Throughout the season, Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron has referred to defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski as a “genius.”

His play-calling and general knowledge has been superb, at least according to the Jim Thorpe Award winner.

“Well, yeah, I’m humbled by that,” Kwiatkowski said Saturday night, “but without these guys executing at a high level, I look like a schmuck.”

Kwiatkowski and his entire unit should take a bow, not just for securing a 38-24 win over Clemson on Saturday in the College Football Playoffs. But for the entire season.

The Longhorns have one of the best defensive units in the nation, and it’s a major reason why some national pundits have picked them to win it all.

WATCH AND SUBSCRIBE: Follow A to Z Sports’ Texas Longhorns channel on YouTube.

“We're putting them in position, and they've got to go out and execute and they've done it on a consistent basis this year,” Kwiatkowski said.

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik completed 26 of 43 passes for 336 yards, the highest total any quarterback has put up against Texas all season. The Austin native and Westlake product threw three touchdown passes. The Horns came in having allowed four passing touchdowns all season. And yet, it just never felt like the defense lost its grip on the proceedings.

The Tigers jumped out to an early 7-0 lead when Klubnik found Antonio Williams for a 22-yard touchdown. But the Horns tied the game, took the lead and never looked back.

Texas literally runs Clemson right out of the College Football Playoffs and advances to Peach Bowl

Even with two backup linemen, the Longhorns get huge performances from Wisner, Blue and notch CFP victory

“Yeah, he's a really outstanding player because he can hurt you with his arm and he can hurt you with his legs, and he's a tough competitor,” Kwiatkowski said. “There's no quit in the guy.

“His ability to extend plays, his ability to run the ball, that was a big challenge to us because they ran him in quarterback draws and designed quarterback runs, and they're really good at throwing the football.

“For us we had some different things that we were trying to chop up the front to make it hard for him to run those quarterback draws and still be sound in the back end with our coverage calls.”

Once again, Kwiatkowski got a balanced performance from his entire unit. Anthony Hill Jr. had a team-high nine tackles, and five other Longhorns had at least four tackles. Barron had two of the Horns’ eight pass break-ups.

The two biggest defensive plays of the night came late in the fourth quarter.

Bill Norton plugged up the middle on fourth-and-1 from the Texas 1-yard line for a tremendous goal-line stand. Ethan Burke’s goal-line tackle against Texas A&M was big. This felt much bigger.

“Yeah, in the huddle before I'm telling the guys, this is what we work on, this is what we practice for,” defensive end Barryn Sorrell said. “We call it a red-zone locked. The team might be able to drive down the field, and we can't control where we are, but we're not letting anybody get in the paint, and that's the mentality that we have on this defense, especially on this defensive line.

“Shout-out to Bill. It's hard for a running back to make a play when an offensive line is right in his face as soon as he gets the ball.”

Then after Texas turned it over on downs, Clemson got one more shot late. The Texas defense shut that down, too. Safety Michael Taaffe broke up a pass intended for T.J. Moore on fourth-and-6 from the Texas 26-yard line. Ball game.

“I care about winning more than anything else,” Taaffe said. “That's all I care about. So I can have zero stats. I can get a play in. But if we won, I'm happy.”