Clemson football takes on Tennessee in the Orange Bowl Friday evening at 8 p.m. in a wrap to the 2022 season for both teams.
The Tigers are currently 5.5-point favorites with a total sitting at 63.5 points, implying a 34.5-29 Clemson win.
Cade Klubnik will get his first start as the Clemson quarterback and make no mistake about it, this is Klubnik’s team moving forward.
Much like last year’s bowl game, the Tigers will have a depleted receiving corps for the quarterback to throw to, with E.J. Williams in the transfer portal and Beaux Collins out.
On the defensive side for the Tigers, Myles Murphy has opted out in order to prepare for the NFL Draft and Trenton Simpson is injured..
Tennessee has its share of injuries and opt-outs, too and there’ll be more coming on that later in the week in our Oppo Research article by Casey Cregan. Just know that Hendon Hooker and Jalin Hyatt will not play Friday.
Bowl games are notoriously difficult to predict in the best of circumstances and both of these teams had College Football Playoff aspirations until late in the season before losing to South Carolina.
Games like this are where Dabo Swinney excels as he provides an even keel for his team, never allowing them to get too high or too low.
Clemson football is in a better spot than they were last bowl season
Last bowl season the team was a shell of its regular season self and still managed to beat an Iowa State team in the Cheez-It Bowl.
I think the Tigers are in a little better shape this bowl season, but their opponent is better.
Early Lean Clemson -5.5
Though motivation could be a question for both teams, the change at quarterback is likely to benefit the Tigers as it’s evident that Klubnik adds an energy and sense of urgency to the offense when he’s had multiple drives at the helm.
The Tigers are missing Murphy and Trenton Simpson on defense and that’ll hurt, but Tennessee missing Hooker and Hyatt will hurt more.
We’ll have our final pick later in the week, but early on I’ll side with Clemson -5.5.