At one point Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium, Tennessee converted eight of nine third downs against South Carolina.
For a Gamecocks’ unit that entered the evening as one of the nation’s best at shutting down drives, it was a maddening trend, as the Volunteers used short slants, screen passes, gritty runs and the occasional QB scramble to keep drives alive, drives that turned into points and gave UT the lead for all of the first three quarters.
Coach Will Muschamp didn’t sugarcoat it afterward.
“Defensively, third down was just disastrous. Just couldn’t get them off the field on third down,” he said.