Tennessee routs Clemson in 89th Orange Bowl as hometown Hurricanes rebuild from 5-7 season | Opinion
The idea for the Orange Bowl game arose in the 1930s as a way for Miami to dig out from under the Great Depression and sell itself as a wondrous magnet for tourism. Politicos of the time floated names like “Fiesta of the American Tropics” and “Festival of the Palms” in the hope an annual college football game could draw eyeballs to a place where it was (relatively speaking) beach-weather warm even in the dead of winter.
The historic bowl game that began as a desperate shout-out to tourists -- its purpose more recently and rather cruelly has been as an annual reminder how far the hometown Miami Hurricanes have fallen as they try to dig out from under two decades of irrelevance in the hunt for a long-elusive sixth national championship.
In any case it’s fair to say the Orange Bowl idea sort of caught on.
Friday night was the 89th edition of the OB and it was the Orangest Bowl ever as the No. 6-ranked Tennessee Vols and No. 7 Clemson Tigers, both with shades of orange as their main color, met on a balmy 74-degrees night begging short sleeves.
Only the Rose Bowl has been around longer. So if that’s the granddaddy of them all, does that make the Orange the slightly younger, hipper other granddad?
Tennessee won, 31-14, by the way.
Vols fans dominated in the crowd of 63,912.
The Tigers dominated in time of possession and total yards.
Only the score mattered.
“It’s been a fun ride, and the best is yet to come,” said Tennessee coach Josh Heupel. “We’ve helped revive a prominent program. It’s a springboard for us moving forward. Tonight’s a big night.”
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney called the night “incredibly disappointing” and said, “Name of the game was missed opportunities.”
The result didn’t carry many stakes or much weight outside of Knoxville and parts of South Carolina, of course. For both teams and their fans this was a consolation prize for coming close to but falling short of the four-team College Football Playoff, which stages its semifinal games on Saturday.
South Carolina beat both teams this season to deny them their CFP shot, and a Gamecocks fan with money to burn was kind enough to say so in a banner pulled over Hard Rock Stadium by a small plane before the game.
If it was a consolation night for the two teams, it wasn’t much more for the host city, alas.
Miami’s Hurricanes, who play in the same stadium, are coming off a hugely disappointing and bowl-less 5-7 first season under coach Mario Cristobal. Miami played in the 2017 OB and lost but it was an anomaly. The Canes have not won a big-four bowl since 2003, and since 2007 UM has gone 1-10 in bowl games.
Watching better teams play in UM’s own home stadium and own backyard in the OB, let alone one of them being from the Canes’ own Atlantic Coast Conference, is not the kind of toast to the new year the locals might find ideal.
The good news for Miami? Friday night looked a lot like Clemson’s long run of dominance in the ACC may be ebbing.
Swinney would disagree.
“People say what they’re going to say,” he said. “We’re 11-3. Won the league seven of last eight years. We’ve been pretty consistent and will continue to be.”
For more than Tennessee, the night was a celebration in at least one way.
One year ago we were still in the grip of COVID-19. The day of the game there were 75,962 new cases reported in Florida, more people than attended that night’s OB. There was still controversy whether full stadiums at sporting events were OK, or reckless.
One year ago five bowl games were canceled due to COVID, and others were affected. Recall that a virus outbreak within the Hurricanes forced UM to withdraw from the Sun Bowl just a few days before it was to kick off in El Paso, Texas.
One year later, there are hardly any such concerns.
From a football standpoint, though, we are spoiled down here where the appreciation should be.
The Orange Bowl game has decided the national champion 20 times -- including three of UM’s five national titles. Now the OB is in the CFP rotation. Miami has hosted playoff semifinal games in 2015, 2018, last year (Georgia whomping Michigan) and will again next in 2024.
The CFP will expand from four playoff teams to 12 in ‘24, with the OB a good bet to stay in the mix but perhaps with an expanded roster of bowl games vying for choice semifinal games let alone the national championship.
So an “off year” Orange Bowl such as Tennessee-Clemson is just that in between CFP dates, although this was better than some. Like Georgia Tech vs. Mississippi State, just to use a totally random recent example not to be taken personally.
(Quick aside. You know how they say you learn something new every day? It’s true. Friday night, I learned Tennessee has a receiver who answers to the name “Squirrel,” Squirrel White. Also, I learned how annoying it can be to hear the song “Rocky Top“ played over and over again.)
The game itself was refreshingly low-scoring Friday. (Three missed field goals didn’t hurt.) Clemson was a small favorite going in but Tennessee led, 7-0, for a good bit on Bru McCoy’s 16-yard first-quarter scoring toss from Joe Milton. The Vols were up 14-3 at the break.
Tennessee was up 21-6 as the third quarter ended after a 14-yard TD pass to ... Squirrel! Clemson got within seven on Cade Klubnik’s 4-yard scoring run and then a two-point conversion. But the Vols put it away on game MVP Milton’s third TD throw, a 46-yarder to a glaringly open Ramel Keyton.
Let history note a group called Fitz and the Tantrums performed at halftime.
Upside: Their playlist did not include “Rocky Top.”
Heard that plenty enough on a night that belonged to Tennessee.
This story was originally published December 30, 2022 at 11:52 PM.
