Fueled by a dominant defensive performance, No. 6 Tennessee defeated No. 7 Clemson 31-14 in the Orange Bowl.

It was a bend but don’t break showing for Tennessee’s defense, which only allowed 14 points despite allowing 484 total yards. Senior linebacker Aaron Beasley led Tennessee with 12 total tackles and 4 tackles for loss.

Afterwards, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel and Beasley discussed the unit’s success against a Clemson squad that scored at least 30 points on 10 occasions this season.

Heupel praised his team’s ability to limit Clemson’s running attack. The Tigers averaged 3.6 yards on their 45 carries.

“Obviously there was a ton of pressure, multiple in our fronts. I thought we did a good job against the run game. End of the first half got a little bit tired, they hit some on us, a little bit in the third quarter. But multiple coverages on the back end, and we played better gap integrity,” Heupel said. “We tackled better in space, and we were better in our coverage, not perfect. Obviously the PIs were disappointing on our part, but continued to fight and compete.”

Heupel is also proud of how Tennessee didn’t fold whenever Clemson built offensive momentum.

“Great red zone defense, situational football tonight,” Heupel said. “You’ve got to get points when you’re in the red zone, you need to get sevens, and defensively we found a way to tighten up when they were on the plus side of the 50, and on the field goals they didn’t make many of their attempts, and found a way to get off the field. Created turnovers, too.”

Beasley reiterated his coach’s stance about the grittiness and mental fortitude of Tennessee’s defense.

“When they got in the red zone and stuff? I just feel like — I don’t know, I just feel like we played better when the pressure was on and they were about to score. We didn’t want them to score,” Beasley said. “I feel like that played a part in our schemes and stuff like that.”

Heupel added that the depth of his defense was on full display on Friday night.

“I think our defensive players continue to grow. We had guys that were playing in the middle part of our defense, more reps than they had been during the course of the season,” Heupel said. “It’s a prideful group. We continue to get better. There’s some youth back there.”

Heupel is glad that some of his secondary players in particular gained some valuable experience on the primetime stage.

“The fact that we had more health in the secondary with more opportunities to practice allowed those guys to go out and play in a better way,” Heupel said. “Throughout the course of the season, training camp, last spring, just those guys didn’t — they missed a lot of opportunities to improve, and I thought they got better during the course of this last month after the end of the regular season.”

This is Tennessee’s first 11-win season dating back to 2001 and now the program will aim for back-to-back double-digit victory campaigns for the first time since 1997-98.