Clemson QB’s parents drive 20 hours to the Orange Bowl after canceled flight
A canceled flight couldn’t stop Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik’s parents from being around for their son’s first career start in the Orange Bowl.
According to tweet from reporter David Ubben of The Athletic, Klubnik’s parents, Tod and Kim, picked up a rental car at 10 p.m. Tuesday and started a 20-hour drive from Austin, Texas, to the Miami area after their Tuesday night flight was canceled.
A wave of winter storms led to “widespread flight cancellations over the Christmas holiday,” CNN reported, and those issues bled into the week, too. The website FlightAware reported 5,161 cancellations within the United States on Tuesday, with Southwest Airlines (which canceled 2,694 flights) accounting for 64% of those.
No. 7 Clemson arrived in Florida on Saturday and has various practices and team outings scheduled throughout the week heading into the Dec. 30 Orange Bowl against No. 6 Tennessee at Hard Rock Stadium.
Klubnik, a true freshman and former five-star recruit, is set to be the program’s first modern-era quarterback to make his first career start in a postseason game after unseating DJ Uiagalelei in the ACC championship game.
Klubnik, who’d played infrequently behind Uiagalelei leading into that contest against North Carolina, dazzled with 328 total yards and two touchdowns off the bench as Clemson cruised to a 39-10 win at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium.
Klubnik became the third freshman and first true freshman in conference history to win ACC Championship Game MVP honors as Clemson (11-2) won its seven league title in eight seasons.
Now he’s making his first start against Tennessee, which reached as high as No. 1 in the College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings this year, in primetime in another NFL stadium.
Here’s a sampling of the Twitter reaction to the news that Klubnik’s parents opted for a 20-hour drive to get down to the Miami area faster for their son’s historic week.
This story was originally published December 28, 2022 at 9:49 AM.
