responded to this challenge with bracket coverage on the slot, disguising the alignment of their nickel from snap to snap but generally having him play with outside leverage on the slot to take away quick passes to the hash. Their nickel was Cinque Williams, the highest rated talent in the Dragon secondary who goes 5-10, 170 pounds and is a 3-star prospect. Then the safeties would sit flat footed at the snap so as to close on runs while the corners played off coverage.
This was a variation on how they played the Ja’Quinden Jackson Duncanville Panthers last year. In that game they played their D1 defensive back (Clemson-bound 4-star R.J. Mickens) as the deep field safety and used a linebacker underneath him to try and outnumber the edge and force JQJ to beat them with quick passes underneath.
This time they were afraid of the quick passes underneath since Klubnik is a proven practitioner of the art of RPOs. So they sat on those and tried to force Westlake to throw it wider underneath off coverage or beat them in the box facing honest numbers. The Chaps obliged…
In this instance the Dragons are stemming into a sort of Under front to try and stuff the run with the boundary safety dropping down to serve as a weakside linebacker and the middle linebacker moving to the edge like a sam. They’re covering the slot and shading the field safety over late to the middle of the field. Westlake pops them with an iso run and while the Dragons have it theoretically stopped up on the chalkboard, the chalkboard assumes the 280 pound nose tackle isn’t double teamed off the ball so fast leaving a gaping hole the dropping safety can’t fill.
Southlake Carroll couldn’t really match up in the box. The Chaps mixed up which of their two backs (or quarterback) would run the ball and which would get tasks like this one to help prevent penetration by the opposing defensive line. Their power run game behind the big line with senior guards simply bulldozed the Dragons out of the picture.
Then they also landed some kill shots off the power run actions:
I’m not sure what happened here for the Dragon defense. Cornerback Ayvonne Jones seemed to think he was getting help over the top but it generally wasn’t there too often in this game by design. Jaden Greathouse, a 4-star sophomore, blew by him and it was six more for Westlake.
Klubnik had a nice day throwing some open RPOs on the edge and also throwing some underneath checkdowns to the running backs against the Dragon inside linebackers who were preoccupied with denying him scrambling lanes. It was all too much for Carroll to cover up and guys sprung free due to missed tackles, Westlake blowing open holes, or coverage busts.
The future issues from his long windup were apparent in this game, particularly on his open rollout he couldn’t hit in time to score.
Watching him windup reminds me an awful lot of a bigger, faster Case McCoy with more physical upside. How much upside is the big question. Klubnik is fast enough to run around and past high school defenders but when they catch him, he lacks the strength to get away or move forward. He has the arm to push the ball down the field but he’ll need to shorten the windup or he’ll give defenders time to close on his targets.
At the high school level his blend of athleticism, schematic knowhow, and arm talent is enough to simultaneously threaten multiple areas of the field. Combined with the return of big sophomore receivers Jaden Greathouse and Keaton Kubecka along with their starting center and tackles, the Chaps should be able to make another deep run in the playoffs next year.
Ewers vs the Chap defense
I’d argue what really put this Westlake team over the top over the second best Chaparral team I’ve seen in the Dodge era (2015) was the defense. In particular, linebacker Nick Morris. The 3-star, Duke-bound middle linebacker has P5 size and athleticism at 6-3, 220 and moved down from Connecticut for this season to have a chance to play ball.
The 2015 Chaps had a really good offense as well and while they weren’t as big and effective across the entire offensive line as this unit they did have a P5 left tackle in Stephan Zabie, some strong receivers, and future SMU star tight end Kylen Granson. They also had Sam Ehlinger. They didn’t have a Nick Morris nor defensive linemen like Hayden Bray (6-5, 260 heading to Air Force) who was effectively spelled and supplemented at times in this game by Maryland lacrosse commit Ethan Burke, who stands 6-7, 215 pounds as a junior. The other obvious star on defense for Westlake was cornerback Michael Taaffe, who’s heading to Rice next season.
