Alabama Football 2026: Previewing the South Carolina Offense
· Yahoo Sports
A year ago when I was previewing the South Carolina ahead of their matchup with Alabama, the Gamecock offense was reeling and the fanbase was on the verge of calling of the firing of Shane Beamer. Well, they did a little more damage to Alabama than we thought they would, and that, coupled with playing #3 Texas A&M down to the wire a couple of weeks later bought Beamer a little bit of life support.
Still, they fired offensive coordinator Mike Shula and brought in Kendal Briles. The former Baylor OC learned the veer-and-shoot offense under his dad, Art Briles, and has since hopped around the college football world taking one new OC job after another (FAU, Houston, Florida State, Arkansas, TCU, and finally, South Carolina).
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While he’s generally been an RPO-heavy and fast-tempo play caller, Briles has also generally changed his scheme to fit his head coach and QB at each stop, so there’s not a whole lot to glean from his previous history.
Last year, the Gamecocks were almost solely depending on big plays (deep shots or big QB scrambles) to move the ball, but with Briles’ new emphasis on rushing and shorter passing concepts, they’ve improved their success rate up to 52% and are putting up an impressive 45 points per game this year. Of course, they opened the season with Kent State and Towson, so grain of salt and all of that, but they did score 34 in a loss to Mississippi State last week. They generally moved the ball well in their first real game of the season, but petered out in the redzone a few too many times.
QB LaNorris Sellers returns for his 3rd year starting, and he’s yet to recapture the excitement surrounding his play in 2024. He’s got 648 yards on a 62.8% completion rate at 7.5 yards per attempt and 5 TDs to 3 interceptions so far this season. Plenty respectable, but nothing crazy. Three picks isn’t great. Either way, he’s a veteran SEC starter at this point. He’s got his warts as a QB, sure, but he’s also got some impressive big plays in him, and he’s about as elite of a runner as you’ll find at the position (he’s got 172 yards on 23 carries so far).
He’s distributed the ball pretty evenly between wide receivers Nyck Harbor, Donovan Murph, and Mazeo Bennett Jr, plus TE Brady Hunt and RB Matt Fuller. Harbor in particular is a guy that college football has had their eyes on for a few years as a massive human (6’5” 240) who is also often labeled the fastest player in college football (clocked at 22.4 mph, and has an insane 10.11s 100-meter dash to his credit). Harbor had 618 yards in a featured role last year, and is now trying to build on that for his senior season to get his production to finally match his physicals. Bennett and Murph have both been with USC for their careers as rotational pieces and are seeing a bigger role this year.
The real difference from a year ago for the Gamecocks, though, has been the emergence of Matt Fuller at running back. Fuller got a handful of carries as a freshman a year ago, but has worked his way into the feature back starting role, and the 221-pounder has rewarded the Gamecocks with an impressive 7.2 yards per carry and 272 rushing yards plus 93 more yards as a receiver so far this season. Against Mississippi State, he had 17 carries and 7 catches, accounting for a major chunk of their offense.
Alabama gave up 22 points to USC last year, and I think both teams are still in a fairly even place. The Gamecocks scored two touchdowns, but one was on a short field after a turnover and the other was a deep bomb to Harbor. Alabama’s defense has still been in something of the same place, giving up a few deep shots last week to Florida State. I do think that USC is a little better at running the ball than a year ago, but Alabama also seems to be a little better at stopping the run.
So, let’s say history somewhat repeats itself. Alabama’s defense mostly gobbles up the short and RPO passing that USC wants to do, but a combination of scrambles and a big pass or two from Sellers gets them a couple of scores. 21-24 points for the Gamecocks.