With two weeks to prepare for an average South Carolina team, Tennessee put up nine points and 253 total yards against the Gamecocks in a 15-9 loss inside Neyland Stadium.

Until the final drive of the game, the Vols had negative yardage in the second half. Tennessee was 3-for-12 on third downs and failed to convert any touchdowns despite having four opportunities in the game. In his first collegiate start, Jarrett Guarantano threw for 133 yards on 11 of 18 throws. He did not have a touchdown but he didn’t turn the ball over either.

The sad part is the Vols came out and played with passion early in the game and nearly took the opening drive in for a touchdown. It was essentially all downhill after the Gamecocks made their initial adjustments.

Time will tell if this will be Butch Jones’ last game inside Neyland Stadium, but the fact that the Vols have fallen to 3-3 on the season, 0-3 in SEC play, it’s a fair question to ask.

Here are some of Jones’ comments immediately after the game ended:

“I’m really proud of our players, I thought they showed some resolve, resiliency. We had a chance to win the football game, obviously came up short.

“Red zone offense, we’ve got to score touchdowns, we can’t kick field goals. Second half was a tale of situational football: third down, defense getting off the field, first down efficiency wasn’t very good.”

Thoughts on Guarantano:

“It was a tough position, one-minute drill, no timeouts, I thought he was very poised, very calm. Made some plays with his legs. I’m very anxious to go back and watch the video. In terms of showing poise in making your first start, I think there’s a lot of things positively to build upon.”

On the poor rushing offense in the second half:

“I thought that was one of the tales of the second half, I thought we ran the ball effectively and efficiently in the first half. Jarrett was able to make some plays with his legs. If we called a pass, he was able to get 4-5 yards if the pass wasn’t there, I thought that was big. In the second half, we were not able to run the ball. When you become one-dimensional, you aren’t going to have much success.”

Any thought to giving John Kelly the ball on the final play of the game?

“Did we think about giving John Kelly the ball? Yes, we did, but with four seconds… that’s when we thought about it. If you run the ball and you don’t get it then that’s the final play. Then you’re sitting in here asking me why we handed the ball off.”