At 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Tennessee looked to be in pretty good shape for a team on a bye week.
The Georgia squad that the Vols nearly beat two weeks ago led 7-0 against Missouri, and South Carolina – this week’s UT opponent – trailed 7-0 to Arkansas.
It appeared the Bulldogs would prove their merit as a national title contender despite a slew of injuries, thus validating UT’s near-upset of them as an accomplishment worth boasting.
At the same time, South Carolina seemed vulnerable by allowing the Razorbacks to score on their opening possession.
By 3:30 p.m., that all changed.
South Carolina scored 52 unanswered points, obliterating Arkansas 52-7, meaning the Gamecocks will enter Neyland Stadium for Saturday’s noon kickoff with a record of 5-1 (3-1 SEC) and fresh off a statistically-dominating road performance against a rebuilding SEC program.
That does not bode well for UT – another SEC school struggling to get back on its feet.
Meanwhile, in Athens, Ga., the Bulldogs clarified that they are no longer the team to beat in the SEC East by falling 41-26 to the Tigers and delegitimizing the moral victory UT gained by taking the Bulldogs to overtime on Oct. 7.
In the process, Missouri completed its ascent from the toss-up category on the UT schedule. The Tigers should be a double-digit favorite when the Vols trek to Columbia, Mo. on Nov. 2.
In those three and a half hours, the UT schedule became a lot more difficult on paper.
And don’t forget about Auburn. Like Missouri, Auburn began the year as a toss-up on the UT schedule, but at 5-1 with wins over Washington State, Ole Miss and Mississippi State, head coach Gus Malzahn’s first team on The Plains already has three more wins against power conference opponents than Butch Jones’ first UT squad does.
At the halfway point of the 2013 season, the Vols are 3-3, but to attain bowl eligibility, they must beat one of the following: South Carolina (5-1), Alabama (6-0), Missouri (6-0) or Auburn (5-1).
That’s assuming the Vols beat both Vanderbilt and Kentucky.
After the way UT played against Georgia, it may not seem like too much of a stretch for the Vols to pull it off and become bowl eligible, but remember what that sentiment is based on.
It’s based on a fortuitous afternoon in Neyland Stadium when nearly everything went right for UT, including injuries to some of the opponent’s best players.
One week before the Georgia game, the Vols were in a fight to the final whistle to pull out a 31-24 win over South Alabama.
At noon on Saturday, with an awkward relationship between the band and the athletic department on display, students on fall break and no gray uniforms, there is no guarantee that it will be the Vols who played Georgia that show up on Shield-Watkins Field.
UT needs to enter Saturday’s game with a chip on its shoulder, desiring to prove itself as a football team that can be good regardless of its surroundings, and regardless of which key opponents are injured.
David Cobb is a junior in journalism and electronic media. He can be reached at [email protected] or followed on Twitter @DavidWCobb.
