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Game Balls: South Carolina

After a successful trip to South Carolina, the Vols are 1-0. Here are the game balls for the Tennessee victory.

After a wild and unpredictable off-season, the Tennessee Volunteers kicked off their 2020 football season on Saturday night. The Vols’ went into Columbia, South Carolina and left with their second win in a row over Will Muschamp's Gamecocks, making the Vols 1-0 for the first time under Jeremy Pruitt. It was a close, hard-fought game, as fans have come to expect in the series. Nine of the last ten meetings between the Vols and Gamecocks have been decided by seven points or less. In such close games, the difference in winning and losing often comes down to a few key plays. As we hand out game balls for the first game of the year, those winning plays, and the players that make them, are well represented.

Offense: Josh Palmer

One of the biggest questions coming into the 2020 season for Tennessee is how they would replace the production of Jauan Jennings and Marquez Callaway. Another was how senior wideout Josh Palmer would adjust to being the new number one option in the Tennessee offense. After the first game of the season, it looks like the Vols have answers to both, and they are answers they can be pleased with. Palmer led all Tennessee receivers with 6 receptions for 85 yards and one long touchdown reception. Those are certainly solid numbers at any time in SEC play, but in his first game as the number one option and in an offseason that had limited practices to build timing, it was an excellent outing for Palmer. It is also worth noting that Muschamp's defenses are typically built to prevent giving up big plays. Palmer has excelled in deep ball situations at Tennessee, and the Carolina defense is built to prevent those kinds of plays. Palmer was able to be effective, take what the defense gave him, and then capitalize on the opportunity for a long touchdown when he got it. One of the plays of the game was Palmer's touchdown reception, a go route where he beat the corner and caught a perfect throw from quarterback Jarrett Guarantano. Palmer had a strong answer for the questions around him, and made winning plays when Tennessee needed him to.

Defense: Henry To’oto’o

Speaking of questions that the Vols had to address, another one that was spinning coming into the game was around Tennessee's star sophomore linebacker. To'oto'o would be in his first game replacing Daniel Bituli, where he would be responsible for calling the defense and lining up his teammates. In the first game in the role, To'oto'o looked extremely confident in doing just that, playing fast and showing he had command of the defense as whole, not just his role within it. To'oto’o ended the game with six total tackles, getting sideline to sideline as Vol fans have grown accustomed to seeing from him. The sophomore impacted the defense across the board and challenged the Carolina offense against the run and pass all night, but it was the winning play he made that earned him a game ball. In tight games, it often comes down to which team wins the turnover battle, and To'oto’o made an interception off a tipped ball that was the first of the two that the Vols forced. Once To'oto’o had the pick, he showed the skills that made him such an outstanding running back at De La Salle in high school, returning it all the way for his first career touchdown. Turnovers are always big, but defensive scores can change the results of games. The Vols took the lead on the To'oto’o score, and they never trailed again.

Special Teams: Jimmy Holiday

Here is an unexpected star, but one that is a great reflection of what Jeremy Pruitt, and all coaches for that matter, want in their players. Holiday arrived at Tennessee as an early enrollee and as a quarterback. During the off-season he made the move to wide receiver, working to learn that position. The true freshman with his impact speed and game breaking ability with the ball in his hands found himself on special teams for the Vols, covering kicks. Some players would have been disgruntled with that move, frustrated or not engaged. Holiday went out, played his tail off, kept his head on a swivel, and in his first college game as a true freshman, he made the play to seal the game. When the Paxton Brooks punt with 1:30 left to play bounced off a South Carolina player, Holiday pounced on the live ball to deny Carolina a shot to take the lead. His heads-up play secured the win for Tennessee, and represented the Vols’ making another winning play. The game's second turnover, the live ball on the punt, is the kind of break that seems to have gone against the Vols for years. Holiday made a winning play that saw that break in Tennessee's favor, locking up a 1-0 start and extending what is now the nation's longest winning streak.