This is the week for Gamecock fans to be looking for an upset as South Carolina travels to Neyland Stadium to take on Tennessee.
The Volunteers have been a thorn in the side of the Gamecocks for several years now and have won the last two games in the matchup.
Last season, quarterback Joshua Dobbs and the Tennessee offense overshadowed the greatest performance by a Gamecock wide receiver in school history.
In that game, junior receiver Pharoh Cooper accounted for four total touchdowns, including a 30-yard throw and an 11-yard run. Then a sophomore, Cooper recorded a school record 233 receiving yards on a career-high 11 receptions including a career-long 85-yard touchdown reception. However, South Carolina blew its third double-digit fourth quarter lead and lost a shootout 45-42.
The year before, the Volunteers held the Gamecocks scoreless in the fourth quarter and hit a 19-yard field goal as time expired to thwart the Gamecocks’ run at an SEC Championship appearance.
In 2012, a second quarter hit to the knee ended Gamecock great Marcus Lattimore’s football career.
The Volunteers have not been kind to the Gamecocks in recent years.
Interim head coach Shawn Elliott will look to change things as he and quarterback Perry Orth lead the 3-5 Gamecocks into Knoxville to face an erratic 4-4 Tennessee team.
Many experts picked the Volunteers to win the SEC East in the preseason, but Tennessee and head coach Butch Jones have once again been inconsistent.
A dynamic recruiter, Jones has put Tennessee in a position to win every game this season, but much like last year’s Gamecocks, a series of late-game collapses have doomed the Volunteers.
In Tennessee’s four wins, including victories over SEC foes Georgia and Kentucky, the Volunteers have outscored opponents 204-92, an average margin of victory of 28 points. In their four losses, however, the Volunteers have been outscored by a total of just 17 points.
The Volunteers led Oklahoma by two touchdowns with nine minutes left of a 31-24, double overtime loss on Sept. 12. Two weeks later, Tennessee lost a game in which it led No. 10 Florida by 13 with five minutes left. The Volunteers outplayed No. 3 Alabama before surrendering a late touchdown to lose by five.
Tennessee has talent, and lots of it. The team has just not quite put all the pieces together yet.
Things may be coming together for the Volunteers though, as the team dominated in all phases of a 52-21 win over Kentucky last weekend. Tennessee’s rushing attack generated 249 yards on the ground, though no one player ran for more than 70.
Jones has seemingly opened up the playbook for his 6-foot-3, 207-pound quarterback and Dobbs has responded with arguably his three best games of the season. A dual-threat, Dobbs has a 6:2 touchdown-to-interception ratio in his last three games and has added a team-leading four scores on the ground dating back to the victory over Georgia.
The former four-star prospect will challenge a struggling Gamecock secondary on Saturday. The South Carolina coaches made several changes on the defensive side of the ball this week in an effort to improve their 95th-ranked unit.
Sophomore D.J. Smith will make his first start of the season in place of redshirt junior safety Jordan Diggs. Smith has recorded 16 tackles in limited action this season, but possesses a hard-hitting attitude that the Gamecocks have lacked in their secondary in recent years.
Freshman defensive end Boosie Whitlow has also made his way into the starting lineup and will start opposite of junior Marquavius Lewis. Finally, defensive tackle Dante Sawyer will start again over sophomore Taylor Stallworth this week after backing him up in the past two games.
At 4 p.m. on Saturday, the Gamecocks will try to put their past behind them and pull off the upset on the road. The game will be televised on SEC Network and will feature Tom Hart and Andre Ware on the call.