What sparked Tennessee’s big win? ‘We honestly got tired of losing to South Carolina’
For someone like Tennessee linebacker Nigel Warrior, the Volunteers’ 41-21 rout of South Carolina on Saturday was more than just a crucial SEC win.
It ended a career’s worth of heartbreak. For him. For his senior classmates.
“We honestly got tired of losing to South Carolina,” Warrior said. “We had to get it out of the mud, as we would say. I think it just came out of all of us seniors.”
The Vols list nine true seniors on their roster, four-year players who never beat the Gamecocks until Saturday at Neyland Stadium. A 24-21 loss as a ranked team in 2016. A 15-9 loss in 2017 that ended on a USC goal line stand. A 27-24 loss in 2018 that ended up keeping UT short of six wins and a bowl game.
It was a 0-3 run that easily could have gone the other way.
Given one final opportunity in this series, the veteran Volunteers made sure to make it count. They didn’t shy away from it in team meetings.
“We’ve been talking about it all week,” said fifth-year senior linebacker Darrell Taylor, who twice sacked Ryan Hilinski. “Actually in our Friday meeting, for the defensive side, our coach made us stand up and talk about what this game meant to us. And we just said it meant a lot to us. It’s been a close game and it always went down to the last few possessions.
“And we went out there and owned it tonight. We went out there and did everything we were supposed to do to make sure we were going to win this game.”
Defensively, the Vols (3-5, 2-3 SEC) held the Gamecocks (3-5, 2-4) scoreless in the second half. Offensively, the Vols, sparked by a two-quarterback system, torched a USC secondary that had three interceptions in an upset of No. 3 Georgia just two weeks earlier.
“They have a really good secondary,” said J.T. Shrout, who combined with Jarrett Guarantano for a season-high 351 passing yards and three touchdowns. “They do some good things schematically. Watching that Georgia tape, I think Georgia wins that game if they don’t turn the ball over.
“So we knew tonight we just had to protect the ball, and if we did that we’d have a chance to win the ballgame.”
Jauan Jennings wasn’t made available to the media afterward, but his play spoke loud enough. A fifth-year senior and brother of former Gamecock women’s basketball player Alexis, Jennings made seven catches for 174 yards and two scores.
He played four games against his sister’s alma mater, totaling 14 receptions for 259 yards and four TDs. The last performance was most memorable.
“He went crazy,” Taylor said. “The man had a day.”
In a winning effort over USC. Finally.
“It’s really gratifying,” Taylor said.
