KNOXVILLE - Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt has an idea for what the Southeastern Conference should do with some of its excess revenue.
"It'd probably make a whole lot of sense in the SEC for as much money as we've got to get the end-zone cameras," Pruitt said Monday. "You know?"
A lot of Tennessee fans do know.
They would agree that the officiating crew's ruling on a crucial play late in the third quarter of the Volunteers' 27-24 loss at South Carolina would have benefited from a different vantage point.
South Carolina trailed 24-16 with under a minute left in the third quarter and had driven to within a foot of the goal line when, on second down, the Gamecocks gave the football to running back Rico Dowdle.
Gamecocks fullback Kiel Pollard appeared to trip as Dowdle took the handoff behind him. The two stumbled over each other as Dowdle struggled to secure the football and began surging toward the end zone.
Tennessee linebackers Daniel Bituli and Darrin Kirkland Jr. met Dowdle short of the goal line. As Dowdle's forward progress stopped, Bituli emerged from the scrum with the football and began running the other direction.
"It was definitely a fumble," Pruitt said. "I saw that."
Instead, the officials ran in to spot the football at the 1-yard line for a South Carolina third-down play. Ty'Son Williams scored on a pitch, and the Gamcocks tied the game at 24 with a two-point conversion.
"That was a big play in the game, and it's unfortunate that it happened that way," Pruitt said. "But we made plenty of errors in the game and you've got to give South Carolina credit for those issues."
Pruitt tried not to dwell too much on that key call as he reflected Monday on a tough defeat for the Vols (3-5, 1-4). Tennessee hosts Charlotte (4-4) on Saturday at Neyland Stadium. But Pruitt did find diplomatic ways to express his displeasure with the ruling of a non-fumble.
"Well, there's no more coaches' challenges," Pruitt said. "Every play is reviewed by the officials. They look at everything from targeting to the spots, turnovers and all that stuff. But they're limited to what views they have with the cameras. For us, we film a sideline view and end-zone view. From our sideline view, you can't see anything, but definitely from the end zone it's obvious."
That's why Pruitt thinks the league should invest in end-zone cameras.
Tennessee players assumed the play was being reviewed, but the cameras used in the telecast mostly just showed a scrum of bodies.
"Yeah, it was a fumble," senior defensive tackle Shy Tuttle said after the game. "He wasn't down. He was on top of an offensive lineman."
"I felt like I punched the ball out," Kirkland added. "The call didn't go our way. We've got to keep playing football."
No field-goal try
Had the Vols been going the other direction early in the fourth quarter, they likely would have attempted a go-ahead field goal, Pruitt said Monday.
But as they faced a fourth-and-7 from the South Carolina 35 with 9:52 remaining, Pruitt chose to try to get a first down. A Jarrett Guarantano pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage, turning the ball over on downs. The Gamecocks drove to kick what turned out to be a winning field goal.
Tennessee kicker Brent Cimaglia had established a range of 52 yards with the wind at his back during warmups. But the wind was against the Vols in the fourth quarter, and the staff felt comfortable with him from 47 yards or closer.
It would have been a 52-yard attempt into the wind if Tennessee had kicked instead of going for it.
"The play before, we drop a pass," Pruitt said, referencing a Marquez Callaway drop on third down. "We were going to have the ball fourth-and-1 at the 30 or 29 and then we're in his range. We understood that. We called a play to make sure we possibly could gain the first down or possibly be in a fourth-and-short and have choices, and we didn't execute there."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.