What exactly happened on that 4th and 1?

With 3:38 to play in the fourth quarter on Saturday, Tennessee was faced with a 4th and 1 situation at the South Carolina 38 yard line. The game hanging in the balance, it would have been about a 55-yard attempt for Cooper Ranvier, who has a career long of 51. He’s 2-6 from 50+ in his career.

Tennessee had battled back. They really had dominated since South Carolina’s 14-0 burst out of the opening gates. Josh Heupel had a chance to put this one on ice and opted to go for it, even with star running back DeSean Bishop sidelined with a sudden injury.

The play could not have gone worse.

Tennessee quarterback George MacIntyre didn’t hand the ball off to DaSaahn Brame as it appeared it was intended. Javin Gordon was clearly never expecting the ball. It’s not exactly clear what MacIntyre was trying to do, but the end result was a loss of two yards and a turnover on downs that set up South Carolina for the tie and eventual win.

It’s worth wondering how Bishop’s absence from the play changed things.

“Yeah, just missteps by George on that one,” Heupel said after the game of the play.

The formation was one that Tennessee had used quite a bit throughout the afternoon with great success. It’s a fairly new look for the offense, and obviously with MacIntyre making just his third career start, it was new to him too.

“Yeah, just simple miscommunication — a formation we’ve been running all game,” MacIntyre said after the loss. “Just got to be more locked into the details of the different plays and that big jumbo formation.

“There’s a lot of moving parts of the play with kills and checks and what fronts they’re going to run. But, yeah, it would have been similar to DaSaahn’s touchdown in the first half.”

LaNorris Sellers would go down and score quickly to tie the game at 24-24. MacIntyre would fumble shortly after, giving South Carolina the ball and a shot at the game-winning field goal.

Frustrating penalties aside, this was a true choke job late from Tennessee. Through the slow start and all of the touchdowns called back, the Volunteers were in complete control of this one — until they weren’t.

Tennessee has a week to think about this one before taking on No. 9 Kentucky in Knoxville on November 7th.