Five Turning Points That Decided Tennessee's 27-24 Loss at South Carolina

Tennessee left Columbia with a 27-24 loss to South Carolina on Saturday afternoon, a game the Volunteers had in position to close out late before a collapse in the final minutes handed them their second defeat of the season. The Gamecocks built an early advantage, Tennessee fought back to lead in the second half, and the finish came down to a handful of plays that swung the outcome.

The trouble started almost immediately. South Carolina scored on its opening drive, Tennessee went three-and-out, and a penalty on the punt gave the Gamecocks favorable field position at their own 42. LaNorris Sellers then hit DJ Black for 27 yards on a run-pass option before scrambling 31 yards for a touchdown, putting Tennessee down 14-0 in less than seven minutes. A defense that had been strong at limiting big plays gave up two in a row. Tennessee steadied itself with an 18-play touchdown drive that lasted more than nine minutes, and TJ Metcalf then intercepted a pressured Sellers throw, setting up a short field that DaSaahn Brame finished with a tying touchdown run.

The second half turned on points Tennessee did not score. In the third quarter and into the fourth, the Volunteers twice appeared to have touchdowns that would have built a two-score lead, only to see them erased. The most costly came with about 12 minutes remaining, when George MacIntyre found Braylon Staley for an 18-yard score on third down that was called back for holding on David Sanders. Tennessee settled for a field goal and a seven-point lead instead of an 11-point cushion that would have made a comeback far harder.

What followed in the closing stretch decided the game. Facing fourth-and-1 at the South Carolina 38, Tennessee called timeout with a chance to effectively end it, but MacIntyre did not hand the ball to Brame as intended, had nowhere to go, and was stopped for a turnover on downs. South Carolina tied the game, and even then Tennessee had the ball near its own 38 with 39 seconds left, needing modest yardage for a field-goal try. Dylan Stewart drove Jesse Perry back into MacIntyre and stripped the ball as he threw, and three plays later Malik Orsan made a 48-yard field goal to win it, completing a disastrous final 3:35 for the Vols.