Oak Ridge’s Tee Higgins (5), who was then a junior, makes a leaping catch during a 26-17 loss at Ooltewah in a second-round Class 5A playoff game on Friday, Nov. 13, 2015. (File photo by Julio Culiat)
Oak Ridge’s Tee Higgins (5), who was then a senior, talks to a television reporter after a 56-21 rout at Clinton on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016. Higgins had two touchdown receptions and two interceptions that set up Wildcat scores. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Former Oak Ridge wide receiver Tee Higgins is one of a few former Wildcats to win a national championship in a college sport. Higgins, who was a football and basketball star in Oak Ridge, is probably the first former Wildcat with a touchdown catch in a national championship game.
Higgins is a sophomore wide receiver for the Clemson Tigers, who crushed the Alabama Crimson Tide in a 44-16 championship win in Santa Clara, California, on Monday. It was Clemson’s third national championship and second in the past three years, both over Alabama. It was the first national championship for Clemson since Higgins, the team’s leading receiver who has impressed fans with his catches, joined the Tigers.
Higgins had three catches for 81 yards on Monday, including a five-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter, the final Clemson touchdown.
Clemson is the first college football team to go 15-0 since Penn in 1897. Trevor Lawrence, the Tigers’ freshman quarterback, was impressive Monday, finishing 20-for-32 for 347 yards and three touchdown passes. He became the first true freshman starting quarterback to win a national championship since Oklahoma’s Jamelle Holieway in 1985. [Read more…]
