While the USC offense has had its fair share of issues during Shane Beamer’s tenure, the Gamecocks have consistently fielded an average to above-average defensive unit, and so far in 2024 they are bordering on a top-25 level just by giving 19 points per game. Defensive coordinator Clayton White was an NC State linebacker who had a three-year NFL career before moving into the coaching ranks.

As you would expect from a unit coached by a former NFL linebacker, South Carolina’s defense goes all-in for big hits all game long, and the secondary is extremely aggressive in man coverage. White loves to send home blitzes on third downs, and for better or worse, his defense will crash the backfield all game long.

The Gamecocks have quite a few different fronts, switching between 3- and 4-man fronts during the game, but the personnel is more of a 2-4-5, similar to what Alabama has run under Pete Golding in recent years. There will be a huge emphasis on letting the edge rushers shine, and the secondary will provide plenty of man-quarter coverage to avoid getting beat deep.

Senior linebacker Debo Williams is in his third year and led the team as an All-SEC performer last year, and his presence as a thunderous tackler and run stuffer has the rest of the USC front crashing after the QB, knowing he’s there is to clean things up.

On the perimeter, senior Kyle Kennard leads the team with 8.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks following his impressive campaign last year as a transfer from Georgia Tech. On the other hand, true freshman Dylan Stewart is on his way to superstardom as a five-star top-20 recruit with exceptional height (6-foot-1) and the kind of speed that can get him drafted in a matter of minutes. year. He hasn’t put it together for consistent production yet, but he has 5.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks so far.

The defensive tackles, Alex Huntley and Tonka Hemmingway, are both fifth-year players with significant size and surprising hustle. They won’t make a difference, but they both do a lot on the interior picking off blockers and will finish plays by chasing people down.

Things could get interesting for the Cocks in the secondary phase. Safety Nick Emmanwori was an All-SEC player last year and he leads the team with 29 tackles and 2 interceptions this year. Jalon Kilgore also returns as a nickel corner and was one of the team’s best tacklers last season. As a group, there’s a lot of talent for impressive open-field tackling and some nice man coverage and ball skills… But their zone coverage has been extremely sketchy all season. They will attack every ball in the air, but they will also take their share of pass interference.

And if it goes third… Watch out, because there’s a good chance an all-out blitz is coming, and it’s likely to be a big game for someonealthough it might as well be for the offense.

This could be a tougher matchup for the Alabama offense. Jalen Milroe has struggled with these types of tough teams in the past, and they will likely oversell to stop the running backs and Milroe runs. Can Alabama make them pay by pushing the ball to the intermediate areas of the field in the passing game? And can they get running plays off the run blitzes to take advantage of the open gaps behind them?

I think it’s a kind of start-and-fits game for the Tide offense, similar to what we saw against USF – though hopefully a little more coherent. I think Alabama scores between 32 and 35 points on this one. Slightly below their production for most of the season, but far from a bad performance.