Tennessee’s strife continued Saturday night, but it had nothing to do with a second-half collapse.
    
On the scoreboard, the Volunteers stayed in it, but things felt the same as they have all of October, as they lost to No. 14 South Carolina 14-3 at Neyland Stadium.
    
“I told them we fought hard and they should be commended for that,” UT coach Derek Dooley said. “We kept fighting the fight and created some opportunities that we haven’t done on defense. We hadn’t had many takeaways and we got them at some critical times and created opportunities.
    
“Those were some good things — they were. But we are not good enough right now. We really are not very good to beat anybody unless we get some things corrected.”
    
South Carolina (7-1, 5-1 SEC) has won three of the past four games against Tennessee. The Gamecocks remain in first in the SEC East, while the Vols (3-5, 0-5) settle in last place.
    
Freshman quarterback Justin Worley was 10-of-26 for 105 yards, but threw two untimely interceptions in his first career start before being replaced by Matt Simms on UT’s last drive.
    
“He did some good things and struggled at some things,” Dooley said. “I expected that to happen. It’s his first time and he just hasn’t had the work. He has been the three — that’s what we forget. For eight months he has been a three, and then for two weeks he has been a two. It’s tough. He’s going to be fine. He will learn from it and get better.”
    
South Carolina was without star running back Marcus Lattimore, who is out for the season with a knee injury, but Brandon Wilds did fine as his replacement, rushing for 137 yards on 28 carries. He also led the Gamecocks with 31 receiving yards.
    
Wilds had just 75 yards on 13 attempts before Saturday’s game.
    
Tennessee held Gamecocks’ leading receiver Alshon Jeffery to a season-low 17 yards on three catches.
    
The Vols only amassed 186 offensive yards (151 passing, 35 rushing). The offensive woes began on their first possession.
    
South Carolina forced Tennessee into a three-and-out, but Ace Saunders fumbled the punt and UT reserve linebacker John Propst recovered it at the Gamecocks’ 18-yard line. After getting a first-and-goal at the Gamecocks’ 4, the Vols settled for a 22-yard field goal from Michael Palardy for their only score of the game.
    
Da’Rick Rogers dropped what would have been a 44-yard touchdown in the second quarter after South Carolina had gone up 7-3, which was the score entering halftime.
    
An issue facing the Tennessee defense entering the game was that it hadn’t created many turnovers, but it forced three South Carolina turnovers (one interception and two fumble recoveries). It was a matter of the offense not taking advantage.
    
Prentiss Waggner had his first interception of the season in the third quarter and returned it 54 yards to the South Carolina 2-yard line. Two plays later, Worley tossed an interception to South Carolina’s D.J. Swearinger.
    
“I think that was a real turning point in the game,” tight end Mychal Rivera said. “It was really difficult when that happened. It was really unfortunate and disappointing.”
    
On the ensuing drive, South Carolina converted six third downs and took 11:42 off the clock on a 20-play, 98-yard touchdown drive to go up 14-3 with under a minute left in the third quarter.
    
“We were getting beat on first and second down,” middle linebacker Austin Johnson said. “They were getting big runs on us, then creating third-and-one every first down. So it kind of just put us in a bad position and that’s our fault.”