The Tennessee Volunteers believe they are well equipped to handle the storm.
Their continued quest for a berth in the College Football Playoff runs through South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night, where the No. 5 Vols will look to limit the popular “Sandstorm” dance track as much as possible. It’s the final hostile atmosphere of the season for Tennessee, which expects to have a decided crowd advantage next week at Vanderbilt before its unknown, neutral-site postseason destination.
“We’ve got to be able to reset and play,” Vols second-year coach Josh Heupel said. “On dead balls in particular, you have to be able to handle it. We’ve done that in different road environments, and this will be a great one. Having been there before, it’s going to be loud, and you have to handle that part of it.
“It has to be a point of emphasis to do the ordinary things at a really high level in this game.”
The Gamecocks will be playing their seventh game this season at their 77,559-seat facility, and it will be their sixth Saturday sellout. The scheduled Oct. 1 matchup against South Carolina State had to be moved up two days due to Hurricane Ian.