Late in the South Carolina Gamecocks’ 15-9 win over Tennessee two weeks ago, the Gamecocks were trying to keep the Vols out of the end zone when they gave up a big 39-yard play to allow Tennessee to get into scoring range.

However, coach Will Muschamp said the Gamecocks weren’t playing prevent defense, because they don’t have it in their system.

According to The State, Muschamp said on his Thursday radio show that the Gamecocks were playing a coverage defense, but wanted to keep the Vols from marching down the field easily:

“Prevent’s not in our vocabulary defensively,” Muschamp said. “We did drop eight on that play. That was a situation that they needed a touchdown, had no timeouts. We wanted to expend as much time until they got to the 50-yard line and then start playing third-down defense from there.”

The Gamecocks have another big SEC East game this weekend when the Vanderbilt Commodores come to town.

It’ll be interesting to see if Muschamp adjusts his late-game strategy defensively in what could be another close game.