The South Carolina football team lost to the No. 7 Alabama Crimson Tide 27-25 Saturday afternoon at Bryant-Denny Stadium. South Carolina's defense put out a strong performance, while the offense struggled with turnovers, despite a few strong plays.
The defeat makes South Carolina 1-3 in the conference and is its eighth-straight loss against ranked opponents. The last time the Gamecocks beat a ranked opponent was in November 2022 against then-No. 8 Clemson.
The Gamecocks struggled in the opening of the game and gained momentum towards the end of the second quarter. Alabama led the Gamecocks by 14 five minutes into the second quarter, but the defense stopped the Crimson Tide in pivotal moments, preventing Alabama from scoring further.
The Gamecocks' offense managed to not only just get on the board but closed the gap to just a 2-point difference heading into halftime after South Carolina scored a touchdown of its own and capitalized on an Alabama safety.
The trajectory of the game started to turn in the third quarter when South Carolina scored a rushing touchdown with six minutes remaining in the third quarter, taking the lead, 19-14. Alabama regained possession and in the fourth quarter was headed into the red zone where it looked promising for the team to score, but South Carolina redshirt senior defensive back O'Donnel Fortune intercepted the ball in the end zone with a little over 12 minutes left in the game.
The Gamecocks' celebration would be brief, however. Redshirt freshman quarterback would fumble the ball two plays into the drive with Alabama recovering it. This would lead the Crimson Tide to score, giving the team a 1-point advantage at 20-19. The Gamecocks on its next turn tried to reclaim the lead but couldn't after a missed field goal by sixth-year kicker Alex Herrera. Alabama then scored on its next possession, increasing its lead to 27-19.
With a little more than a minute left to play in the fourth quarter and down 9 points, the odds weren't looking good for South Carolina. But the team was able to move downfield quickly and score with less than 50 seconds left in the game, making the score 27-25. The team needed to then score on the 2-point conversion to tie the game but failed to do so.
The Gamecocks had one last chance to try and take back the game. South Carolina set up for an onside kick and was able to recover it. But with not much time left in the game, the team was unable to score any more points after Sellers threw an interception with 13 seconds left, ending the game.
Improved rushing game
South Carolina’s rushing game showed improvement from last week. Senior running back Raheim Sanders led the team with 78 yards rushing off of 16 carries.
In the sixth drive for the Gamecocks, Sanders and Sellers were consistently rushing for positive chunk plays. This led to a a 1-yard touchdown rush in the third quarter by Sanders, giving South Carolina the lead for the first time in the game.
Despite the strong rushing attack, the Gamecocks were unable to get over the hump with an opportunity to win. Head football coach Shane Beamer following the game said that it was tough to not steal a game from a strong opponent.
“Life in this conference is really really hard and there’s really good teams you play week in and week out,” head coach Shane Beamer said following the game. “I hurt for (our players)."
Consistency on defense
South Carolina’s consistency on defense helped the Gamecocks stay in the game.
The team is ranked 20th in the country in total defense. Fifth-year edge Kyle Kennard is ranked fourth in sacks in the entire country with 7.5, while sophomore safety Jalon Kilgore is tied for sixth in interceptions with three.
“One of the keys to the game for us was to affect the quarterback,” Beamer said. "We had stopped the run, we had sacked him four times, and (we) created a turnover as well. I thought they did enough for us to win."
The Gamecock defense sacked redshirt junior quarterback Jalen Milroe four times and picked him off twice. The first play of Alabama’s sixth drive Kennard forced a safety in which Milroe committed an intentional grounding penalty in Alabama’s own end zone.
With constant pressure by Kennard, leaving with two sacks, the Gamecocks did not let the Crimson Tide score in the third quarter and forced three punts over the entire game.
Turnover struggles
The Gamecocks ended the game with four turnovers with two from redshirt freshman quarterback Lanorris Sellers. One turnover happened with less than a minute left in the second quarter. With good momentum to score, Sellers lost the ball while being sacked.
The other costly turnover was three minutes into the fourth quarter when Sellers lost the football, giving Alabama good field position to eventually take a 20-19 lead.
“You can’t go on the road in the SEC and turn the ball over," Beamer said following the game.
Sellers ended the game with 238 yards passing off of 23 out of 31 passing attempts. With only 19 yards rushing, his rushing helped extend plays and get first downs. Throughout the game, Sanders and Sellers were consistently rushing for positive chunk plays.
“(Sellers is) a warrior,” Beamer said. "I'm proud of him. He continues to get better each and every week."
Despite Sellers having a bounce back game after the tough loss against then-No. 12 Ole Miss, the turnovers from the offense defined the final score.
“You can’t turn the ball over against really good football teams, and we created some," Beamer said. "But when you lose the turnover battle, it’s going to be hard to win.”
What's next?
South Carolina (3-3, 1-3 SEC) will continue conference play on Oct. 19 when the team travels to face the Oklahoma Sooners (4-2, 1-2 SEC). Kickoff from Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium will be at 12:45 p.m. and streamed on SEC Network.