What We Learned From Clemson's Stinging Loss to Vols in Orange Bowl

From lost opportunities to the game plan with Cade Klubnik to Will Shipley's first-half usage, there are a list of takeaways from Clemson's bowl game loss to end the 2022 season.

Evaluating bowl games after they are played is so tricky.

On one hand, they do matter. It's a game that counts, no matter the opt-outs or transfers or injuries. You what your record says you are.

On the other hand, it's a one-game sample size that isn't necessarily indicative of an entire season, yet we make so much out of how you look, good or bad. It is the season definer for a lot of people. It's a judgment on your success, or lack thereof, and can kickstart the conversations about your team for the following season. 

That's a lot to put on a game that doesn't have national title implications and doesn't carry over to the next season. Fair or not, though, that's how bowl games are measured. 

So what can you take away from the Orange Bowl?

No. 7 Clemson saw so much momentum built from an impressive 39-10 win over North Carolina in the ACC Championship Game go out the window with a 31-17 loss to No. 6 Tennessee at Hard Rock Stadium on Friday night in Miami Gardens, Fla.

The Tigers weren't good enough against a really good opponent. It was their third loss of the season, and the third time it looked like they were outcoached. They were certainly outexecuted. 

Clemson ran 101 plays and had 34 first downs. That's the most in those two categories in a loss in school history. The Tigers had 484 yards of offense and freshman quarterback Cade Klubnik threw for 320 yards, although he needed 50 passing attempts to get there. He had two interceptions and no touchdown passes, but he did run in the lone touchdown of the game. 

Klubnik wasn't as sharp as he was against UNC, and Tennessee was much better up front to make life difficult on him. He still made some good throws, but the ball seem to hang in the air far too long, and the situation overwhelmed a young player at times.

Still, he moved the ball up the field an awful lot. And there lies the problem. Clemson mustered just 14 points. How? Well, the Tigers missed three field goals, couldn't convert a fake, mismanaged a possession at the end of the first half, and, most importantly, went 2-for-4 in the red zone and had seven first-half drives that made it into UT territory result in three points. 

"The one thing that we've been probably the most consistent at all year and have probably done the best is red-zone scoring, and we just did not take advantage of plus-territory opportunities," Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said after the game. "Seven drives, we had one punt first half, sky punt, seven opportunities, six scoring opportunities, and we come away with one field goal.

"Really disappointed with the missed opportunities there. We had 101 plays and 480-something yards, and you don't get any points for yards. That's why on the stats, name of the game is points. Just like I tell the receivers, you don't get any points for getting open. You have to finish and execute. We did not do that."

It's not the end of the program. It doesn't mean Clemson will have a bad season next year, but it does make one question if this was a successful season. After all, 11 wins is 11 wins, but the three losses - Notre Dame, South Carolina and Tennessee - really stung. There are some changes that need to happen.

However, let's just evaluate the Orange Bowl for now. There is a whole offseason of program evaluation that will take place. Remember, this was one game. Here's what we learned about the Tigers' final contest of the 2022 season: 

Ship didn't happen early

The objective in football should be to get your best players the ball as much as possible. It's easy for anybody who isn't involved in game planning or calling plays to say that, but Clemson didn't do that Friday night. Will Shipley is clearly one of the options on this offense. Yet the running back who went over 1,000 rushing yards this season touched the ball just five times in the first half. Only three of those were rushes. He did get the ball five times on the first drive of the third quarter, so the coaches tried to remedy that mistake. He had 26 rushing yards on that drive. The problem is, once Clemson got into scoring range inside the UT 30, Shipley was on the bench resting. The offense ran three more plays and then kicked a field goal. 

Shipley finished with 72 yards on 17 carries and had four runs of 8 yards or more, but offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter admitted that he should've gotten Shipley the ball more early. We've heard this before. The staff has said several times this year that Shipley needed to be more involved, like in the South Carolina game when they went away from him in the fourth quarter despite his ability to gash the Gamecocks' defense. Imagine how worn down the Vols' defense might've been, especially considering how many plays Clemson ran, had Shipley pounded them a dozen times in the first half. 

Too much Klubnik

That leads us to the next observation. It might've been good to mix in a little more run instead of calling more than 30 pass plays in the first 30 minutes of Klubnik's first career start. The staff probably put too much on him. Tennessee, which is well-coached, decided to blitz the heck out of him and see if he could beat their weak pass coverage. There were times when he did and penalties helped keep drives alive. There were times when the blitz clearly got home and affected or sacked him. He got happy feet at times, didn't want to step up in the pocket and retreated way too often. Those are called freshman mistakes and are easy to see coming. 

But Clemson didn't protect him enough, and not just in terms of the offensive line, which picked a bad day to have one of their worst days of the season. Obviously, the coaching staff saw an opportunity to take advantage of a Vols pass defense that barely ranked in the top 100 nationally, and attacking a team's weakness is the right strategy. They did play well in between the 25s. But it needs to come within the confines of what your offense is good at as well. And settling Klubnik in early and giving him help in the run game to take the pressure off, especially when the blitzes became effective, would've been practical. Aside from getting Shipley the ball a little more, there wasn't much of an adjustment to slow down UT's pass rush.

Not-so special teams

Of course, all the above might've gone differently had Clemson made field goals. Sure, there were a ton of red-zone struggles, some uncharacteristic. But one of the reasons you might get more conservative in the scoring area is because you trust your field goal kicker. And why wouldn't you? BT Potter leaves Clemson as the all-time leading placekicker in school history. But he wasn't great Friday, missing three field goals. Two of those were 49 yards or longer. That's not on Swinney or Streeter.

Clemson also made a decision to run a fake field goal on the first possession that wasn't converted. Swinney said after the game that he knew field goals wouldn't win this game, and you can understand the aggressiveness early against the highest-scoring offense in the nation. However, it was fourth-and-4 at the UT 27. Just line up with your offense and don't put the play in the hands of a trick that isn't easy to execute. 

Defense was fine

It's hard to blame Wes Goodwin's side of the ball for much in this loss. No, it wasn't the most dominant performance Clemson's stop side of the ball has had this season, and there were a few blown coverages. But you expected that against Tennessee, even without Hooker. Milton completed long passes for 46 and 50 yards. He's hit explosive plays like that throughout his collegiate career. It was going to happen no matter what Clemson did. You live with it, and the Tigers did enough with four sacks and eight tackles for a loss to give the offense chances to take control of the game. They also handled the tempo fairly well.

It just wasn't complementary football. If you want to find one thing, though, that defense didn't do that would've been incredibly helpful is that Goodwin's squad never made that huge, momentum-changing play like Nate Wiggins did a couple of times in the ACC title game against UNC. The Orange Bowl was a game where the Tigers desperately needed the defense to make a play that either resulted in a touchdown or led to one. 

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