Tennessee recovered nicely from its loss to Georgia with a win over Missouri headed into Saturday’s game against South Carolina ranked No. 5. But while the Volunteers entered with realistic hopes of making the College Football Playoff, those hopes were thoroughly squashed by the Gamecocks.
The night was a pure disaster for Tennessee. South Carolina’s offense overpowered the Volunteers on defense. The Gamecocks scored a touchdown on all but three possessions. Two of those “failures” to score came when the first half and game ended, respectively. When it was over, the Volunteers were on the short side of a 63-38 final score.
Even before the Gamecocks scored their final touchdown, Tennessee had already made the wrong kind of program history.
And Tennessee set another record when South Carolina scored its final touchdowns.
College football fans had a lot to say about Tennessee’s awful showing in South Carolina.
That's going back to 1936.
There'll be some car door slamming in the streets of Columbia, SC tonight! (Monty Python reference). https://t.co/eSSwx3cVTM— Scott Rabalais (@RabalaisAdv) November 20, 2022
https://twitter.com/ZehDuck/status/1594174829162381317
And as bad as the outcome of the game was, the disaster didn’t stop there for the Volunteers. In the fourth quarter, Hendon Hooker, Tennessee’s starting quarterback and Heisman hopeful, was injured, going down on a dreaded non-contact injury.
Tennessee has had a lot go its way during the 2022 season — including an epic victory over Alabama. The last three weeks, though, have been nothing short of abysmal for the Volunteers..
[CBS Sports, ESPN Stats & Info]