South Carolina Football: Tennessee matchup is among college football’s closest in recent years

The South Carolina football program has played against the Tennessee Volunteers every season since 1992. In the ’90s and early 2000s, the annual matchup was dominated by Tennessee as USC won just once from ’92-’04.

Since 2005, however, the Gamecocks and Volunteers have played a radically even series of SEC East contests. Despite 2021 and 2022 not being very close (one win for each team), when looking at the last 18 matchups as a whole, things are eerily close.

Since Steve Spurrier took over as the head coach in Columbia in 2005, the Carolina-Tennessee series is tied 9-9 (though, technically, it is 9-7 in favor of South Carolina football as UT vacated two wins during the Jeremy Pruitt era due to an abundance of violations).

Both teams have had very good seasons, and both teams have had seasons in which they were not very good.

During the last 18 years, the Gamecocks have scored 478 points against Tennessee, while the Volunteers have scored 476 against South Carolina. Both teams have lost three times to the other while ranked (each time to an unranked edition of their rival).

The series was tied 5-5 in the Spurrier era and has been 4-4 since. South Carolina football and their rivals from Knoxville are each 6-3 in home games in the series since ’05, as well. Both teams have won by 20 or more points twice in those 18 games.

Another common theme during the last 18 years of this SEC East rivalry is dominant wide receiver play. Gamecock greats like Sidney Rice, Kenny McKinley, Pharoh Cooper, and Shi Smith had massive performances in Carolina wins, while Tennessee wideouts like Marquez Calloway, Jauan Jennings, and Cedric Tillman tore up Gamecock secondaries.

South Carolina and Tennessee have beaten each other on last-second field goals, and both the ‘Cocks and the Vols have lost games on last-second turnovers.

This Saturday’s game between South Carolina and Tennessee could go down as another classic in this rivalry. It will be the last meeting between the two teams until at least 2025 as the SEC’s new scheduling format drops the Vols from the Gamecocks’ schedule next season.