In the long, occasionally unsatisfying history of University of Tennessee football, an odd dynamic has developed for its head coaches ever since the Southeastern Conference began divisional play in 1992.
That dynamic is this: Beware the South Carolina game, particularly in years the fan base already is restless.
Team 121 hosts the Gamecocks at high noon Saturday. With Volunteers coach Butch Jones already on a seat hot enough to melt steel, a loss could prove catastrophic to his future employment on Rocky Top. Even a win is unlikely to save him.
But a loss? Just ask former coaches and UT legends Johnny Majors and Phillip Fulmer about falling to South Carolina.
It was Majors who was rather coldly shown the door a few days after a 1992 loss to an unranked Gamecocks bunch in Columbia on Halloween afternoon.