While Shane Beamer keeps changing out his offensive coordinator like an air filter, he’s stuck with defensive coordinator Clayton White ever since 2021. 6 straight years is a long time. At this point, you generally know the scheme: it’s a multiple front, 1-gap defense that goes with a whole lot of man coverage with plenty of blitzing, and there’s a big focus on getting the edge rushers into 1v1 matchups with offensive tackles and letting them do their thing.
The Gamecocks generally took care of business
in their two season-opener warm up games, shutting out Kent State and only allowing 9 points to Towson. Unfortunately for them, their SEC opener was against the notorious buzzsaw named Mississippi State.
Now, MSU is looking a bit surprising with Kamario Taylor at QB and garnering quite a bit of hype…. But the Gamecocks allowed 41 points in that game, generally looking lost and overwhelmed the whole game. It wasn’t pretty (and also I’m not sure just how much love MSU really should be getting just yet).
The real linchpin to things for USC is edge rusher Dylan Stewart. The junior has been touted as a future top-ten draft pick for two years now for his otherworldly athleticism and length on the edge. Unfortunately, he missed the end of last season and the first two games of this season with a lingering back injury. He did finally get to take some snaps last week vs Mississippi State, but was on a limited pitch count. It sounds like they expect him to be ramping up to a heavier workload against Alabama this week, but there will likely be some rust for him to shake off.
Caleb Herring and Anthony Addison have been holding down the fort at edge without Stewart, and Addison already has a couple of sacks.
At defensive tackle, veteran Gabe Brownlow-Dindy is out with an injury, and former Tide reserve Kelby Collins is slated to get the starting nod. Collins was a bit of a tweener that couldn’t carve a role for himself last year, so it’ll be interesting to see how he holds up.
At linebacker, former Tide reserve Justin Okoronkwo was exceptional for USC last year and now leads the Gamecocks in tackles so far this season. He’s a highly athletic linebacker that I still hate left Alabama, as he was an excellent special teamer as a freshman and I thought he’d be in line to be a starter for Alabama this year had he stayed. Fred Johnson and Shawn Murphy also both return from last year.
In the secondary, cornerback Vicari Swain returns and is getting his first real shot at being a full time starting cornerback after being an All-SEC punt returner a year ago. Opposite him Judge Collier returns after being a regular contributing piece the last couple of years, as does safety Peyton Williams. Interestingly, all 5 of USCs starting defensive backs are players that have been with USC their whole careers – none from the transfer portal.
This South Carolina defense has given Alabama fits the last two seasons, and they return their coaches and a lot of the players from last year’s roster. I do think their defensive line has dropped off a little bit, and starting Kelby Collins as an undersized defensive tackle could come back to bite them if Alabama goes heavy with the run game. On top of that, we still don’t know just how much Dylan Stewart is going to be ready in what is essentially his first full game in nearly a year.
They have an active linebacker group that can cause some problems, too. So don’t be surprised if Alabama has some struggles with short passing game or perimeter runs. On the other hand, the secondary was highly suspect against Mississippi State last week. Was it a one-off bad game for them? Or is it a weak link for the defense? That one remains to be seen, as we overall don’t have a lot of data points on them just yet.
I think this one will be a tough go of things for the Alabama offense. More so just based on the last two seasons than anything specifically. Ultimately, the Tide is able to prevail and move the ball enough (especially with interior runs) to keep things moving. Let’s go with 31 points for the Tide.
