The Orange Bowl preview is of two teams that will have a bunch of no-shows and opt-outs. Clemson and Tennessee will play on Friday night at Hard Rock Stadium and neither will have their starting quarterback from the opening game. DJ Uiagalelei entered the transfer portal and left the Clemson football team. Hendon Hooker has been injured since November with a torn ACL and Joe Milton has been the quarterback. Clemson will have a true freshman quarterback, Cade Klubnik in the game. Then, defensive player Myles Murphy decided to get ready for the NFL draft. Tennessee player Jeremy Banks opted out also as well as high profile wide receiver Jalin Hyatt.
Players Opting out a big issue in the Capital One Orange Bowl
As per a 2020 blog from the website, saturdaydownsouth.com, writer Keith Farner wrote about a radio interview Kirk Herbstreit did regarding players opting out of bowl games. Read the article here. Herbstreit mused on the attitude of players decided to get ready for the draft because they couldn’t play in the college football playoff. He said that he was troubled at the trend. This is an obvious need as a fan to watch good games with the best players. College athletes have every right to try to earn money and look out for themselves. But, when their decisions water down the quality of the game, it hurts the “business of college football.”
Jalin Hyatt decided to opt out of the game to get ready for the NFL draft. Read Christina Chapman’s article on our site here. Myles Murphy won’t play in the game against a Tennessee offense that won’t have their star players? He’s not even part of our Top 5 NFL Draft prospects coming out of Clemson. Read that article here. Come on! Jeremy Banks won’t get to wreak havoc against Clemson’s freshman quarterback? The players are getting talked out of a primetime appearance on TV to increase their draft stock. IT IS GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE.
Players featured in the Capital One Orange Bowl
Clemson will have a freshman quarterback playing so they will severely pair down the playbook. Joe Milton only played against Vanderbilt so Tennessee will also have a paired down playbook. There will probably be a lot of turnovers and defenses will rule. Justin Mascoll will fill in for Myles Murphy. He is a redshirt senior. Bru McCoy and Squirrel White will take over for Jaylin Hyatt and Cedric Tillman. Neither player has much playing time or statistics. I think that the NCAA and athletes are missing out on the exposure they can get through advertisements of their endorsements during primetime viewing of games like the Orange Bowl. The New Year’s Day games could be a plethora of advertisements of top college players. The advocates for NIL could buy commercial time to advocate NIL deals for all athletes.
Comparing Tennessee and Clemson for the Orange Bowl
Both Clemson and Tennessee played South Carolina and lost. Tennessee is very susceptible to the pass, so if Cade Klubnik can get the ball off they could move down the field. Byron Young, leads the team in tackles for loss (10) and 14 hits on the quarterback so Will Shipley will need to be the MVP of the game to help Klubnik. Tennessee’s run defense is their strength. Opponents were only able to average 3.2 yards per rush against them. The same goes for Tennessee. Milton will have Bru McCoy to throw the ball to, but they will need to stop Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and the defense from getting to the quarterback. Clemson also allows only 3.2 per rush, so Jalen Wright and Jabari Small will have to be the MVP’s of the offense to take the heat off of Joe Milton.
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