The Tennessee Vols missed out on a great opportunity get a valuable win Saturday night, losing to the South Carolina Gamecocks 27-24 in Columbia. They fall to 3-5 overall and 1-4 in conference and still need to get three more wins (with four more opportunities) to become bowl-eligible.
Despite the result, it does still appear that this Volunteers team under Jeremy Pruitt is becoming the football team we all want it to be. Saturday night they were tough and (mostly) smart, and did some really nice things throughout the game.
Tennessee had 23 first downs to South Carolina’s 19, and they converted 11 of 16 third-down attempts. The rushing attack got back on track, as the team ran for 144 yards behind 62 from Tim Jordan and 54 from Ty Chandler. And Jeremy Banks’ move from running back to linebacker this week gave some playing time to Carlin Fils-aime, who carried the ball three times for 20 yards and a touchdown on a really well-designed play call by Tyson Helton.
Quarterback Jarrett Guarantano was again tough, accurate, and safe, going 27-of-39 for 207 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions. Marquez Callaway led the receivers with 9 catches for 86 yards, and both Jauan Jennings and tight end Eli Wolf had receiving touchdowns.
On defense, Nigel Warrior was all over the place, leading the team with 9 tackles, and Shy Tuttle had an interception off a tipped ball and a blocked extra point.
Mostly, the team played like you wanted to see them play, and they had a real chance to win on the road because of it.
However, all of the effort and productivity was for naught, and this time it wasn’t undone by too many turnovers, but by too many penalties.
While the Gamecocks had only 2 penalties for 9 yards, Tennessee had 9 for 75. Two of Tennessee’s were costly unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, and five were false starts on the offensive line. Although three of the false starts came during drives that ultimately resulted in Tennessee touchdowns anyway, two of them were late in the game that resulted in turning the ball over on downs precisely when the Vols absolutely needed points.
This was a 50/50 game that turned out about what we expected. The failure to win it really shouldn’t impact our expectations going forward, except for the lost opportunity that another passing week represents.
Tennessee has Charlotte next and then has what appear to be three more tossups to close out Pruitt’s first season. Assuming the Vols get Charlotte, they still only need two of the final three games against Kentucky, Missouri, and Vanderbilt to earn a bowl game and the extra practice that comes with it.
