Grading the Gamecocks' performance against Alabama

South Carolina had its chance to pull off a massive upset this past Saturday, but couldn’t finish off No. 4 Alabama in a 29-22 loss at Williams-Brice Stadium.

As we do each week, let’s grade every position group as well as the coaching staff and break down how they performed this past weekend.

Quarterback: B+

LaNorris Sellers arguably had his best overall performance of the season, completing 18-of-32 passes for 222 yards and a touchdown. He threw an interception, but as we’ll get into, it wasn’t his fault. He also rushed for 67 yards and a touchdown, though it could’ve very well been two if not for a holding call.

Sellers had a lot of clean pockets and time to throw, as he was only sacked twice. He stepped up and made some big throws and ran when needed at an efficient level. He looked much more like the first-round NFL Draft pick that many expect him to be, whether it’s after this season or in the future.

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For as well as he played, he made a crucial mistake at the worst possible time of the game. With the score tied at 28, Sellers fumbled on a 2nd and 4 run to give Alabama the ball back at the 38-yard line, which led to the Crimson Tide scoring a go-ahead touchdown with 34 seconds remaining.

It was at this moment that Superman turned into Clark Kent. One miscue doesn’t turn this into a bad performance, though. South Carolina wouldn’t have been in the game if it weren’t for Sellers.

Running back: D

Aside from Sellers, who was the team’s leading rusher, the Gamecocks didn’t run the football well against the Alabama defense. Matt Fuller, Rahsul Faison, and Oscar Adaway combined for 44 yards on 19 carries. Fuller led the running backs in rushing with 19 yards on the ground.

So it was a lackluster performance from that standpoint. This has been an inconsistent group all year with some good moments, but a lot of games like this where the run game couldn’t deliver.

Circling back to Sellers’ interception in the first quarter, that was all on Faison. Sellers threw a pass right to him that went in and out of his hands and right to Alabama’s DaShawn Jones as he took it the other way for an 18-yard pick-six. There’s no reason for a veteran running back to drop that pass. Cannot happen.

Faison made up for the mistake with some nice catches and runs in the passing game. He caught a team-leading four passes for 47 yards. But still, his earlier mistake loomed large in a seven-point loss.

Wide receiver: C+

For the third straight game, Vandrevius Jacobs, who’s still the team’s leading receiver, did next to nothing on offense. He didn’t record any stats in this one. But a few others had respectable performances, including Jayden Sellers, who got involved offensively again and caught three passes for 38 yards.

Donovan Murph also caught three passes for 21 yards. Nyck Harbor only had one catch, but it was the biggest one of the day on a 54-yard touchdown grab in the third quarter.

Tight end: C

Brady Hunt continues to be involved in this offense as the main pass catcher among the tight ends. He had three catches for 29 yards, averaging 9.7 yards per catch. Jordan Dingle also had two catches for 20 yards. But the production hasn’t been on the same level as years past, especially when Josh Simon was here.

Offensive line: C+

It seems that South Carolina’s offensive line benefited a lot from another week of working with Shawn Elliott and getting most of its injured players back on the field. The protection, for the most part, was a lot better as Sellers was only sacked twice. And Shane Beamer explicitly pointed out that one of the sacks wasn’t on the offensive line, so it’s really one, which came on the game’s final play.

There were a few penalties called on the O-line, with Boaz Stanley, who got the start at center, having two go against him. Tree Babalade and Josiah Thompson were also flagged for holding. Babalade’s penalty came when Sellers ran into the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown run, but the play got called back as a result.

Defensive line: B+

Really solid game up front for the defensive line. Alabama didn’t do a ton in the ground game, and Ty Simpson looked as rattled as he has all season. That’s saying a lot considering he’s been viewed as one of the current favorites to win the Heisman Trophy.

Bryan Thomas Jr. and Nick Barrett were the real standouts in this game. Thomas finished with two tackles, one sack, one tackle for loss, one pass breakup, and one quarterback hurry. He was all over the field making plays. Barrett had five tackles and one TFL.

Linebacker: C

Justin Okoronkwo led the group with five tackles. Fred Johnson had three tackles, and Shawn Murphy had two. Murphy had one bad mistake in particular on a 3rd and 7 play in the second quarter when he watched a short pass go over his head to Daniel Hill when he took a step forward towards Simpson. Hill then ran down the sideline for a 41-yard gain, setting the Tide up for a touchdown a few plays later.

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Secondary: B+

South Carolina’s secondary finished with five pass breakups, as it played well against some of Alabama’s top playmakers on the outside. Jalon Kilgore made a terrific play on a 40-yard deep ball to Germie Bernard in the fourth quarter, where he timed his leap perfectly and got a hand on the ball.

Earlier in the game, defensive coordinator Clayton White made a great play call to have Vicari Swain blitz, which led to Simpson being sacked and fumbling the ball away, recovered by Troy Pikes. Swain also had a big pass breakup in one-on-one coverage with Bernard on a 3rd and 7 play in the third quarter.

Special teams: C+

Beamer Ball struck when the Gamecocks recovered a fumble on a muffed punt by Keon Sabb that Harbor recovered at the start of the fourth quarter. This led directly to Sellers’ 10-yard touchdown run a few moments later to give them an eight-point lead.

Mason Love averaged 47 yards per punt on four tries in the game. William Joyce missed a 47-yard field goal in the second quarter but made up for it with three more made kicks throughout the day.

Max Kelley has normally been South Carolina’s kickoff specialist this year. But Joyce handled those duties on Saturday and had his first kick go out of bounds. That’s happened a few times this year, which is likely why Joyce took over that role. But that wasn’t ideal for him, especially early on in the game.

Coaching: B-

Coaching has usually been subject to a lot of the blame throughout the season, but it really didn’t feel like a big issue in this game.

Mike Shula’s offensive playcalling was a lot better. Beamer said after the game that they simplified things to where they were only going to call their best plays, regardless of how few there were. That was the game plan, and it was a change that led to better results from the struggling offense.

Some will have an issue with Shula calling a QB draw for Sellers on 2nd and 4 late in the game, which led to the fumble that put Alabama in a position to take the lead. But Sellers ran the ball well up to that point, and there shouldn’t be an issue with trusting him to have the ball in that spot. It was just a good play by the defense to strip it out of his hands.

Another moment that’s caused some controversy is letting Alabama score in the final minute of the fourth quarter. Here’s the thing. Once the Tide picked up the easy third-down conversion, Bernard was well inside the 10-yard line. DQ Smith, who was right there to make the play, could’ve definitely knocked him out of bounds. But then you’re setting yourself up for Alabama to run down the clock and kick a chipshot field goal.

So from that standpoint, it made sense for Beamer to tell his players to let Alabama score if it picked up the first down. He wanted to give his offense a chance to go down and score with some time left on the clock. The execution of the ensuing drive wasn’t good, though, as it ended in three plays.

There are no moral victories from a loss like this, where South Carolina let the game slip away against a high-quality opponent. Even Beamer noted that the team has to find ways to finish off opponents. This isn’t the first time they were in a tightly contested game, in some cases with the lead, and couldn’t win.

But give some credit where it’s due: Beamer and the coaching staff seemingly did a great job of blocking out the outside noise after an ugly loss to Oklahoma and performing much better the following week. None of that changes what the record is or where things stand, though. It’ll be an uphill battle from here for the Gamecocks to come close to sniffing bowl eligibility by season’s end.

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