South Carolina Football: Full game notes from Tennessee loss

South Carolina Football vs. Mississippi State:
Other Notes

• Tro Baugh, Mario Anderson, and TJ Sanders all got their first starts in garnet and black.
• The Tennessee crowd was electric.
• A big hit from walk-on Ronnie Porter on a kickoff gave life to the defense. The Gamecocks had two good plays that were followed up by a Joe Milton interception after the hit. That life would be short-lived, however.
• Missed tackles were an issue against Tennessee. Starting linebackers Debo Williams and Stone Blanton combined for 1 solo tackle in the 1st half, DQ Smith 2 missed tackles in the open field, and every play seemed to see at least one Gamecock be completely out of position. The second half was a little better but just a little.
• The Gamecock receivers and tight ends really struggled to get open for most of the first half. The flats were usually the most open area of the field, but Tennessee’s defensive backs did not miss many tackles in those situations.
• Those struggles were less significant than the ones experienced by the South Carolina football offensive line unit. In a North Carolina-esque performance, the two tackles (Tree Babalade and Tyshawn Wannamaker) really struggled most of the night.
  • The unit also did not produce much push in the run game, but a 75-yard Mario Anderson touchdown made the overall numbers look much better than they really were.
• DK Joyner continued to struggle mightily. He had a drop and was bad when running the football.
• Nyck Harbor still isn’t playing much. Given his skillset, he probably would not have gotten any passes thrown to him in this game anyway, however, as Spencer Rattler did not have enough time to throw deep passes.
• South Carolina football was dominated on 3rd down. The Gamecocks went 2-14 on 3rd down, including 1-7 on 3rd-and-4 or shorter. Tennessee went 7-15. 4th down was 1-1 to 2-5, in favor of the Vols, as well.