Tennessee football: 5 big advantages Vols have over South Carolina

4. South Carolina’s running game is a problem.

We have been talking bad about Tennessee football’s running game all year. But South Carolina’s isn’t much better. The Gamecocks are third from the bottom in rushing yards per game this year, and even though sacks are factored into rushing stats, they are in the top half of the conference at No. 6 in sacks allowed. So that’s not skewing the rushing stats.

As a result, it’s very clear that the Gamecocks are simply bad at running the football. Now, to be fair, they played the two teams with the best rush defense in the SEC, the Texas A&M Aggies and Kentucky Wildcats. And the Missouri Tigers have the sixth best rush defense in the league.

But then they faced the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers and the Vanderbilt Commodores. Both are out of the Top 100 in rush defense. They were only slightly better than what Coastal Carolina’s average opponents do to them on the ground, and that involves Group of Five teams.

Meanwhile, the Georgia Bulldogs are just an average rush defense this year. So the Gamecocks have had an average schedule against rush defenses, and it’s good for second to last in the SEC. Meanwhile, although the Vols have had issues stopping the run in the second half, they have actually been pretty good against it in the first half.

And they’ve faced three teams in the top half of the conference in yards per carry. Simply put, the Vols have the personnel to stop the run, and doing that early would be a huge deal for them. They took advantage of the Auburn Tigers’ weak rushing attack two weeks ago. South Carolina being just as bad is a great advantage.