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Tennessee football Smokey Points: Top 5 Vols performers at South Carolina

By Caleb Calhoun

COLUMBIA, SC - OCTOBER 27: Jarrett Guarantano #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers looks to the sidelines against the South Carolina Gamecocks during their game at Williams-Brice Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SC - OCTOBER 27: Jarrett Guarantano #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers looks to the sidelines against the South Carolina Gamecocks during their game at Williams-Brice Stadium on October 27, 2018 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images /

Tennessee football’s heartbreaking loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks had some standout guys. Here are the top Volunteers performers from Saturday.

It was really the first heartbreaker of Jeremy Pruitt’s career as head coach of the Tennessee football program. The Vols blew a chance at another huge road win on Saturday, surrendering a two-score lead to the South Carolina Gamecocks.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for the loss. However, you have to give credit to lots of guys to for building such a lead against Will Muschamp’s team as they were coming off of a bye week and playing a night game at home.

The Vols nearly overcame that and a couple of missed calls. Numerous players fought their guts out to keep this a game, and despite some real issues facing the team, we have to give those guys credit. That’s what we’re going to do here.

Our Tennessee football Smokey Points for the Vols’ tough loss to South Carolina is, to nobody’s surprise, a bit heavy on offense. What else can you expect when the defense is unable to get a stop the entire second half?

However, there were some defensive plays that were key in the game, so we couldn’t ignore that side of the ball altogether. We just had to focus more on the other side of the ball because of the way the game unfolded.

Many of these winners were based on the toughness and grit they showed, but stats did play a role. We just had to factor in a bit of the eye test as well with such a hard-fought game on the road Saturday night. Some of these players may have been guilty of struggling at times too. We’ll address that.

So let’s take a look at the most important players from Rocky Top on Saturday in Columbia. These are the five key Tennessee football performers who stood out in the Vols’ close loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks.

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