KNOXVILLE – After a hard-fought battle in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where the Vols held the top-ranked Crimson Tide to its lowest point total of the season in a 35-13 loss, Tennessee is looking forward to returning to Neyland Stadium to host a late afternoon matchup with South Carolina on Saturday at 4 p.m. (ET).

“Neyland Stadium has been really an electric atmosphere this whole season,” head coach Jeremy Pruitt said. “I know it will be again Saturday and it will be a huge advantage for us. We are excited about the opportunity to come back and play at home in front of a great crowd.”

The game will be televised on the SEC Network with Taylor Zarzour (PxP), Matt Stinchcomb (Analyst) and Alyssa Lang (Sideline) on the call.

UT enters the weekend prepared to face a stout Gamecocks’ defense, but Pruitt has been pleased with the progress and command of his offensive line who he believes is prepared to meet the challenge.

“Now we’re getting into the end of the year here so some of the plays, we’ve gotten a lot of repetition doing them over and over again, so we continue to improve that,” Pruitt said during his Monday press conference. “I thought our offensive line had an opportunity on Saturday, especially in the second half, to take the game over. We’d gone a long drive there in the fourth quarter, and we don’t stick one in there on the one-inch line, but, in that drive our offensive line took the game over, and that was good to see.

“You can count on coach (Will) Muschamps’ defense to be tough and be sound,” he added. “The defensive line might be the best defensive line we have played all year.

Quarterback Preparations
Freshman quarterback Brian Maurer’s availability will be assessed throughout the week by the Tennessee medical staff after he was forced out of Saturday’s game due to injury.

The Vols plan to prep for both Jarrett Guarantano and JT Shrout as possible starters and Pruitt remains confident in both.

“We’ll get the other guys ready to play,” Pruitt said. “It’s no different than pretty much what we’ve done every week, whoever is going to be the starter takes the majority of the reps so we’ll get those other guys ready to go and we’ll know in the next couple of days about Brian.

“We trust all of our players. That’s one thing we work hard to build.”

Guarantano, a redshirt junior, started the first four games of the season for the Vols and throw for 911 yards and eight touchdowns.

Shrout, a redshirt freshman, has appeared in two games this season.

-UT Athletics