South Carolina-Tennessee report card: Gamecocks needed this one
The South Carolina football team couldn’t hold off the Tennessee Volunteers and blew a halftime lead in a 41-21 loss. After that performance, it’s time to grade the Gamecocks.
Quarterbacks: Ryan Hilinski had a tough day, taking hits, not being helped by drops and needing more than 50 passes to get to nearly 320 yards. His consistency was lacking in spots. Grade: C-
Running backs: The day was uneventful when the Gamecocks simply needed more. Tavien Feaster wasn’t bad, but he only had 80 yards, no runs longer than 13 yards. Mon Denson didn’t add much. Grade: D
Wide receivers: There were drops that knocked the offense off schedule. Shi Smith was pretty productive and Bryan Edwards was solid, with one unreal catch. Josh Vann has a couple nice plays, but it wasn’t enough overall. Grade: B-
Tight ends: The blocking overall had issues, including a miss from Kyle Markway that got Hilinski leveled. There were a few nice catches, but also some drops. Grade: C-
Offensive line: This was not the finest day for USC. The run game didn’t produce all that much and Hilinski was often under pressure. There were enough solid play to avoid being awful, but it wasn’t ideal. Grade: D+
Defensive line: A unit that had formed the backbone of the Gamecocks resurgence was missing a bit. They held up well enough against the run. But max protect schemes stifled the pass rush. Grade: D+
Linebacker: There wasn’t anything particularly bad here, but also not much upside in terms of big plays. They were a little hit and miss in terms of underneath coverage and the tackling was solid. Grade: C-
Secondary: This was a bit of a disaster. Safety J.T. Ibe got knocked around. Israel Mukuamu got out of position on a pair of deep post routes. There were breakdowns galore. Grade: F
Special teams: They gave up 14 points. That’s game-swinging. That’s a disaster for a unit that had been quite good all year. Grade: F
Coaching: Several Gamecocks seniors said the team let up coming out of halftime. That is somewhat damning of the staff considering the magnitude of the game, even if the play-calling wasn’t particularly bad. Grade: F
Overall: This was a game South Carolina needed to maintain its best path to a bowl. It didn’t fall flat on its face, avoiding an F, but a 24-0 second half in a must-win game is pretty rough all the way round. Grade: D-
