South Carolina wide receiver Pharoh Cooper, front, picks up yardage in his game against Tennessee in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014.COLUMBIA, S.C. - Another wide receiver named Cooper gave Tennessee's defense fits Saturday night.
One week after Amari Cooper set Alabama's single-game receiving yardage record with a nine-catch, 224-yard performance that included a couple of long early touchdowns, the Volunteers struggled to contain South Carolina's Pharoh Cooper.
The emerging sophomore star accounted for 233 yards receiving, 23 rushing and 30 passing and four Gamecocks touchdowns in Tennessee's 45-42 overtime win at Williams-Brice Stadium on a cold, windy November night.
The 5-foot-11, 201-pound Cooper scored South Carolina's first touchdown after keeping the ball out of the wildcat formation with him taking the direct snap and later threw a touchdown out of the formation to tailback Brandon Wilds, who sneaked out of the backfield and got behind Tennessee's defense.
Cooper also was left wide open on a couple of occasions and ended the first half with 105 yards on seven catches.
With a diving 26-yard grab on South Carolina's game-tying third-quarter touchdown drive, Cooper, a former four-star recruit who was a teammate of Tennessee tailback Derrell Scott and defensive lineman Kendal Vickers at Havelock High School in North Carolina, set his career high in receiving yards.
Entering the game, Cooper had 40 catches for 553 yards and six touchdowns to lead the Gamecocks. He was fourth in the SEC in catches per game and fifth in the league in receiving yards per game. He threw a touchdown pass, also to Wilds, in South Carolina's 31-17 win against Clemson in the 2013 regular-season finale and had thrown it twice this season.
O-line shuffle
Tennessee again tweaked its starting offensive line, one week after three new starters went the whole way against Alabama.
Marcus Jackson returned after missing the loss to the Crimson Tide with a leg injury and started at left guard. Kyler Kerbyson, who started the first two games of the season at right tackle and moved to Jackson's spot last week, slid back out to left tackle in place of Brett Kendrick, the redshirt freshman who made his second start of the season against Alabama.
Jacob Gilliam, playing through a torn ACL suffered in the season opener, remained at right tackle.
At the end of Tennessee's first touchdown drive, Kendrick played left tackle as Kerbyson shifted back inside, where he's a more natural fit, to Jackson's spot.
Johnson moving up
With four tackles in the first half, Tennessee linebacker A.J. Johnson moved into second place on the program's all-time tackles chart, passing Jamie Rotella's 413 tackles set in 1972. It's not likely the senior will catch Andy Spiva, Tennessee's all-time tackles leader. Spiva made 547 tackles from 1973 to 1976.
Johnson's 200 career assisted tackles are the most all-time in Tennessee history. The two-time All-SEC selection is aiming to become the first player to lead Tennessee in tackles for three consecutive seasons.
Status updates
Injured quarterback Justin Worley (shoulder) made the trip, but he did not dress and was not part of Tennessee's SEC-mandated 70-man travel roster.
Behind starter Josh Dobbs and backup Nathan Peterman, the Vols' third quarterback was walk-on Mike Wegzyn, a Massachusetts transfer who played at Knoxville Catholic High School.
In two seasons with the Minutemen, the fourth-year junior made 14 starts and appeared in 21 games. He completed 231 of 447 passes for 2,4288 yards with nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions.
Freshman right tackle Coleman Thomas (ankle) also was not healthy enough to make the trip and missed his second consecutive game after suffering the injury at Ole Miss.
Walk-on Thomas Edwards, a redshirt freshman out of Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport who played against UT-Chattanooga, made the travel roster in his place as Tennessee again brought 10 offensive linemen.
Defensive tackle Trevarris Saulsberry (knee) missed the game as expected.
Tennessee tidbits
Dobbs joined Johnson and linebacker Curt Maggitt as Tennessee's captains, as the Vols' new starting quarterback replaced Worley in that capacity. ... South Carolina played the game without linebacker Skai Moore, the Gamecocks' leading tackler both last season and this season who missed the game due to an ankle injury. ... A few of Tennessee's defensive players, including Johnson, Maggitt and cornerback Michael Williams, went through their earliest warmup routines shirtless as temperatures dipped into the 40s. ... South Carolina won the opening coin toss and handed Tennessee its 14th loss of the toss in 15 games. ... Scouts from seven NFL teams and officials from four bowl games (Taxslayer, Belk, Outback and Citrus) were in attendance for Saturday night's game.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com