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The South Carolina Gamecocks learned they’ll open their season against the Tennessee Volunteers on Sept. 26 in Columbia, following the SEC’s announcement on Monday afternoon.
Football is coming.
— Gamecock Football (@GamecockFB) August 17, 2020
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The SEC, which is taking an extremely slow and tentative approach to football, announced its Week 1 schedule, though kickoff times are still unknown. The league, while still set on playing, is also clearly employing a cautious approach and trying not to get too far ahead of itself.
WEEK 1 IN THE SEC pic.twitter.com/Fn85XUvsih
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) August 17, 2020
The 2019 Volunteers posted an 8-5 (5-3 SEC) mark in Jeremy Pruitt’s second year and handled the Gamecocks 41-21 in Knoxville on their way to a third-place finish in the SEC East. (Perhaps somewhat encouragingly, though, Shi Smith had a whale of a game, racking up 156 yards on 11 catches with a score.) Capping its season off with a Gator Bowl victory over Indiana, Tennessee currently boasts a top-10 recruiting class and is viewed by some pundits to finally be on its way back after a decade of wandering the wilderness. While it won’t be on Halloween weekend this year, USC-UT games typically get pretty wild, so this is a very intriguing matchup to kick off South Carolina’s 2020.