The only thing that stopped Tennessee fans from singing “Rocky Top” as time was expiring Friday night was the need to serenade quarterback Joe Milton with something else. “M-V-P!” they chanted, again and again for good reason.
Milton, who regained the starting job only after his close friend and teammate Hendon Hooker was injured (torn ACL) late in the season, commandeered the Volunteers to one of its most prominent victories in the last twenty years. He was efficient, completing 19 of his 28 passes for 251 yards and three scores, and the No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers led wire-to-wire on its way to a 31-14 victory over the No. 10 Clemson Tigers in the Orange Bowl.
“I trust myself, I trust my coaching and I just let it happen,” Milton said.
The Volunteers posted a record of 11-2 for the first time since back in 2001 and finished off a campaign where they defeated three of college footballs’ elite programs, Alabama, LSU and Clemson, programs that combined to win six of the seven most recent College Football Playoff national titles.
“All the adversity this group’s faced during their careers, what they’ve done the last 23 months, I couldn’t be prouder of a group of individuals,” said Tennessee coach Josh Heupel, who won a national title as an Oklahoma player in the Orange Bowl.
Wide receivers Squirrel White, Bru McCoy and Ramel Keyton were responsible for the touchdown receptions for the Volunteers. Running back Jaylen Wright rushed for 89 yards and running back Jabari Small had a touchdown run for Tennessee.
Cade Klubnik, making his starting debut under center for Clemson, completing 30 of 54 passes for 320 yards with two picks. But Clemson (11-3) just kept coming up empty on prime scoring opportunities; the Tigers got into Tennessee territory on nine of their first 10 possessions and turned those drives into only six points.
Clemson finished with 484 yards of total offense on 101 plays, and still lost by 17.
“You don’t get any points for yards,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “The name of the game’s points. … You have to finish and execute and we did not do that.”
Klubnik used his legs and ran in from 4 yards out to pull Clemson within 21-14 with 10:01 left in the final frame, but Milton hooked up with Keyton for a 46-yard touchdown on the ensuing Tennessee drive. The Volunteers intercepted Klubnik on a desperation fourth-down heave about a minute later, just about sealing Clemson’s fate.
“Wish we could have sent out these seniors with a win,” Klubnik said. “I think we gave it all we had until the last play.”
In this very orange, Orange Bowl, both teams had it as their primary color, but it was the Tennessee hue that came out on top. Hooker was there, having flown in about a week ago to be with his team and help Milton prepare for the game.
“Blood can’t make us closer,” Milton said. “That’s my brother ’til the end.”
Milton opened the scoring with a 16-yard pass to McCoy, and Small’s 2-yard rush pushed the lead to 14-0 with 9:03 remaining in the half. The nation’s most high-powered offense was not clicking on all cylinders. Tennessee paced the nation this year in yards and points per game, but it did not have to be.
Clemson got the ball seven times in the first half, getting inside Tennessee territory all seven times and getting to the Vols 25 on four occasions. Somehow, that only resulted in a field goal.
The other six possessions: a stuffed fake field-goal run by wide receiver Drew Swinney, the son of the Clemson coach; a punt; three missed field goals by place kicker B.T. Potter, the most prolific kicker in school history and a brutal final drive when Klubnik was tackled on a keeper with 6 seconds left. Clemson was in disarray with not out of timeouts and failed to get the field-goal unit on the field and went into halftime trailing 14-3.
“Lot of missed opportunities,” Dabo Swinney said.
Potter opened the second half by booting a 40-yarder, the 73rd field goal of his career, a school record for the Tigers. But White caught a 14-yard pass with 5 seconds left in the third, giving the Vols a 21-6 lead going into the fourth quarter.
When it was over, Milton took a knee, tucked the game ball under his left arm and simply would not let it go. He will enter 2023 as Tennessee’s presumed starter and expectations will be high for a program that struggled and went 20-27 in the four seasons before Heupel’s arrival, went 7-6 in 2021 with him at the helm and now have won an Orange Bowl.
“It’s been a fun climb,” Heupel said. “The best is yet to come.”
Tennessee: The Vols open 2023 against Virginia on Sept. 2 in Nashville. It will be Virginia’s first game since the shooting that killed three players and led to the cancellation of the Cavaliers’ last two games of 2022.
Clemson: A Week One game against an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent awaits, likely to be announced in January. Clemson’s first nonconference game is Sept. 9 against Charleston Southern.
