Gamecocks roughed up on Rocky Top: First-half hole versus Vols too much to overcome
South Carolina wasn’t just tossed aside in Saturday’s game in Knoxville. USC marched up to Rocky Top and was sent spiraling off the mountainside by a Tennessee offense that left orange- and white-checkered tread marks all over the USC defense in the first half of the Gamecocks’ 45-20 loss.
“Not the start we wanted,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “That first quarter went as bad as it could’ve gone.”
Saturday’s opening 30 minutes weren’t just a wreck. South Carolina (3-3, 0-3 SEC) spun out of control, flipped over and crashed into a telephone pole all at once.
Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker, who supplanted Joe Milton under center two weeks into the season, dipped, darted and dived around South Carolina’s defense with reckless abandon. The Virginia Tech transfer carried the Vols to a 38-point first half that included four scoring drives of five plays or less. Hooker finished his day 17 of 23 for 225 yards and three touchdowns.
That Tennessee (4-2, 2-1 SEC) moved with the pace and precision of a cream orange Ferrari came to little surprise. Vols first-year head coach Josh Heupel guided Central Florida to finishes of Nos. 2, 2 and 5 nationally in total offense between 2018 and 2020.
Beamer, too, was asked all week how the Gamecocks might slow the Vols’ onslaught of offense. Tennessee’s 62-point outburst last week at Missouri was further proof of concept.
Saturday, though, a South Carolina defense that had surrendered just 308 yards per game and ranked in the top half of the Southeastern Conference in total defense gave little more resistance than a plastic bag in a tornado over the first 30 minutes.
“They were going tempo, so you’ve got to get lined up, get your cleats in the dirt and see what’s in front of you,” safety Jaylan Foster said. “We didn’t do that in the first half.”
While Tennessee’s offense moved like wildfire across the turf at Neyland Stadium early on, it was puzzling South Carolina play-calling that blew open Saturday’s contest.
Trailing 14-0 with just over two minutes remaining in the first quarter, the Gamecocks dialed up a pitch to defensive end Jordan Burch on the Tennessee 6-yard line. Burch scampered to his left and lofted a pass toward triple-covered tight end Nick Muse.
Tennessee safety Jaylen McCollough promptly slipped beneath the underthrown pass and picked it off in the end zone. Five plays later, Hooker scampered 11 yards for a back-breaking, early score.
“We were running the ball well,” Beamer conceded after the game in reference to Burch’s interception. “Hindsight being 20/20, you just continue running the ball and you hammer it in and make it a 14-7 game, had we scored the touchdown.”
With Saturday’s flawed first half behind it, South Carolina offered brief glimpses of life on an otherwise forgetful day when running back Kevin Harris rumbled and stumbled into the end zone for his first two touchdowns of the year — the latter of which pulled the Gamecocks within three scores.
Sandwiched between Harris’ touchdowns, Beamer followed up the early goal line trickeration when punter Kai Kroeger slung a pass to Payton Mangrum on a third-quarter fake punt that ended with a 44-yard touchdown.
“We may need to look into getting him into (the quarterback room) or getting him a package,” quarterback Luke Doty quipped of Kroeger, who played QB in high school. “He did a hell of a job today.”
The Gamecocks defense, too, clamped down. Tennessee was held scoreless for the first 25 minutes minutes of the second half and recorded just 108 yards of offense over the final two frames.
But with an Everest-esque cliff to climb after Saturday’s stagnant start, South Carolina’s listless first half sank the Gamecocks just a long toss of the football away from the banks of the Tennessee River.
First down
At 3-3, South Carolina’s postseason aspirations aren’t quite kaput. But the loss to a UT squad that’s trending upward in the SEC East leaves the Gamecocks a steeper mountain to climb than the one they were catapulted off of in Saturday’s first half.
USC closes its season with No. 18 Auburn, No. 20 Florida, Texas A&M and Clemson. The Gamecocks are a combined 1-9 against those foes since 2018.
Key numbers
minus-200: Jordan Burch’s quarterback rating after his first quarter interception
2 — The number of passing completions in punter Kai Kroeger’s South Carolina career
Next South Carolina football game
Who: South Carolina vs. Vanderbilt
When: 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16
Where: Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia
TV: SEC Network
USC vs UT: How they scored
First Quarter
TENN—Hyatt 3 pass from Hooker (McGrath kick), 9:18.
TENN—Payton 39 pass from Hooker (McGrath kick), 6:46.
TENN—Hooker 11 run (McGrath kick), :58.
TENN—V.Jones 21 pass from Hooker (McGrath kick), :12.
Second Quarter
TENN—Evans 45 run (McGrath kick), 5:40.
USC—Ke.Harris 6 run (P.White kick), 2:04.
TENN—FG McGrath 25, :00.
Third Quarter
SCAR—Mangrum 44 pass from Kroeger (P.White kick), 7:15.
Fourth Quarter
SCAR—Ke.Harris 1 run (pass failed), 12:18.
TENN—Whitehead 2 run (McGrath kick), 4:45.
Individual stats
RUSHING—South Carolina, Harris 16-61, McDowell 8-41, Doty 9-29, Lloyd 6-24, (Team) 1-0, Joyner 1-(minus 1). Tennessee, Evans 16-119, Hooker 20-66, Whitehead 10-41, V.Jones 1-15, Pierce 2-6.
PASSING—South Carolina, Doty 18-30-0-164, Kroeger 1-1-0-44, Vann 1-1-0-6, (Team) 1-1-0-3, Brooks 0-1-1-0. Tennessee, Hooker 17-23-0-225.
RECEIVING—South Carolina, Bell 4-43, Joyner 4-40, Brooks 3-26, Vann 3-12, Muse 2-24, Harris 2-12, Mangrum 1-44, Kenion 1-11, McDowell 1-5. Tennessee, V.Jones 6-103, Tillman 6-59, Hyatt 3-21, Payton 1-39, Fant 1-3.
MISSED FIELD GOALS—None.
This story was originally published October 9, 2021 at 3:28 PM.
