Oct. 19, 2013 was a promising day for the future of Tennessee football under first-year head coach Butch Jones.

Jones and Team 117 upset No. 11 South Carolina 23-21 on the last play of Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier’s final visit to Neyland Stadium.

Kicker Michael Palardy made a 19-yard field goal as time expired, ending Tennessee’s 19-game losing streak against ranked opponents. It was the first win over a ranked opponent for UT since Lane Kiffin defeated No. 21 South Carolina on Halloween night 2009, when the Vols donned black jerseys and orange pants.

The 2013 win over South Carolina showcased Jones chest bumping then-athletics director Dave Hart on the field after the game, directing the band and playing a role in derailing South Carolina’s SEC East championship hopes in their third consecutive 11-win season.

After all of the years in which Spurrier haunted Tennessee with wins over Phillip Fulmer’s Volunteer teams, Jones defeating Spurrier in his first try seemed promising for the Vols’ future — especially because it came during Spurrier’s best run at South Carolina after he built the program into a contender.

Jones pridefully said that it was a “great day to be a Vol” moments following his first big win as the caretaker of Tennessee football.

He also thanked the fans and students for sticking around during fall break to provide a homefield advantage with 102,455 inside Neyland Stadium.

“Well, you know, we’re on fall break and the crowd was outstanding,” Jones said in 2013. “This is a great homefield advantage. Our fans are incredible. Thank you to the students that stayed and our band is a part of us. So, to be a part of that is a way to say thank you.”

This Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, nearly four years to the day as Tennessee prepares to take on South Carolina once again, Jones’ program seems far removed from the chest bumping celebrations that echoed sentiments of building the program back to national prominence brick-by-brick.

Tennessee is coming off of consecutive 9-4 seasons; the Vols have not had a 10-win season since Phillip Fulmer's second-to-last team went 10-4 in 2007.

Team 121 begins game week with South Carolina on the heels of a three-game stretch that has generated a lot of outside noise questioning why Jones has not consistently beaten ranked opponents and SEC East teams since his first big win in 2013.

During Week 3 this season, Jones thanked his fans in a different manner from the time he did four years ago. He wanted “to thank the fans for staying” throughout a 17-13 win over UMass and mentioned that “they made a difference in the end.”

Vol fans have filled social media, radio waves and other avenues of their displeasure on Jones’ inability to win the SEC East over the past four seasons.

It’s hard to imagine — four years after Vol Nation was so all-in behind the direction of the program when Palarady’s field goal went through the uprights — that the fan base would be this fractured publicly.

But winning is the cure and at this stage, four years removed from an upset over Spurrier’s Gamecocks, the outside noise surrounding the program is at an all-time high for Jones. This time a win over South Carolina might not be enough to silence enough critics.