Tennessee football: South Carolina resurgence complicates Vols’ bowl path
Beating the Mississippi State Bulldogs reopened Tennessee football’s path to a bowl game. The South Carolina Gamecocks complicate that for the Volunteers.
Ahead of the season, Tennessee football appeared to have a better shot at beating the South Carolina Gamecocks than the Mississippi State Bulldogs. After all, MSU was entering Joe Moorhead’s second season and would be playing the Vols after a bye, while S.C. was reeling under Will Muschamp. Both were scheduled in Knoxville.
After the Vols stumbled to 0-2 with bad losses to the Georgia State Panthers and BYU Cougars right out of the gate, though, expectations were rest. A 1-4 start with their only win coming against the Chattanooga Mocs meant that the Vols would have to beat both teams in order to reach a bowl game.
But with South Carolina down to its third string quarterback and having lost its opener to the North Carolina Tar Heels, they looked even more like the easier win. That all changed for Tennessee football on Saturday, though.
By beating Mississippi State 20-10 in an upset, the Vols cleared their first hurdle to get to six wins after that rough start. They now have two. At 2-4 and 1-2 in the league, this team is clearly improved, so the UAB Blazers and Vanderbilt Commodores at home should be wins as well during the second half of the season.
With that getting them to four wins, the path to a bowl was beating South Carolina at home and finding a way to beat either the Kentucky Wildcats or Missouri Tigers on the road, Kentucky being the most likely option. This week’s game against the Alabama Crimson Tide was always going to be a loss. But South Carolina looks much tougher now.
Five takeaways from Vols' win vs. Mississippi St.. light. Related Story
While the Vols were busy upsetting Mississippi State, South Carolina managed to upset the Georgia Bulldogs on the road in double-overtime, one week after UGA beat UT 43-14 in Neyland Stadium. So they look like a very tough out in Knoxville.
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Make no mistake, in order to reach a bowl, Tennessee football almost has to beat South Carolina. Beating Mizzou on the road is already near impossible, and beating both Mizzou and Kentucky on the road is even more impossible than that. But they would have to do such a thing if they lost to the Gamecocks again.
Still, S.C.’s win over Georgia has given them newfound life. And although they cashed in on a series of Georgia mistakes, including four turnovers and a missed chip shot field goal in overtime while they had no turnovers, making that a game still forces us to re-evaluate Muschamp’s team.
Are the Vols capable of doing something Georgia couldn’t do? That sounds harder when you say it like that. But we maybe should point out that in addition to South Carolina looking better, UT as a program is 0-7 against Muschamp, including 0-3 against him with the Gamecocks. Three separate Vol head coaches have lost to the guy.
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All of this means that Tennessee football still should not be talking about a bowl berth. The Vols will be falling to 2-5 this Saturday with a loss to Alabama. Before postseason play even begins, they have to figure out a way to overcome what their up against with South Carolina the next week. Otherwise, Jeremy Pruitt will have a disappointing second season.