Auburn, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt have been far from glamorous through the first five weeks of the college football season, but the four Southeastern Conference programs with first-year head coaches have shown plenty of fight after struggling in that aspect a year ago.
South Carolina and Tennessee collide at noon Saturday inside Neyland Stadium.
"We've certainly had some ugly games that could have gone in either direction, like East Carolina and Troy, but we've got a lot of fantastic young men in our program who are fighters to begin with," South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said. "Hopefully we've had a small hand in that as a staff bringing that out in them."
Both Beamer's Gamecocks and Josh Heupel's Volunteers are 3-2, so Saturday's winner will possess a 4-2 record at the midway mark of the regular season. ESPN2 will televise the game.
South Carolina opened the Beamer era with a 46-0 win over Eastern Illinois and then traveled to East Carolina, falling behind 14-0 before rallying for a 20-17 triumph on Parker White's 36-yard field goal as time expired. The Gamecocks slipped past Troy 23-14 last weekend after trailing 7-3 midway through the second quarter, and one of their most notable efforts was their 16-10 home loss to Kentucky on Sept. 25.
The Gamecocks couldn't stay on the field with the Wildcats last season, losing 41-18.
"I think any time a first-year coach comes in, there is certainly the newness to it, and it's a fresh start," Beamer said. "For a lot of young men, and we've got guys in our program like this, maybe the confidence level wasn't where it needed to be, and maybe the previous staff didn't see in them what we see.
"A new staff comes in, and some of these guys see it as a fresh start to show what they can do. That can elevate a guy."
Tennessee's most notable act of resiliency occurred Sept. 11 against Pittsburgh, when the Panthers built a pair of two-touchdown leads in the second half before the Vols trimmed the deficit to a single score and were threatening to force overtime until Hendon Hooker threw his lone interception of the season.
The Vols and Gamecocks already have combined to win more games than last season, when they were a combined 5-15, but last year's schedule consisted solely of SEC opposition. Tennessee is 1-1 and South Carolina 0-2 in league play so far this season.
"I think we have great trust, and I think there is a clear vision of who we want to be," Heupel said. "When you have a vision, you're able to grow extremely quickly."
No. 18 Auburn has been rather adventurous in Bryan Harsin's first season, with the Tigers turning a 24-12 deficit into a 34-24 escape of Georgia State on Sept. 25. They followed that with a 24-19 win at LSU last weekend in which Auburn trailed 19-10 entering the fourth quarter.
Even Vanderbilt, which went 0-9 last season, had the dreadful 23-3 opening loss to East Tennessee State and trailed 14-0 at Colorado State the following week before rallying for a 24-21 win.
"We're imperfect in our program right now, but we can go out and be prideful in our effort," Commodores coach Clark Lea said. "We make that the focus in practice, and we make that the focus on Saturdays. In the games we've been able to win, it has showed through, and I think any new coach is looking to establish a culture and an environment, and for most of us, that foundation is going to be a resiliency and an attitude.
"When all things are clicking right, that shines through. We have other deficiencies that we have to work on and improve, but the goal is that every time we take the field, the style of play is going to be high effort and a high level of energy and enthusiasm."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.