“Good luck finishing them off in the fourth quarter.” I wrote it in this space after Alabama and said it again on my YouTube clip before the game. Turns out South Carolina never had to. Tennessee finished itself off.
The sharps had South Carolina. The line flipped five points during the week, from Tennessee -2.5 to +2.5, because the money figured the Vols were worn out after Alabama. The wannabe media elite, the national know-it-alls who fly over Knoxville on the way to somewhere they think matters, lined up for the Gamecocks. Don’t ask questions, trust the experts. Same crowd, same pick as against Alabama. Tennessee won that one 26-10.
I said Tennessee would go to Columbia and handle business. For most of the night, it did. So much for tired. The Vols ran DeSean Bishop down South Carolina’s throat, 32 carries for 120 yards, and ran for 184 as a team. Nobody had run for 150 on this defense all year. We did. This is not a pass-blocking line, and nobody should pretend it is. It’s a run-blocking line, and Saturday it moved people.
The defense did its part too. After two quick South Carolina touchdowns, Tennessee adjusted, sacked LaNorris Sellers five times and gave up one field goal until the final 3:35.
It would have been so satisfying to shove this one in the experts’ faces. Instead, Tennessee bailed them out.
The flags
This should have been a double-digit win. DaSaahn Brame’s 35-yard touchdown: illegal shift. George MacIntyre’s 48-yard touchdown to Mike Matthews: illegal man downfield. Braylon Staley’s 18-yard touchdown: holding. Even a Bishop fourth-down conversion got wiped out by a false start.
Twelve penalties for 90 yards, and South Carolina didn’t have to do a thing to earn them. That’s attention to details, it’s focus, and it’s coaching. And it’s not new. Before the Texas game, I pointed out that Tennessee ranked 119th in the country in penalty yards. Even the defense got in on it Saturday. Xavier Gilliam jumped offside on a play where Tennessee intercepted Sellers. Pick gone. The best defensive lineman in the country doesn’t need a head start.
The last 3:35
Tennessee led 24-17 and faced a fourth-and-1. You could argue for punting and trusting the defense. But Tennessee had run on South Carolina all night, and I’d have gone for it too. I hate the execution. Replay shows Brame would have gotten the first down. But the handoff never happened.
Give South Carolina its due. Sellers ran for 96 yards, had a hand in three touchdowns and made the plays that mattered. Their kicker hit from 48 to win it. In those last three minutes, the Gamecocks made plays and Tennessee didn’t.
After Alabama, I wrote that one of these teams can’t hold a fourth-quarter lead and the other one finishes you off. I had it right for three and a half quarters. Then they switched jerseys.
A holding flag killed Tennessee’s last real drive, and South Carolina got away with a personal foul on the winning one. You can argue both calls, and you’d be right. But you don’t get to blame the last two calls when you threw away three touchdowns before them. It ended with a handoff that never happened and a dropback that got stripped.
The math
Here’s the good news: 6-2 is still alive. Five ranked teams lost to unranked teams Saturday. Alabama, LSU and Tennessee are all 6-2, with four more SEC teams at 5-2. By December, this league could be full of two-loss teams fighting over seven at-large spots.
Every crazy scenario starts the same way: Tennessee wins out. Kentucky, at Texas A&M, LSU, at Vanderbilt. Win all four and Tennessee is 10-2 with wins over Alabama, Kentucky and LSU. Lose one more and you’re asking the same national crowd that picked against you to do you a favor. Good luck with that. The prediction markets already cut Tennessee’s playoff chances from 43% to 19% overnight. (Same folks who had South Carolina, I assume.)
The fix
Win out starts Nov. 7 at Neyland, against the one team built to punish exactly what Tennessee did Saturday. Kentucky is 7-1, alone in first in the SEC, with the league’s fewest penalties and best turnover margin. The Wildcats don’t beat themselves. They wait for you to do it.
You can’t coach speed or size in two weeks. You can coach lining up right and not moving early. Tennessee has the better roster, and Neyland has been a tremendous home field this season. Hand Kentucky three free touchdowns, though, and none of that matters.
The early lean: Tennessee. No number yet. But I’m not waiting on the sharps to tell me what to think. They needed Tennessee’s help just to be right this week.
Clean it up, and Tennessee wins out and makes every expert who wrote this team off look foolish. Don’t, and they get to be right twice. Nobody’s finishing this team off but this team.
2026 record: College picks 9-7-1 (including the Vols) · Vols against the spread 3-2
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Jeremy Durham is a sports columnist for TriStar Daily and the founder of Five and a Fade. He is no longer accepting flowers for the Alabama pick.
