After ‘all the ups and downs,’ Tennessee sixth-year senior caps college career in Orange Bowl

LaTrell Bumphus has felt nearly all of the emotions possible during his six-year college football career with the Tennessee Volunteers.

As a freshman in 2017, Tennessee was at its lowest point in 40 years. The Volunteers went from a preseason top-25 team to winning just four games for the first time since 1977, going 0-8 in Southeastern Conference play and seeing head coach Butch Jones fired with two weeks left in the season.

“It was a bad year that year,” Bumphus said.

Five years later, Bumphus’ Tennessee career is ending on almost as high of a note as he could have imagined. The Volunteers are 10-2 and ranked as the No. 6 team in the country heading into Friday’s Orange Bowl matchup against No. 7 Clemson (11-2). A win at Hard Rock Stadium to close the season would guarantee the Volunteers finish as a top-10 team for the first time since they finished No. 4 overall in 2001.

In between, he has switched positions, played for three coaches and missed significant time over consecutive seasons with a knee injury that helped him gain his sixth year of eligibility.

As Bumphus prepares for his final game, on the biggest stage of his collegiate career, he reflected on his journey with pride — and hopes to cap it with one final milestone moment.

“A lot of times, I’ve just sat there and would think about how far we’ve come since I’ve been here,” Bumphus said. “All the ups and downs we’ve been through and just sticking it out.

“It’s been worth it.”

But the ride didn’t come without its difficulties. Bumphus played sparingly during his first two seasons as a tight end, mostly being used on special teams. Tennessee went a combined 9-15 in those two seasons.

Bumphus transitioned to defensive line before his junior season and had a breakout year, finishing second on the Volunteers with six tackles for loss while playing in 11 games with six starts.

He didn’t get much opportunity to build on his success the next two seasons. He only played in the first five of Tennessee’s 10 games in the shortened 2020 season before sustaining a season-ending knee injury during pregame warmups ahead of Tennessee’s game against Arkansas. He returned in 2021 for a fifth season granted by the NCAA to all student-athletes due to the pandemic but only played four games due to injury and was granted a medical redshirt for a sixth season.

Bumphus has made the most of that extra year. He enters the Orange Bowl with 21 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, one forced fumble, a fumble recovery and three quarterback hurries to help put the Volunteers among the nation’s best this season.

“We’ve been through a lot since I’ve been here,” Bumphus said. “We have played in a lot of big games, so this year has been a blessing to be able to come back and see the bright side of things.”

As one would expect, Bumphus pointed to Tennessee’s last-second, 59-42 win over Alabama — the Volunteers’ first win against the Crimson Tide since 2006, the year before Nick Saban took over as head coach — as the high point of the season. He still vividly remembers Volunteers fans storming the field after kicker Chase McGrath hit the game-winning 40-yard field goal as time expired and sent Neyland Stadium into a frenzy.

“You blink,” Bumphus said, “and everybody was on the field.”

That win gave Tennessee optimism about potentially reaching the College Football Playoff for the first time. Those dreams were dashed when the Volunteers lost two of their final four games — 27-13 to Georgia on Nov. 5 and 63-38 to South Carolina on Nov. 19 — but Tennessee still finds itself playing in a New Years Six bowl.

After six adventurous seasons, Bumphus isn’t taking that for granted.

“It’s very hard to get to this stage,” Bumphus said. “It’s very hard to get to a bowl this prestigious.”

More Tennessee defense notables

▪ The Volunteers will play the Orange Bowl without one of their top defensive players in senior Jeremy Banks, who declared for the NFL Draft on Sunday. Banks ranked third on the team with 53 tackles and also had 4.5 tackles for loss, four pass breakups and eight quarterback hurries this season.

Tennessee will rely on redshirt seniors Juwan Mitchell and Solon Page III, senior Aaron Beasley and freshman Elijah Herring to fill the void.

▪ While Tennessee’s success this season has hinged largely on an offense that leads the nation in points per game (47.3), yards per game (538.1) and yards per play (7.35), the defense as a whole has held its own. The Volunteers rank 13th nationally in tackles for loss per game (7.17) and tied for 14th in turnover margin (plus-9).