Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs (11) takes off on a fourth-down play, with seconds left on the clock, to score a 36-yard touchdown during the first half of his game against South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014.COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Jalen Reeves-Maybin was the first player to emerge from the wild locker-room celebration that followed an even wilder comeback win.
The Tennessee linebacker then probably best summed up what just happened.
"Amazing," he said with a huge grin.
Was it ever.
Trailing South Carolina by two scores inside the final five minutes, the Volunteers improbably rallied, as quarterback Josh Dobbs drove his team 85 yards for the tying touchdown and a defense that had been gashed all night made Aaron Medley's overtime field goal hold up as Tennessee beat the Gamecocks 45-42 at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night.
"The locker room was like a club," said linebacker Curt Maggitt, who had one of Tennessee's two overtime sacks that ultimately led to the Gamecocks attempting a 58-yard field goal that never had a chance. "It was fun. Everybody's dancing, singing, jumping around."
Tennessee (4-5, 1-4 SEC) has trailed in most of its games this season, but the Vols continued to play in all of them, which has earned them praise for their effort and hard-playing style from the SEC's other coaches.
That resiliency and fight finally paid off in a victory on Saturday night.
"It means a lot," cornerback Cam Sutton said. "Just the adversity go through, we never get down on ourselves. We keep believing in ourselves and keep the believing in the system (and) definitely in each other and our style of play. It showed tonight.
"We didn't get down ourselves when times weren't going our way, we kept fighting and we came out with a W."
Tennessee owes plenty of the credit to Dobbs, the sophomore making his first start of the season, though he got plenty of help from freshman tailback Jalen Hurd, receiver Pig Howard and a maligned offensive line.
Dobbs completed 23-of-40 passes for 301 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-tying 9-yard score to Jason Croom with 11 seconds left, and added 166 rushing yards on 24 carries with scoring runs of 7, 36 and 3 yards.
The rushing yardage was the most ever by a Tennessee quarterback, surpassing Jimmy Streeter's 106-yard game against Auburn in 1979.
"I'm just very confident in my abilities," he said. "I'm confident in the offense's abilities. I know that we can put up points and we're a really good team. We have really good playmakers, so I know that when I have the ball in my hand, my goal is to distribute the ball and stay within the scheme of the offense.
"If I do that, I know we can be successful."
Tennessee piled up 645 yards of offense against a South Carolina that entered the game tied for 13th in the SEC in points allowed, second-from-bottom in the league in yards and last in rushing yards allowed.
Tennessee's 344 rushing yards -- the Vols' previous season-high was 185 yards against Arkansas State -- were the most against an SEC opponent since it ran for 406 yards against Vanderbilt in 1994.
"Josh is able to make us right when we're wrong," left tackle Kyler Kerbyson said. "If we do get beat, he can use his legs and be able to make plays. The guy played a heck of a game tonight."
Of course, it was all nearly undone by the South Carolina duo of receiver Pharoh Cooper and tailback Brandon Wilds.
Cooper was a menace to Tennessee all night, as the sophomore ran for a touchdown, threw a scoring pass to Wilds and set the Gamecocks' single-game receiving record with 233 yards on 11 catches a week after Alabama's Amari Cooper went off for 224 yards against the Vols.
Cooper's 85-yard touchdown catch gave South Carolina (4-5, 2-5) a 35-21 lead with 13:22 left in the game, and Wilds, who had 143 yards and two scores on eight carries, broke free for a 70-yard score with 4:52 left to make it 42-28.
Throughout his 13-minute postgame news conference, Tennessee coach Butch Jones reiterated that his team never lost belief it would ultimately prevail.
"Didn't need to say anything," he said when asked what he told his team after Wilds scored. "They continued to believe, and that's representative of us all year long. And finally, that belief was rewarded tonight."
Dobbs scored on a fourth-and-3 play late in the first half to send Tennessee into halftime with a 21-14 lead, and Hurd, who ran for 125 yards on 21 carries and added 58 yards on seven catches, bounced off two defenders to turn a screen pass on fourth-and-6 into a touchdown early in the fourth quarter after the Gamecocks had run off 21 straight points.
After Wilds's touchdown, Dobbs orchestrated scoring drives of 75 and 85 yards.
"One thing they say, big-time players make big-time plays in big games. That's something he did tonight," said Howard, who caught five passes for 109 yards and had a touchdown run. "He showed a lot of maturity, took hits, made mistakes, came back poised, stayed positive and continued to make plays."
In overtime, the freshman Medley, who missed third quarter field goals of 43 and 45 yards, connected on a 32-yard kick after South Carolina won the coin toss and elected to play defense first.
"It meant everything," he said. "This was a really great team effort. The defense had the offense's back, and special teams had the defense's back. We're just looking ahead. This is a great program win, and this can propel us into the future."
Tennessee's defense allowed 10 plays of 20-plus yards after giving up a dozen such big plays in the losses to Ole Miss and Alabama, but the Vols came up big when most needed.
After Cooper recovered an onsides kick, the Vols forced a three-and-out as Jones called all three of his timeouts to preserve the clock and leave the offense with 1:23 to tie the game.
In OT, Maggitt blazed off the edge to sack South Carolina quarterback Dylan Thompson on the first play after Medley's kick, then freshman Derek Barnett got his third of the night and pushed South Carolina to Tennessee's 40-yard line.
Jones said the Vols were fine going on defense second to "let them win it."
"He's got confidence in us, and we've got confidence in ourselves," Maggitt said. "A lot of times when big plays happen, it's something we did to ourselves. We've got to go back and criticize the film and get better from it. We gave up too many big plays.
"But the outcome is what we wanted, and it's a great feeling."
The win might have come against a team that's tumbled from a No. 9 preseason ranking to 4-5, but it didn't take anything away from the players' celebrations or significance for a program trying to reverse its losing trend.
"We needed some tangible results," Jones said. "And we needed these kids to be rewarded for their hard work. Now, that's just victory No. 4. The bye week's coming at the right time, and then we have to finish strong."
Tennessee comes out of an open date needing two wins from a final three of Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt to reach the program's first bowl game since 2010.
"It feels like we're getting over that hump," Reeves-Maybin said.
"Our program is different," he added. "It's not like what it was. We don't have any negativity in our locker room. Until that final whistle goes, we believe we can win the game. It doesn't matter what happens. Until we're out of chances, we're going to fight until the end."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.