MIAMI GARDENS – It was a complete team effort for the Tennessee Volunteers at Hard Rock Stadium.

They never trailed in this year’s Orange Bowl against the Clemson Tigers. And they never allowed a mostly tight game to get the best of them.

Led by senior quarterback Joe Milton III, the Volunteers (11-2 final record) pulled away in the second half to secure a 31-14 win over the Tigers (11-3 final record).

Here is how it happened.

Milton (19-of-28 passing, 251 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions) engineered a six-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a wide open 46-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Ramey Keyton with 8:34 left in the game. 

Combined with an extra point by kicker Chase McGrath (4-for-4 in extra points), Tennessee got some breathing room by making its lead 28-14 over Clemson.

Later in the final frame, a seemingly promising Clemson drive ended with a fourth-down interception that was caught by safety Tamarion McDonald at the 7:37 mark.

To close the scoring, McGrath connected on a 32-yard field goal with 3:07 left.

And to officially seal the deal, Tennessee junior defensive back Wesley Walker caught an interception at the end zone with 1:42 left.

The Volunteers offense went on to have three kneel down plays as they ended the game in celebration mode.

“What they’ve done in the last 24 months I couldn’t be prouder of the coaches as individuals, these players, our staff, Vol Nation, and everybody who has been along for the journey,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said in a special press conference with media members last night (Dec. 30). “It’s been a fun ride, and the best is yet to come, and I’m really proud of the team.”

Heupel spoke on Milton, who was selected as the Orange Bowl MVP.

“(Joe Milton) continues to progress,” Heupel said. “He did a lot of really good things tonight. I’m so happy to have him.”

Milton, who is from Pahokee, Fla., touched on how it feels to have been named the MVP in his own backyard.

“It feels great,” Milton said. “We’ve been pretty much talking about it for the whole month. It was a statement game for Tennessee as a team. Also a statement game for me playing at home.”

Aside from Milton, Tennessee’s offense was relatively productive as a whole.

We got a respectable performance from running back Jabari Small, who had a 2-yard rushing touchdowns with 9:03 left in the second quarter.

Small (13 carries, 40 yards, 2-yard touchdown run) helped his team gain a 14-0 lead over Clemson at that point.

Meanwhile, fellow running back Jaylen Wright had 11 carries for 91 yards. His best play was a 42-yard run that set up one of Tennessee’s scores in the game.

“I got a really good running game,” Wright said. “Kind of got off to a slow start and that was what adjustments you make to kind of get to go late in the game. At halftime, you know we talked about it. We said we needed to run the ball more, open more stuff up, so we started running the ball and you know stuff started opening. You know we felt that responsibility…and things worked out.”

Tennessee’s defense came through in a big way as well.

Linebacker Aaron Beasley led all players with 12 tackles, four tackles for loss, and two sacks. He also had a pass breakup in the Orange Bowl.

“I’m just buying in to the coaches, listening to the coaches, and loving on my teammates,” Beasley said. “Shout out to my teammates and my coaches for keeping it going.”

Fellow Volunteers linebacker Byron Young had three tackles and two sacks in this one.

Meanwhile, defensive back Tamarion McDonald had five tackles and an interception that occurred in the fourth quarter.

“I don’t think we had any missed assignments tonight,” McDonald said. “So that was good – everybody did their job.”

Tennessee’s defense did a good job of limiting Clemson’s two most effective offensive players in freshman quarterback Cade Klubnik (30-of-54 passing, 320 yards, two interceptions; 20 carries, 78 yards, one touchdown run) and sophomore running back Will Shipley (17 carries, 73 yards; four catches, 21 yards; game-high 156 all-purpose yards).

“Big part of the game plan was disguising, trying to get him out of pre-snap,” McDonald said of Klubnik. “We did a good job showing man on third and medium.”

McDonald on containing Shipley:

“D-line and linebackers did their thing,” McDonald said. “Linebackers were filling the holes.”

Heupel summed up the outcome of this year’s Orange Bowl.

“All season long we’ve talked about learning how to compete and finish at the end,” Heupel said. “This month the message was really consistent with that, as well. It was about finishing our season, finishing this legacy, for the guys that have been here the last two years or whenever they came in, I’m not sure a group has done more in a shorter amount of time to help revive a prominent program the way this group has. So proud of the players and the staff, the connection that we have, being accountable to one another, loving to compete and doing it together every single day.”

More Heupel on the Orange Bowl experience:

“Tonight was a lot of fun,” Heupel continued. “Unbelievable defensive performance. Special teams were rock solid, and Joe and the offense were able to find a way to make a bunch of big plays and get the ball into the end zone. Great night for Tennessee. The best is yet to come, but really excited about what happened tonight.”

ORANGE BOWL NOTES: Tennessee’s defense withstood a Clemson offense that had 34 first downs and ran an Orange Bowl-record 101 total plays. They also overcame a Clemson offense that racked up 484 total yards.

Meanwhile, Tennessee’s special teams overcame an effort by Clemson kicker B.T Potter, who tied the Orange Bowl record with five field goal attempts.

Also for Tennessee, it added to the SEC’s Orange Bowl reign, as the nation’s best and most talented conference has won the past five Orange Bowls (Georgia in 2021; Texas A&M in 2020; Florida in 2019; Alabama in 2018).

PHOTO CREDITS: Chuck Bethel