They’ve slowly built up this defense into something approximating the Katy Tiger units down south, everyone who sees the field plays with great fundamentals and can close and tackle in the open field with good team leverage. Their strategy for handling Quinn Ewers and the Dragon offense was vaguely similar to what Carroll was trying to do.
They played more of their zone coverages which often end up turning into something like Tampa 2. You can see the difference in tactics and effectively quite nicely on this zone-read play by the Dragons:
The Chaps are in their flyover defense, they’d sub in an extra safety for nose tackle Taevin Brown anytime they were able to make a stop on first down and put SLC behind the chains. The safeties are a bit deep on the bubble screens but they can trigger downhill on those then there’s an extra middle safety who hawks down and blows up Ewers on the keeper.
Ewers is not anywhere near the same kind of runner as Klubnik, what makes him a 5-star prospect is the arm talent. He makes NFL throws look effortless and can threaten every area of the field. Last year the Dragons would set that up with a rushing attack featuring freshman running back Owen Allen. They had A&M bound tight end Blake Smith, a 3-star who was 6-4, 250, and Texas-bound 4-star left tackle Andrej Karic. This year they had to retool the entire offensive line and while they ended up starting three seniors those three weren’t necessarily starters all year. Marquette Seaton, the 280 pounder getting doubled into oblivion on the iso play above for Westlake, began the year as their starting left tackle.
They weren’t really up for the challenge of beating Westlake, who increasingly dialed up zone pressures and flyover defensive packages as it became apparent the Dragons didn’t have enough time or expertise up front to run the ball. What’s more, SLC has tended to be overly reliant on Ewers’ devastating downfield abilities, eschewing simpler options against pressure:
The Chaps parked their nickel and a safety underneath in the flats and would play a corner or safety in half-field zone over the top with a safety or linebacker in the middle third. Those alternating Tampa 2 coverages stymied the SLC deep passing game...enough. They picked off Ewers twice, both of which made all the difference in winning a shootout. Here was the first example which occurred just before the half:
https://twitter.com/Ian_A_Boyd/status/1351265875123462146?s=20
The aforementioned Ethan Burke flies around their left tackle and hits Ewers while he’s trying to fit the ball to the wide side vertical in between the cornerback and deep safety. The throw was actually there but he’s hit on the release and the ball flutters and the corner drifts back and picks it.
Similarly, later on…
https://twitter.com/Ian_A_Boyd/status/1351270415461711872?s=20
This is just traditional Tampa 2. The middle linebacker (but Morris is to the weakside so it’s the 175 pound Brady Lamme) drops to the deep middle, the corners sit underneath, and Ewers tries to fit the ball to his favorite receiver Brady Boyd in between the corner and deep safety. The corner is Michael Taaffe and he makes that incredible one-handed interception...game over.
The primary reason Carroll made it this far into the playoffs was the potency of Ewers throwing to Boyd and Samson all over the field. His ability to reach every part of the field made it impossible for most teams to cover up the Dragons, but the Chaps were able to present a lot of layered coverages, pressure him, and stop the run without committing extra numbers to the box. They also scored over 50 points.
It was a big win for Klubnik and the Chaparrals and they’re now back to back state champions. However when evaluating for the collegiate level, Ewers’ ability to threaten the whole field and the way he dropped over 300 passing and scored 34 points on the Westlake defense was actually the more eye-catching achievement.
It’ll be very interesting to watch these two teams next season when they each return to the playoffs with these quarterbacks. As I mentioned earlier, Klubnik returns his tackles, center, and both Greathouse and Kubecka at wide receiver. Up in Southlake, Ewers loses Boyd but returns Samson and flex tight end R.J. Maryland (3-star NFL legacy), and the Dragons will have another year to retool the offensive line and defense. Ideally, we'd get a rematch, Dodge Bowl II.
