Tennessee will play in Columbia this weekend for the first time since the Vols’ shocking 63-38 loss to South Carolina in 2022.

The loss to the Gamecocks in 2022 kept the Vols out of the four-team College Football Playoff. That game has become a big part of college football lore due to the allegations that South Carolina had Tennessee’s signals.

Former Vols quarterback Joe Milton, for example, said last year that South Carolina cheated to get the win in 2022.

Gamecocks defensive coordinator Clayton White, however, maintains that it was simply the wristbands that South Carolina’s defense wore during the game that played a big role in the upset.

“Obviously, when you’re playing an offense like Tennessee, the number one thing is how can you replicate the offense during the week (of game prep),” said White earlier this year. “So I came up with this idea that the offensive scout team was going to wear wristbands so they can run their plays fast.

“Cam Smith, one of my defensive backs, was like, ‘Coach, why can’t we wear wristbands — you can give us our plays fast’. So I was like, ‘Perfect.’ So we made some wristbands for defense. Six plays were on them. Like six plays. Like come on, man! That’s a good six plays. I know. And so like this was the first game. This is one of the games where Tennessee was going so fast. I said, ‘Guys, on the sideline, we’re gonna call two plays. Don’t even look over here. We don’t have time.’ So you don’t have time to steal someone else’s signals. I didn’t have time. I would say, ‘Listen, we’re going wristband one, wristband three. Don’t look over here.’ That’s what the wristbands were really for. So it had nothing to do with their signals. I don’t have time to do that.”

Clayton White gets asked if South Carolina will wear wristbands this year against Tennessee

White met with reporters on Wednesday and he was asked if the Gamecocks’ defense will wear wristbands again this year against Tennessee.

“No, we’re not wearing wristbands this week,” said White. “That was a different era and a different time. It was good for some of the games that we did it.

“I still think it’s one of the funniest stories that’s out there in the world. But it was actually Cam Smith’s idea. I think our scout team that week had wristbands, and the offense was lining up really fast and running their plays. And actually, it was Cam Smith who said, ‘Coach, why can’t we get wristbands?’ And I put six plays on them, and I guess the rest is history.”

The Vols run a completely different offense now than they did in 2022, so I’m not sure the stolen signals wristbands would help quite as much this time around.