Tennessee Falls Behind Early at South Carolina Before Trying to Rally

No. 11 Tennessee got off to a difficult start on the road at South Carolina, falling behind early in a Saturday afternoon game at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. The Volunteers entered with a 6-1 overall record and a 3-1 mark in the SEC, trying to continue a College Football Playoff push, while South Carolina came in 3-3 overall and 1-3 in league play following a bye week.

South Carolina received the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards to score first, with LaNorris Sellers throwing an 18-yard touchdown pass to Mazeo Bennett. After Tennessee went three-and-out, the Gamecocks struck again quickly, as Sellers threw for 27 yards and then ran 31 yards for a touchdown on the next play, putting the Vols down two touchdowns in the first quarter before Tennessee got on the board to make it 14-7 in the second quarter.

The matchup, which kicked off at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN, came a week after Tennessee beat Alabama 26-10. South Carolina, meanwhile, had recently shown it could be dangerous, upsetting a ranked Florida team 38-19 on October 10 in a game in which Sellers accounted for 299 total yards and five touchdowns.

Tennessee leads the all-time series with South Carolina 27-11-2, dating back to 1903, and had won four of the previous five meetings. The teams had not played since 2023, when Tennessee won 41-20 at Neyland Stadium, while South Carolina won the most recent meeting in Columbia in 2022. After this trip, Tennessee is scheduled for a bye week before closing the regular season in November with home games against Kentucky and LSU and road games at Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.