CLEMSON — Saturday’s first round of the College Football Playoff will be filled with emotion for No. 12 seed Clemson.

Heading to Austin, Texas, to face No. 5 Texas, the Tigers have quite the challenge ahead of them.

For Cade Klubnik, things will be much more intense. An Austin native, the city of course has a special place in his heart, and always will.

It is where he grew up. It is where he played high school football. It is his home.

“It’ll be interesting,” the Clemson quarterback said. “I think that just taking the field will be a little wild. I’ve been going to some games throughout the years, and it’ll be special.”

Approaching the end of his junior year at Clemson, Klubnik has put up big numbers for the Tigers (10-3) while leading them to the CFP. He has thrown for 3,303 yards and 33 TDs, to just five interceptions, while completing 63.7 percent of his passes.

The junior also has seven rushing TDs to go with 458 yards on the ground.

Saturday, he is going to try and put up big numbers in hopes to lead the Tigers to a win in his hometown.

“You got a job in front of you, and at the end of the day, all the friends that I’ve got on the other side want the exact same thing I do,” Klubnik said. “They want the exact same thing that our team does.”

It will undoubtedly be difficult to remove emotions and personal feelings that Klubnik and his Tigers will be experiencing, but the game is just the same every week, and the focus remains the same.

“You’ve got to separate that a little bit at times,” Klubnik said. “At the end of the day, you got a task at hand. You got to take care of business.”