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Tennessee football: Five South Carolina Gamecocks to watch

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - OCTOBER 26: Ernest Jones #53 of the South Carolina Gamecocks celebrates stopping the Tennessee Volunteers from scoring a touchdown during the second quarter at Neyland Stadium on October 26, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - OCTOBER 26: Ernest Jones #53 of the South Carolina Gamecocks celebrates stopping the Tennessee Volunteers from scoring a touchdown during the second quarter at Neyland Stadium on October 26, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images
Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images /

These are five USC players the Tennessee football Volunteers have to watch for.

Heading into this year, Tennessee football returns a ton of talent but has to replace a few key players who played major roles. The South Carolina Gamecocks, however, have to replace a ton of key players, as they’ll have a new leading rusher, new leading receiver and new quarterback.

However, at the same time, Will Muschamp’s team has a ton of standout performers from last year returning on defense, meaning that despite their 4-8 record, South Carolina has a few more known commodities than the Vols entering this year. It could also make Jeremy Pruitt’s hands full in the opener.

If Tennessee football is going to pull off the win in Columbia, S.C. Saturday, it will have to deal with all that experience on defense and figure out which offensive players will become the new stars. That’s a difficult task.

Well, as we get set to look at the key players on South Carolina for the Vols to keep an eye on, that’s what we’ll be trying to project. There are actually eight to 10 guys who could make an impact, especially since it’s early in the season and depth issues haven’t shown yet.

Narrowing it down to five was tough, but we looked at players who had an impact against the Vols in the past and players who are in the perfect situation to thrive this year. UT not being prepared for everything South Carolina will throw at it could be a problem.

In order to be prepared, it’s crucial that the Vols take all of these players into account. These guys not only could wreak havoc on UT, they could exploit the weaknesses we know about Rocky Top entering the season. But who fits this criteria? Let’s break that down now. These are the five Gamecocks to watch out for when Tennessee football visits South Carolina Saturday.

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