Zacch Pickens has never seen anything like it.

South Carolina’s senior defensive tackle has been around for just about everything in college football in his four years with the Gamecocks, but the offense he will be lining up against on Saturday is an entirely different animal.

Tennessee is 126th in the country in time of possession, but first in total offense with an average of 543.7 yards per game. Nobody in college football is as efficient with its offense, the result of a head-spinning tempo and identity built around getting one snap after another off as fast as possible.

“They get lined up as soon as they get tackled,” Pickens said. “I have never seen somebody get lined up, throw the referee the ball already set and then snap the ball before the snap count even starts. The chains are not even set yet and they’re already ready to snap the ball. We just have to find a way to stop them.”

Finding a way is easier said than done.

When South Carolina traveled to Knoxville last season to face this Tennessee offense — a system that was newly installed prior to 2021 under then-first-year head coach Josh Heupel — the Volunteers struck gold immediately.

Tennessee led 28-0 before the first quarter was out, and three of those four scores were in typical Heupel fashion. A 35-second touchdown drive, a 1:18 one where Tennessee still managed to snap the ball five times in 78 seconds, and then a 33-second touchdown drive had South Carolina immediately dazed. The Volunteers had three more scoring drives in the game, including an 11-play drive that only took 2:04, an average of just 11.3 seconds per snap.

It was Hepuel’s offense to perfection. And it is even better this year.

“We play teams throughout the year that mix some tempo in and utilize it, so we’re always preparing for it,” Shane Beamer said. “But not every single play at the pace that Tennessee does.

“It takes a lot of organization from the graduate assistants and the coaches to make sure that guys get lined up. It’s different, but it wasn’t like we all the sudden woke up this morning and tried to figure out how we’re going to do it. It’s something that we’ve been thinking about in the offseason and talked more about Sunday and Monday before we got into today [Tuesday].”

One of Tennessee’s sharpest weapons is Jalin Hyatt, the wide receiver from Irmo, S.C. who is leading the SEC in receiving yards and the entire nation in receiving touchdowns with two weeks left in the regular season. Hyatt personifies everything this lightning offense does. He has speed in space, he is deadly when he gets a chance to push the envelope on a defense, and is the type of big play threat that allows Tennessee to score quickly and stack up scoring avalanches.

Whether it was his 68-yard touchdown catch against Missouri last week, his 55-yarder on the first drive of the game against Kentucky, or catching three scores from at least 35 yards out in a legendary five-touchdown performance against Alabama, he is the quickest path to the end zone for the Volunteers.

And on the flip side, keeping a lid on Hyatt has been the most feasible — and arguably the only — path to staying in the game against Tennessee. He has only failed to catch a pass for at least 30 yards four times this season, and three of those games were the close calls of the year for the Volunteers with an overtime survival at Pitt, a five-point win over Florida, and their lone loss at Georgia.

Like everything else with this team, Hyatt’s success leads back to the pace.

“They do a great job with him and moving him around and one, you’ve got to get lined up with their tempo and make sure you’re in the right place,” Beamer said. “But now when the ball is snapped, you’ve got a guy with elite speed coming right at you. It’s certainly a challenge when you have a guy as dynamic as him.”

Everything will fall on defensive coordinator Clayton White’s shoulders this week just seven days after his defense was embarrassed in a 38-6 loss at Florida. The Gators gained 219 yards in the first quarter alone and rushed for 374 yards total.

If Tennessee comes out with the same early success Florida did, there will be no way back for South Carolina on senior night. Typically once you get behind the 8-ball against this team, you stay there. The task will be just to stay on equal footing for as long as possible, and not letting the speed of the game get out of hand.

“The way you practice it is you have to have a full commitment from the football team,” White said. “Meaning that offense has to give you some looks, our scout team guys have to give us some looks, and also the head coach has to agree on it. That’s the only way you can practice that tempo and get yourselves somewhat ready for that pace.”

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