When asked if any Tennessee football players would be punished for actions in the chaotic field storming after the South Carolina game, coach Josh Heupel said "we handle it inside the building."

That means if there is any discipline, Heupel will handle it internally. He acknowledged that it's difficult to judge each incident in the chaotic scene, where some altercations were captured on video.

"It’s straight chaos, getting off the field," Heupel said on Oct. 28. "You know those situations are circumstances in which we handle it inside the building."

It was Heupel's first comments about the field storming since the game at Williams-Brice Stadium on Oct. 24.

"We’ve been on both sides of the coin in those (field-storming) situations," Heupel said. "Do you worry about your players? Yeah, absolutely. But it’s a circumstance that we allowed to happen (by losing the game)."

No. 17 Tennessee (6-2, 3-2 SEC) is off this week before playing No. 8 Kentucky (7-1, 5-1) on Nov. 7 (6:15 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Neyland Stadium.

Tennessee lost 27-24 to South Carolina (4-3, 2-3). Malik Orsan made the game-winning 48-yard field goal on the final play, and fans immediately stormed the field.

Thousands of South Carolina fans pushed through the hedges surrounding the field and ran toward players of both teams. Some sprinted toward South Carolina players to celebrate the win. Others ran toward UT players to taunt them as they left the field.

Many fans filmed the event with their phones and posted the videos on social media. Those videos showed that Tennessee players had altercations with South Carolina players and fans during the field storming as they struggled to exit the field through the crowd.

Immediate field storming is an SEC violation, resulting in a $500,000 fine. South Carolina must pay that money to Tennessee, according to SEC rule, the conference office announced on Oct. 25.

Tennessee was fined $500,000 for storming the field after a 26-10 win over Alabama on Oct. 17 at Neyland Stadium.

What happened in Tennessee altercations with South Carolina fans, player

It was a chaotic scene on the field as players and fans shared the same space in the moments immediately after the game. Videos showed some of their interractions.

In one video, UT linebacker Jeremiah Telander appeared to throw a punch at a South Carolina player. A security guard then escorted Telander off the field. It was only an eight-second video, so it wasn’t clear what provoked the altercation.

In a second video, a fan ran toward UT players and taunted them as they walked off the field. The fan shouted profanities and waved his hand in the face of UT defensive lineman Kedric Golston, who turned his head and walked away.

In the background of that second video, another fan appeared to carry a whiteboard from the UT sideline, which coaches use to diagram plays. UT defensive lineman Daevin Hobbs shoved the fan to the ground and ripped away the whiteboard, which also fell to the ground. Hobbs still held the whiteboard easel in his hand at the end of the altercation.

Other UT team gear and video equipment were also damaged in the field storming.

And a third video showed UT defensive lineman Ethan Utley and other players pushing fans away as they tried to exit the field through the crowd. Some fans yelled at players, waved hands in their faces and collided with them. There was a tight corridor to UT's locker room, so players had to exit the field in a single-file line.

It gets worse too pic.twitter.com/U43QGVHsrd

— Sellers16fx (@Tbone1013T) October 25, 2026

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing atknoxnews.com/subscribe.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: What Josh Heupel said about Tennessee altercations in South Carolina field storming

Source: Yahoo Sports