After he caught his second touchdown pass of the night in Clemson’s win over Virginia in the ACC Championship game, Tee Higgins laid in the end zone for a brief second and looked to the sky.
“I just enjoyed that one the most, simply because I knew I was close to getting the record, but I never knew if I was going to go back in the game or not, so I just enjoyed it,” the Tigers’ star wide receiver said.
Higgins was not the only one enjoying the touchdown that night at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
“I’ll guarantee you his mama was soaking it up. She was hooting and hollering and going crazy in the stands, I guarantee you,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “She was having a ball up there with his sister, I’m sure.”
The junior wide receiver later caught his third touchdown of the night, an 11-yard pass from quarterback Trevor Lawrence midway through the third quarter. It was not only his 13th touchdown reception of the season, but it was his 27th of his career, tying him with Clemson greats Deandre Hopkins and Sammy Watkins with the most touchdown receptions in school history.
“It’s a great accomplishment just to be up there with those top two guys, and for our receiving room, we just go out there and just play,” Higgins said. “We don’t worry about the stats. One guy is doing good, we’re going to congratulate him and just keep going.”
The Tigers (13-0) have been congratulating Higgins a lot lately. In the last three games, the 6-4, 215-pound receiver has caught 16 passes for 347 yards and eight touchdowns. Higgins has hauled in at least one touchdown in each of the last five games.
“Every week, he plays crazy, pretty much. I think, like we do as a team, championship phase is when we play at our best. I think that just shows with Tee,” Lawrence said.
In Clemson’s 62-17 win over Virginia on Dec. 7, Higgins had a career night. He caught a career-high nine passes for 182 yards, to go along with his three touchdowns. His 182 yards and three scores were both ACC Championship Game records.
And though he caught three touchdown passes from Lawrence, his best was not even a touchdown. It was a diving stab along the sideline that had everyone in the stadium wondering how he caught it.
“I was watching it. I thought he had it, but I was not sure because I put it out there pretty far. That was a great catch,” Lawrence said.
Higgins thought so, too.
“We definitely emphasize it in practice. We practice it almost every day,” Higgins said. “Coach Swinney said you touch, you catch, and I touch a lot, so I had to catch it. Trevor threw the ball, he kind of threw it out of bounds a lot more than I thought he would, and I just kept a foot in.”
Higgins is averaging a remarkable 20.8 yards per catch, which leads the Tigers. He also has a team best 1,082 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns.
Higgins has come a long way since his freshman season at Clemson. The Tennessee native was more of a basketball player when he got to Clemson. He had a great high school career where he was a jump-ball guy. He would run down the field and they would throw it to him.
“He was Bony Maroney. He was about — he was probably 180 pounds, maybe, when he got here, and now he’s about close to 215. So, he’s just worked his tail off and developed physically, had a lot to learn from a technical standpoint about the position and things like that. But he’s just put the work in,” Swinney said. “He is such a joy to coach, and I was just telling the guys in our meeting in there, you know, our best players, Tee, Travis (Etienne), the guys like that, (James) Skalski, Trevor, they’re the most humble, selfless kids you’ve ever been — you can’t even believe it. They’re just so humble – they’re humble superstars, if you will. They don’t act like they’re better than anybody. They just put the work in.
“And whether Tee gets one ball or 10, he doesn’t care. These guys are selfless, and they’re happy for their teammates, and they set an example for everyone, and when your best player has such high character and humility and great respect for how you have to work to prepare week in and week out and then they set that example, I mean, it just makes my job easy.”
Higgins and the third-ranked Tigers will try to soak up some more moments when they play No. 2 Ohio State on Dec. 28 in the Fiesta Bowl as part of the College Football Playoff.
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