The Clemson Tigers 2022 team will mostly be remembered as one of head coach Dabo Sydney Sweeney worst since his breakout 2015, as the Tigers finished the regular season with two or more losses for the second straight year. The offense looked downright pitiful at times, finishing the season 72nd in the nation in passing yards per game, and 46th in the nation in rushing yards per game. Add in that the receiver position was lackluster all year for the Tigers; you get what looked like a disaster.
However, the Tigers excelled in one particular category: rushing defense. They ranked 10th in the nation in rushing yards allowed per game. The Tigers would miraculously start the season 8-0, with many people claiming that the team could make a run for the College Football Playoff. However, those hopes came to a screeching halt on Nov. 5, when they travelled to South Benz, Pennsylvania to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. A 21-point loss would be their fate, something almost everyone knew would end their Playoff hopes.
The Tigers would lose again in the regular season finale against in-state rival South Carolina, 31-30. They sat at 10-2 in the regular season, but that was good enough to claim the Atlantic division of the ACC Conference and send them to Charlotte, North Carolina, to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels in the ACC Championship game. It was there that Clemson made a statement win, picking up a 39-10 victory and punching their ticket to the Orange Bowl. All they had to do was wait and see who got the at-large bid for the game. That team would be none other than a team that was one state over the Tennessee Volunteers.
The season began like any other for the Volunteers, on the cusp of the AP top 25 polls and looking to show the college football landscape again that they would rise to prominence again. Now, we hear this every offseason about how they are “back”, so no one really batted an eye towards them as serious contenders. A double-OT win against a then-ranked Pitt team, then a win against then-ranked Florida, and finally a win against the newly ranked LSU Tigers proved that this team was good, but the biggest test was right around the corner: the Alabama Crimson Tide.
This was it. Tennessee had been the butt of all the jokes about not winning big games for decades, so no one thought much of the Volunteers going into the game. But then again who would? They had lost the previous 15 games against the Crimson Tide, with all but twice being blowouts by more than two touchdowns. But the Volunteers shocked the college football world and fans alike when the final score read 52-49 in favor of the Volunteers. They finally won a huge game to prove they were contenders in 2022.
They were the buzz of the college football landscape for the next three weeks. Quarterback Hendon Hooker suddenly found himself in the driver’s seat for a spot in New York for the Heisman trophy. The Volunteers suddenly found themselves as the top-ranked team in the nation in the first College Football Playoff rankings.
Then came the downfall. It started with a 27-13 loss against the Georgia Bulldogs, which was a blow but not as big of a blow that could have kept them outside the College Football Playoff at the end of the season. They won the next week 66-24 against the Missouri Tigers, and it looked as if they could handle their last two games against South Carolina and Vanderbilt with no problem. Then the biggest blow to the Volunteers season came: a Hendon Hooker injury in the fourth quarter against the South Carolina Gamecocks. They would go on to lose the game 63-48, killing any hope they had for the College Football Playoff.
They would still beat Vanderbilt the next week to finish the regular season 10-2 and clinch an at-large bid for a New Year’s Six bowl game. Now they are traveling to Miami on Dec. 30 against the Clemson Tigers.