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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The only thing keeping Tennessee fans from singing “Rocky Top” as time ran out Friday night was the need to serenade Joe Milton with something else. .
“MVP!” they sang, over and over again. With good reason.
Milton, who regained the starting job only after close friend Hendon Hooker was hurt late in the year, led Tennessee to one of its best moments in two decades. He completed 19 of 28 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns, and No. 6 Tennessee never trailed on its way to a 31-14 victory over No. 10 Clemson in the Orange Bowl.
“I trust myself, I trust my training and I just let it happen,” Milton said.
The Volunteers went 11-2 for the first time since 2001, capping a year by beating Alabama, LSU and Clemson, programs that combined to win six of the most recent seven College Football Playoff national titles.
“All of the adversity that this group has faced during their careers, what they’ve done in the last 23 months, I couldn’t be more proud of a group of individuals,” said Tennessee coach Josh Heupel, who won a national title as a player. Oklahoma in the orange bowl.
Squirrel White, Bru McCoy and Ramel Keyton had the scoring catches for the Volunteers. Jaylen Wright ran for 89 yards and Jabari Small had a touchdown run for Tennessee.
Cade Klubnik, making his first start for Clemson, completed 30 of 54 passes for 320 yards with two interceptions. But Clemson (11-3) came up empty on the best scoring chances; the Tigers drove into Tennessee territory on nine of their first 10 possessions, turning those drives into just two field goals.
Clemson finished with 484 yards in 101 plays and lost by 17.
“You don’t get any points for yardage,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “The name of the game points. … You have to finish and execute and we didn’t do that.”
Klubnik ran from 4 yards out to pull Clemson within 21-14 with 10:01 left, but Milton connected with Keyton for a 46-yard score on Tennessee’s next possession. The Volunteers intercepted Klubnik on a desperate fourth down about a minute later, nearly sealing the result.
“I wish we could have sent these seniors out with a win,” Klubnik said. “I think we gave everything we had until the last play.”
In this very orange Orange Bowl, both teams have it as their primary color, it was the hue of Tennessee that came out on top. Hooker was there, having flown in about a week ago to be with his team and help Milton get ready for the game.
“Blood can’t bring us any closer,” Milton said. “That’s my brother to the end.”
Milton opened the scoring with a 16-yard pass to McCoy, and Small’s 2-yard run pushed the lead to 14-0 with 9:03 remaining in the half. The nation’s most prolific offense was not in its prime: Tennessee led the nation this year in yards and points per game, but it didn’t have to be that way.
Clemson received the ball seven times in the first half, driving into Tennessee territory all seven times and reaching Vols 25 four times.
Somehow, that only turned into three points.
The other six possessions: a fake field goal by Drew Swinney, the Clemson coach’s son; a punt; three missed field goals by BT Potter, the most prolific kicker in school history, and one last brutal hit when Klubnik was tackled by a goaltender with 6 seconds remaining. Clemson ran out of timeouts, couldn’t put the field goal drive on the field, and went into halftime trailing 14-3.
“Lots of missed opportunities,” Dabo Swinney said.
Potter opened the second half with a 40-yard pass, his 73rd career field goal, a school record for the Tigers. But White hauled in a 14-yard pass with 5 seconds left in the third, giving the Vols a 21-6 lead going into the fourth.
When he was done, Milton knelt down, tucked the game ball under his left arm and just didn’t let go. He will enter 2023 as the presumed starter for Tennessee, and expectations will be high for a program that went 20-27 in the four seasons before Heupel’s arrival, went 7-6 last year under him and now won. an Orange Bowl.
“It’s been a fun climb,” Heupel said. “The best is yet to come.”
THE TO TAKE
Tennessee: Peyton Manning was on the sidelines before the game and had a prime seat for the contest. When he appeared on the stadium screens during the second half, he pointed to his Tennessee cap and nodded knowingly as the Vol fans roared.
Clemson: The three big plays the Tigers will regret aren’t hard to pinpoint. The fake field goal run was one, Klubnik’s time management error to end the first half was another, and the third was a go-for-it decision on fourth-and-2 from Vols 31 late in the third. Will Shipley was stopped on a run to left, and four plays later, Milton found White for a 21-6 lead.
IMPLICATIONS OF THE SURVEY
Tennessee can move up a spot or two, depending on what happens in the College Football Playoff games. It will be the Vols’ best result in at least 20 years; they were number 4 in 2001 and number 1 in 1998.
Clemson will be part of the final poll for the 12th consecutive year, extending the longest run in school history.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
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 in 2022.
Clemson: A Week One game awaits against an opponent from the Atlantic Coast Conference, likely to be announced in January. Clemson’s first non-conference game is on September 9 against Charleston Southern.
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