Tennessee Football: 3 takeaways from thrilling win over South Carolina

South Carolina opened the season with an opportunity to make some noise in the SEC, but Tennessee football broke the Gamecocks’ hearts.

The No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers and the South Carolina Gamecocks faced each other in the 2020 season opener — the first time in 78 years these two teams faced off in a season opener.

Coming into this game Tennessee led the all-time series 26-10-2 and 19-9 in SEC play, and they added to the win columns with the 31-27 victory on Saturday night, their second consecutive win against South Carolina.

Without further adieu, let’s get to the three takeaways of this season opener.

3. Third-down offense, penalty yardage must improve

Tennessee most definitely needs to improve on its third-down conversions if it does hope to continue its winning streak. The Vols only converted 1-of-11 third downs on Saturday night; who knows what the score might have been if they had a better conversion rate.

The Gamecocks didn’t fare much better, converting on 6-of-15 third downs.

Both teams also had trouble with penalties.

Tennessee accounted for six penalties for 50 yards while the Gamecocks were called on four penalties for 40 yards. Some of these were careless errors in the grand scheme of things that could have changed the outcome of the game.