Tennessee faces Clemson on Friday, Dec. 30 in the Orange Bowl. The game will be live streamed on fuboTV (free trial).

An Orange Bowl trip helped usher in Clemson’s current run of success. Maybe it’ll be the start of something special at Tennessee, too.

The sixth-ranked Volunteers (10-2) take on No. 10 Clemson (11-2) in the Orange Bowl on Friday night. For Tennessee, it’s a chance at what would be the school’s first 11-win season since 2001 — and, just as Clemson’s first Orange Bowl trip in a generation did 11 years ago, it may help set the tone for a return to college football’s mountaintop.

When is the Orange Bowl?

The Orange Bowl with Tennessee and Clemson is 7 p.m. (8 p.m. ET) on Friday, Dec. 30.

Will it be live streamed?

FuboTV

The game will be live streamed on fuboTV, which offers a free trial. The most basic of plans is the “fubo standard” package, which comprises 121-plus channels for $69.99 per month. Like all cord-cutting alternatives, there are plenty of options, especially for sports. It comes with more than 1,000 hours of cloud-based DVR, and up to 10 screens at once.

What TV channel will broadcast?

The Orange Bowl with Tennessee and Clemson will be broadcast on ESPN.

Preview

BUILDING BLOCK: Since that Orange Bowl loss to West Virginia, only Alabama has won more than the Tigers. Clemson is 132-19 over the last 11 seasons; Alabama is 138-15. Clemson also has major college football’s second-best home winning percentage in that span (again, behind only Alabama) and fourth-best road record (behind Ohio State, Alabama and Oklahoma).

COINCIDENCES: Before this year, Tennessee’s last 10-win regular season was 2003. That was also the most recent season in which the Volunteers played a game in Miami; they beat the Hurricanes 10-6 at the former Orange Bowl stadium. The Vols ended the regular season ranked No. 6 in the AP poll that year; they’re ranked No. 6 in the AP poll now as well. And their bowl game that year was also against Clemson.

That’s where the Volunteers probably hope the coincidences end. The then-unranked Tigers upset Tennessee 27-14 in the Peach Bowl that season.

REMEMBERING LEACH: Josh Heupel — who won a national championship with Oklahoma as a player in the Orange Bowl — paid tribute Thursday to Mike Leach, the innovative and entertaining Mississippi State coach who died earlier this month.

Leach was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for that Oklahoma team.

“Mike was instrumental in my opportunity to play at a high level, to coach at a high level,” Heupel said. “He’s the guy that gave me my start. He meant so much to so many people around the country inside of college football and outside of it. I think he’s really unique in that way that you truly got a chance to see how his mind worked and operated. He had so many passions outside of the game, as well.

“We lost somebody that made college football extremely interesting and changed the landscape of it. At that time, college football was played in a box around a lot of the country, and his vision of playing out in space is how college football is played today.”

And that certainly applies to how Tennessee plays. The Volunteers lead the country in points per game (47.3), yards per game (538.3) and passing efficiency this season.

HEAT TIES: Dabo Swinney has developed a friendship with Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra over the years. Spoelstra is known for meeting with coaches outside of basketball to discuss ideas, and Swinney said it was a thrill when the two-time NBA champion visited Clemson a few years ago.

Swinney was at Miami’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night.

“Listen, it doesn’t really matter what the sport is. If you’re in leadership and you’re dealing with people, there’s so much you can learn, especially when you’re in a competitive environment,” Swinney said.

It’s also not uncommon for Swinney to exchange ideas with football coaches — even rival ones. After Clemson beat Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2019, the staffs from the two schools wound up getting together at an American Football Coaches Association convention not long afterward.

“We kind of got together and talked through the game. It was crazy,” Swinney said. “That’s one of the cool things about our profession is we compete, but we collaborate and always have. It’s not the case in most industries, right. Coke doesn’t sit down with Pepsi at the end of the year and say, ‘Hey, boys, what did you think? Let’s see how this goes.’ But football coaches do that.”

RARE MEETING: Despite being separated by just over 100 miles, this is only the second meeting between Tennessee and Clemson since 1976.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.