Tennessee football 5 takeaways: Another hard-fought loss for the Vols

Yet another hard-fought loss for the Vols in the annual rivalry. Tennessee falls to the Gamecocks 27-24. Here are five takeaways from the game.

The Tennessee football teams kept the losing trend to a Will Muschamp team going with a three-point loss. The with the loss, the Vols fall to 3-5 on the season. You could argue the game should have gone in the Vols favor considering they played well overall.

Soon and very soon these games are going to fall the other way. A couple of horrible calls went against the Vols, but they also hurt themselves with a couple of silly penalties.

Here are five takeaways from the embarrassing loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks.

1. The defense showed signs of being ELITE. Well, sometimes.

The drive right before the half South Carolina went fact and the Vols looked dazed and confused all drive long. Not sure why Pruitt didn’t decide to take a timeout to slow the Gamecocks down and get the defense organized.

Deebo Samuel made one of the best catches of the year right before the half. A tad bit overthrown to the corner of the end zone, Samuel went up with one hand a came down with a spectacular grab.

The second half was a different story. South Carolina decided to speed the game up and air it out. Who knew that was going to work so well. Oh wait, we all knew that. However, as bad as the defense played in the second half, there was a horrible defensive pass interference call on Baylen Buchanan that ended up closing Tennessee.

2. Jauan Jennings gonna Jauan Jennings

You love the passion from the receiver. However, you can’t score a touchdown and then get an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. It ended up giving the Gamecocks good field position to end the first half. That ended up being the difference in the three-point loss.

But, what do you really can? Jennings played well, and you take his effort every single game. Moving forward, he has to be smarter and not get that penalty is such a tight game.

3. DL lack of depth = Got GASHED

This is starting to become a trend. The defensive line plays well early. And, then the game continues to move along, and the lack of depth starts to take its toll. Luckily for Vol fans, Jeremy Pruitt and coaching staff are recruiting players to help in that department.

4. Jarrett Guarantano played big again

Sure he missed a couple of throws, but the receivers, especially Josh Palmer missed a few balls that hit them right in the hands. I will be fair and say Guarantano has to work on his pocket awareness. But, the kid is tough, probably the toughest quarterback in the SEC.

He set a career-high in completions with 27. He finished the game 27-of-39 for 207 passing yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions.

5. No doubt the Vols played hard. But the OL still stinks

Let’s throw the Alabama game out the window. Let’s pretend it didn’t even happen. This game and the one against Auburn, the Vols have looked like a legit football team. However, it does feel like this was a gut punch and a loss of an opportunity.

Put simply, if the offensive line was better, this team is good enough to win eight games without a doubt. Moving forward the Vols have a chance to win out, but it won’t be easy. All and all it was a hard fought game. Tennessee is getting better, but they aren’t there yet. At least not yet.