Tennessee will face off against an old friend this weekend in Columbia when they take on South Carolina.

Former Vols defensive lineman Caleb Herring transferred from Tennessee to South Carolina in January after spending the first three seasons of his career with the Vols.

Herring totaled five sacks, six tackles for loss, and 25 tackles during his time on Rocky Top.

Before the start of the season, Herring admitted that he’d been thinking about the October matchup against the Vols.

“Oh yeah, I’ve thought about that multiple times,” said Herring in August when asked about playing his old team. “I’m just ready to compete. I’m ready to go out there with my brothers and just do what we do. We’ve been climbing every single day, doing great things, and leaning into that. But really, my thought process right now has just been on fall camp, of course. But whenever that day comes, we’re gonna be ready.”

While Herring admitted that he’s thought about playing Tennessee, it doesn’t sound like this is any sort of “revenge game.”

The former Vol, in fact, has spoken positively multiple times about his three seasons with the Vols.

“I feel like going to Tennessee, I really feel like that helped make me into the person I am today,” said Herring earlier this year. “And then sitting behind two high-end guys, Joshua Josephs and James Pearce, they really helped me build my game. Even though the first two seasons, I’m not going to lie, they were very frustrating. I barely played. But just learning behind those two guys, it ultimately led to the season I had last year. And then shoot, I felt like my time at Tennessee had ended. Like after that year, I have good memories and stuff from there, but I just felt like it was time. “

Herring admitted before the season that leaving Tennessee was a hard decision.

“It was the hardest decision I had to make,” said Herring. “I felt like it was time for me to leave Tennessee, and give my best somewhere else. After the first five or six games that were good, there was a little dip in consistency.”

Herring recorded three sacks in the first three games of the 2025 season, but he only had one sack over the rest of the season.

So far this season, Herring has eight tackles and two sacks. Both of his sacks came in South Carolina’s last two games (two tackles and a sack against Kentucky and three tackles and a sack against Florida).

The Vols and the Gamecocks are set to kick off at 3:30 PM ET on Saturday.