Tennessee doesn’t have a game this weekend.

As a result, there’s been some extended discussion this week about what went wrong in the Vols’ shocking loss to South Carolina last weekend in Columbia.

For Vols fans, it’s mostly been about how Tennessee let a game that they mostly dominated slip away in the closing minutes.

There’s been discussion about the Vols’ untimely penalties, a couple of botched plays, and how those things can be prevented in the final month of the season.

Vols fans aren’t blaming the officiating for the loss — even if fans and media have pointed out that a couple of the calls that went against Tennessee seemed ticky tack (and yes, South Carolina can point to a couple of similar calls that went against the Gamecocks).

Most fans (Tennessee fans and any fans outside of Columbia) understand that this loss was about what the Vols didn’t do — it wasn’t about anything the Gamecocks did (it could’ve been any team on the other side of the ball who benefitted from the Vols’ self-inflicted mistakes).

South Carolina fans, though, have done everything they can to insert themselves into the conversation while they do their extended victory lap (I get it…the Vols stole one from a clearly better South Carolina team in 2013).

The common refrain from those fans is something along the lines of, “It’s been five days and Vols fans are still talking about the loss.”

Well, yeah. Vols fans care about the program. They want to know what happened, why it happened, and how it can be prevented from happening. Again, this has nothing to do with South Carolina.

Tennessee fans haven’t really complained about the officiating. The conversation has been more about why the Vols are continuing to have penalty issues. The calls that were made against South Carolina were all either clearly correct, or at least borderline. The penalties are a big reason why Tennessee lost the game, but that’s on the Vols.

But even if Vols fans were complaining about the officials, South Carolina fans wouldn’t have much room to talk.

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer, after all, is well-known for complaining about officiating days after a loss.

In 2024, for example, Beamer sent multiple plays to the SEC office for review after the Gamecocks’ loss to LSU. He also criticized the officials the day after the game.

“For that crew yesterday to throw 22 flags, and on the last play of the game, I think there’s two very clear instances of taunting that happened after the kick,” said Beamer. “And after throwing 22 flags, no one decided to throw a flag on that one.”

Beamer did the same thing last season after South Carolina’s loss to Vanderbilt, revealing two days after the game that he had a phone call with the SEC head of officiating about calls that were made.

Tennessee fans talked about the South Carolina game all week because it’s perplexing how the Vols lost a game that they were in total control of despite falling behind 14-0 early in the first quarter. The Vols survived the initial onslaught from South Carolina, took over the game, then gave it away.

That’s why the extended discussion happened. It has nothing to do with South Carolina. This is all about the Vols beating the Vols.