Clemson night at the Super Bowl gives Anchrum a ring

Anchrum contributed to the team on the practice field this season. (Photo: Kirby Lee / USATODAY)

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Feb 14 08:00:05 GMT-04:00 2022

The 2021 football season ends just in time for us to take a few weeks off before the start of 2022 spring practice. And there was a definite Clemson twist to Sunday’s proceedings.

Tremayne Anchrum, Jr., wins a Super Bowl ring. With Anchrum's championship this year, Clemson has now produced 32 different members of Super Bowl championship active rosters that have totaled a combined 40 Super Bowl rings.

After playing in 12 games as a rookie, Anchrum did not see any game action in 2021 after beginning the season on injured reserve following a preseason ankle injury. He also spent a brief time on the COVID list in December.

Anchrum played in 55 career games with 37 career starts at Clemson from 2016-19, helping Clemson to three national championship berths and two national titles. He started each of his final 30 games at Clemson over his final two seasons, helping guide the Tigers to a 29-1 record in those games. He was a two-time All-ACC honoree and finished his career as one of only 23 players in Clemson history to play at least 2,500 career snaps from scrimmage.

With Anchrum's victory, at least one Clemson player has been on the roster of the Super Bowl champions in each of the last four years.

Tee Higgins grabbed two touchdowns and DJ Reader had a sack for the Bengals in a losing effort, but the line of the night comes from former Clemson SID Tim Bourret, who said that Reader becomes the first former Clemson baseball player to record a sack in Super Bowl history.

Though the effort came in a Bengals loss, Higgins was one of the game's standout performers. Higgins scored the Bengals’ first touchdown of the contest on a six-yard touchdown pass from running back Joe Mixon. He became the second Clemson player to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl, joining William Perry, who scored on a one-yard touchdown run in Super Bowl XX to conclude the 1985 NFL season.

Higgins later added a 75-yard touchdown reception early in the third quarter. It represented the longest reception in a Super Bowl since Carolina’s Muhsin Muhammad scored on an 85-yard touchdown reception in Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Higgins finished the game with four receptions for 100 yards, recording the first 100-yard receiving performance in a Super Bowl by a Clemson product and surpassing Sammy Watkins’ 98 yards in Super Bowl LIV for the Clemson record. Higgins’ performance was the 51st 100-yard receiving effort in the Super Bowl’s 56-game history, and his two touchdowns marked only the 18th multi-touchdown receiving performance in Super Bowl annals.

Reader registered his sack in the third quarter. It was the second postseason sack of his career and his first since the Wild Card Round to conclude the 2016 season.

In watching Rams head coach Sean McVay on the podium after the game, NBC posted the graphic that McVay is the youngest head coach to ever a Super Bowl. That reminded me of a message I received this week from yet another disgruntled fan, who was telling that new defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin is “too young to be a defensive coordinator at this level.”

Goodwin is actually four days shy of being 13 months older than McVay.

Champ pic.twitter.com/BvtslxyGre
— Tremayne Anchrum jr. (@TremayneAnchrum) February 14, 2022

Make room for Tee, Fridge.

Tee becomes the second Clemson player to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl all-time, joining William Perry. https://t.co/pZvnpZGuw9
— Ross Taylor (@ClemsonFBRoss) February 14, 2022