Week 9: South Carolina at Tennessee

As bad as it seems at South Carolina and Tennessee after each team’s respective debacle last weekend, both clubs are still very much in the hunt for the SEC East title. South Carolina is in a three-way tie for first place at 3–2 while the Vols are a half-game back at 2–2.

These two teams, however, won’t remain in the race much longer unless they start playing better. South Carolina has regressed offensively in recent weeks. The Gamecocks were shut out in the second half in a win at North Carolina two weeks ago and were limited to 282 yards and six points in the loss at home to Vanderbilt. Chris Smelley got the start once again last week, but senior Blake Mitchell also saw significant action. Neither played particularly well, and Steve Spurrier did not indicate at his Monday press conference who would get the start.

Spurrier did, however, express his dissatisfaction with his team’s play against Vanderbilt.

“Looking back it was right there near the top of some of the poorest offensive games that I’ve coached,” he said. “It just didn’t appear that our guys (cared) to tell the truth. They were jumping off-sides, dropping the ball here and there and couldn’t hit guys that were open. It was embarrassing for our offense, and I coach the offense.”

While Spurrier was bemoaning his team’s poor play on offense, the problem at Tennessee last week was defense. The Vols were torched for 510 yards and 41 points in a lopsided loss at Alabama. They had no answer for the Tide’s passing attack; John Parker Wilson completed 32-of-46 passes for 363 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Alabama became the third team this season to score at least 40 points against Tennessee.

Tennessee did have success running the football — Arian Foster averaged 7.0 yards on his 13 carries for 91 yards — but once again the Vols did not stick with the ground attack. Tennessee attempted only 19 running plays, compared to 38 passing attempts. And it’s not because the game got out of hand; the Vols were down by only 13 points heading into the fourth quarter. In the Vols’ four wins, they are averaging 40.5 rushing attempts per game; in their three losses, that number dips to 22.3.

Tennessee must recommit to the running game this week. The team is too talented at the running back position to rank eighth in the SEC and 68th in the nation with 147.6 rushing yards per game.

South Carolina, too, did not run the ball enough last week. Mike Davis and Cory Boyd combined for only 11 carries; that’s far too few for such a talented pair of tailbacks.

Steve Spurrier went 8–4 vs. Tennessee in his 12 years at Florida and is 1–1 in his two seasons at South Carolina. The Gamecocks stole a win in Knoxville two years ago but dropped a 31–24 decision in Columbia last season. Dating back to his final two years at Florida (2000 and ’01), the road team has won four straight in the Spurrier vs. UT showdowns.

Will it continue? The guess here is no. Tennessee did not play well at all last weekend, but the Vols had won their previous two games in impressive fashion. Playing at home will be the difference.

Tennessee by 5