Tennessee Blog: South Carolina, and Reasons To Still Believe

For the sixth time this season, Derek Dooley’s Vols came close in the first half, but not quite close enough in the second, falling to South Carolina 38-24.

This time the Vols made it to the final quarter before letting a few big plays take the game away.

The Vols tied the game at 24 at the beginning of the fourth quarter with a Tyler Bray to Gerald Jones TD pass, only to give up a 70-yard TD reception by Alshon Jeffery to put the Gamecocks back up by seven.

Stephen Garcia then put the game away with a 1-yard TD run, capping a drive in which Freshman RB Marcus Lattimore ran for 64 total yards.

Tennessee (2-6, 0-5 SEC) made a lot of improvement despite losing to the SEC East-leading South Carolina Gamecocks (6-2, 4-2 SEC), and showed that there may be hope despite the Vols' first winless October.

Light at the End of the Tunnel: 

1. Tyler Bray 

Bray showed that he is more than just arm candy. He bounced right back from the pick-six thrown to sneaky zone-covering Carolina defensive end Devin Thomas, and threw two touchdowns to Denarius Moore and Gerald Jones.

Hopefully we have just seen the evolution of Tyler Bray in one game. He was named the starter Monday morning for Saturday’s game against 1-7 Memphis, and will face probably face one of the worst defenses in the FBS.

The Memphis D is allowing an average of 42 points a game, so Bray gets to face a glorified high-school defense (really hope I don’t regret that) to get his timing and control of the offense down.

2. Denarius Moore

We’ve always known Denarius Moore is good, but not this good. Moore had the best day in the FBS for a receiver this season on Saturday, racking up 228 receiving yards and a touchdown.

The senior first showed us his deep-threat ability in 2008 against Mississippi State, when he caught a Nick Stephens bomb for 45 yards, and finished the season averaging 24 yards per catch.

Tennessee is going to need Moore to ride the momentum from last week into the final four weeks, which the Vols will have to sweep if they want to be bowl eligible.

Signs that the End is Nigh

1. LT Dallas Thomas looks rough after his ankle injury

Thomas struggled moving his feet Saturday, and gave up some really mean blindside hits on Matt Simms. That being said, not all of the blame lies on Thomas; Simms needs to get the ball out earlier.

It does need to be said that South Carolina has one of the best pass-rushing D-lines in the SEC, and Thomas faced Devin Taylor and Cliff Matthews, who have combined for ten total sacks.

Thomas can’t afford to be injured at the most important spot on the offensive line, especially with Tennessee’s depth situation.

2. The defensive line getting washed out by South Carolina

If you watched the game last Saturday, you may have noticed that when Carolina would zone block, Tennessee’s DL would get washed down and bunched up, giving Lattimore huge cut-back lanes straight into the secondary.

Now, this may be more of an issue against Mississippi team that runs the zone-read with Jeremiah Masoli, but it still needs to be addressed by the Volunteer coaching staff.

The Vols don’t have history on their side, going 0-5 in the SEC for the first time since 1977. They would have to win the final four games to get into a bowl (for those keeping count at home), but to be honest, I don’t really care for the bowl system anyway.

Brett Parisi is the head sportswriter at knoxvilleman.com, and hecklers can reach him at [e-mail]