Alabama Football 2024 Preview: What you need to know about the South Carolina Gamecocks defense

While USC's offense has struggled quite a bit 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 the top-25 level, giving up just 19 points per Game. Defensive coordinator Clayton White was a North Carolina 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 out all game long to score big, and the secondary is extremely aggressive in man coverage. White loves to send home blitzes on 3rd downs, and for better or worse, his defense will destroy the backfield all game long.

The Gamecocks have quite a variety of fronts, switching between 3-man and 4-man fronts throughout the game, but the personnel is more of a 2-4-5 system, similar to what Alabama has been under in recent years Pete Golding played. There will be a strong emphasis on letting the edge rushers shine, and the secondary will play a lot of man quarters coverage to avoid getting beat deep.

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

On the edges, senior Kyle Kennard leads the team with 8.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks, a continuation of 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 5-star top-20 recruit with exceptional length (6-foot-1) and the kind of quickness that will have him drafted in a few years. He hasn't managed to produce consistent performance yet, but he has 5.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks so far.

Defensive tackles Alex Huntley and Tonka Hemmingway are both fifth-year players with significant bulk and surprising hustle. While they won't be a game-changer, they both do a lot inside to pick up blockers and finish plays by chasing people.

Things can get interesting for the Cocks in the secondary. Safety Nick Emmanwori was an All-SEC player last year and leads the team this year with 29 tackles and 2 interceptions. Jalon Kilgore also returns as the team's top corner and one of the team's best tacklers from last season. As a group, there's a lot of talent for impressive open-field tackles and some good man coverage and ball skills… But their zone coverages have been extremely messed up all season. They will attack every ball in the air, but they will also suffer their fair share of pass interference.

And when it comes to third down… Watch out because there's a good chance an all-out blitz is about to happen and it's probably going to turn into a big play someonealthough it could be just as good for the offense.

This could be a tougher matchup for the Alabama offense. Jalen Milroe has struggled with strong blitz teams like this in the past, and they will likely over-sell the running backs and Milroe runs. Can Alabama pay them to push the ball into the intermediate areas of the field in the passing game? And can they make running plays away from the run blitz to take advantage of the open holes behind them?

I think it's something of a start-and-fit game for the Tide offense, similar to what we saw against USF – although hopefully a little more coherent. I think Alabama scores in the 32-35 range at this point. The performance was slightly below what they were capable of for most of the season, but it was far from bad.