Tennessee football finally reasserts its dominance in South Carolina series

You couldn’t have scripted a seemingly more even playing field between Tennessee football and the South Carolina Gamecocks heading into the season. Both were 3-2 with first-year head coaches, and the Vols won by just a field goal last year, which was the difference in wins between the two schools.

However, on Saturday, Rocky Top came in as double-digit favorites, and they walked out with a dominating 45-20 victory. In the process, one of the many issues that have plagued the Vols the past decade finally seems like it’s becoming a thing of the past.

A mark of Tennessee football’s downfall was South Carolina making the series with UT competitive. From 2012 to 2018, every game was decided by one possession or less. However, the Vols have now won three straight in the series.

Now, you can point to South Carolina winning three straight from 2016 to 2018 and the fact that the Vols won three straight before that from 2013 to 2015. The difference, though, has been the dominance for UT in this three-game streak.

Saturday’s win marked the second time in three years the Vols won by at least 20 points. Given all the similarities combined with the amount of attrition the Vols had to deal with in the transfer portal this offseason, you have to say that they finally, once again, look like the better program.

If you’re thinking about the future of UT under Josh Heupel, that’s a huge deal. Everything about the state of Tennessee football is directly connected to how competitive South Carolina has been with the Vols since joining the SEC.

After pulling off a huge upset over UT in 1992, the Vols fired Johnny Majors and named Phillip Fulmer head coach. They won every game in the series by at least two scores from 1993 to 1999, a seven-year period that saw them enjoy six top 10 finishes, two SEC Championships and a national championship.

Then, in 2000, as South Carolina was taking off under Lou Holtz, they made games competitive with UT. That first year, the Vols needed a game-winning drive to beat them 17-14, and it was the start of a four-year run that saw every game decided by one score.

Holtz arrived at South Carolina in 1999, the same year UT’s SEC Championship drought dates back to. Since 2000, the Vols had only beaten South Carolina by more than two scores twice before 2019, in 2004 and in 2009.

When Steve Spurrier arrived in 2005, South Carolina upset the Vols, scoring their first win in the series in 13 years. It’s no coincidence that became the first year the Vols missed out on a bowl game in 17 seasons. The next time they missed out on a bowl game, was also the next time they lost to South Carolina, a 2008 season that saw Fulmer get fired.

In fact, beginning with that 2005 loss, South Carolina has become a bellwhether game. They lost to South Carolina in eight of their nine losing seasons dating back to that year, and they beat South Carolina in six of their seven winning seasons dating back to that point. Well, in reality, they have beaten South Carolina in 18 of their last 19 winning seasons dating back to 1993.

Included in those losing years were the Derek Dooley seasons, from 2010 to 2012. The only two times UT lost back to back games by two scores in the series was 2010 and 2011, when they lost 38-24 and 14-3. South Carolina had become the better program at that point, and it killed a lot of advantages the Vols had.

Beating South Carolina the way the Vols have in recent years, though, shows they are back to owning the series again, and that’s a great sign for them. We wrote last week how, given the Clemson Tigers’ recent struggles, this game was a chance for UT to hit lightning in a bottle and re-establish a recruiting edge in that state.

Having Tiyon Evans, who is from South Carolina, rush for over 100 yards en route to a dominant victory allowed Tennessee football to do just that. If the Vols can also make a case that South Carolina is not on their level, some things may fall back into place with the program.