Preview of Gamecocks Visit To Alabama

USC +21 at Alabama Noon ABC

Last time Alabama lost 2 games in a row was 2013. They lost the Iron Bowl to the eventual SEC Champs and then their bowl game to Oklahoma. The only time Kalen DeBoer has lost 2 in a row was his first season at Washington. He coached there 2 years and lost 3 games, so he cleaned it up pretty quickly. That 3rd loss in year 2 was for the national championship against Michigan. Everyone has made a huge deal out of Alabama’s lack of creativity on D. A video went viral on social media from a Sports Illustrated contributor breaking down the Vandy film. He shows 3 plays in the “Cover 1 robber with double mugs”. I have to laugh that so many people believe a guy who has never coached a game has cracked the code on how to beat Alabama. Ironically this guy’s main job is covering Georgia football, and you’d think he’d be at least a little bit self-conscious mocking how easy it is to crack Alabama’s scheme when the week previous Kirby, Bobo and the Georgia staff were befuddled by it. But anyways the internet has now got it solved so South Carolina can just run what Vandy ran and let’s put up a W.

That is probably about as bad an idea as anyone has ever had. Football 101 says teams’ scheme for their opponents’ personnel. Then there’s changes after the series. Halftime adjustments etc. As far as South Carolina execution has gone this year, it’s not been good. Our passing game is 110th in the nation. So we have to be a run team and we are better but not good at 43rd. Currently our rush leaders are Rocket Sanders with 315, QB LaNorris Sellers with 200 yards. and backup QB Robbie Ashford has 172. When the QB position is the rush leader on your team something isn’t right. The thing that isn’t right is the offensive line. The reason Alabama is more than a 3 TD favorite is because our offense is unable to get a push or protect in the pass game. Combine that with penalties. Wow! Currently ranked 119th for yards penalized this season. This puts extra stress on the D which is crumbling a bit under the pressure but is still ranked 22nd in the country 6th in the SEC.  90.9 percent of the computer’s most recent 20,000 simulations for this game Alabama wins.

After we crapped the bed against FL in 2022 no one thought we could give TN much of a game. We were 22.5 point underdogs in that game. After we won Cam Smith was asked what the leaders and coaches had done differently for TN. He said “nothing just drop ya nuts”. This is drop ya nuts time for the Gamecocks. But till we see the dropping, I’m picking Alabama to cover.