Greg McElroy describes the similarities between South Carolina and Texas A&M

When South Carolina and Texas A&M faced off this past weekend, the Aggies were ranked in the top 10, while the Gamecocks were unranked. That would seem to signal that there is a pretty big gap between the two teams. However, according to Greg McElroy, that’s not the case.

The ESPN analyst recently spoke on the Always College Football podcast and shared that in his opinion, South Carolina and Texas A&M are two very similar teams.

“South Carolina and Texas A&M are similar teams, but man the perception’s different. You really look at where South Carolina and Texas A&M are, and South Carolina did a great job of creating a remarkably hostile environment. I mean from start to finish in that game, it felt like there was gonna be an earthquake there in Williams-Brice. It was amazing.

“I think when you look at these two teams, one team was thought by many to be a team that would be very fortunate to get to a bowl game this year. The other team, we’re talking about SEC Championship, College Football Playoff, maybe even in some circles a national championship.” 

Despite the perceived gap, it was South Carolina that handled Texas A&M 44-20 this past Saturday in front of a wild crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium.

McElroy feels that a team like South Carolina playing as well as it did against a top-10 team shows just how much parity there is in the SEC.

“The parity across the board is unbelievable in the SEC, and we saw it this past weekend. Because A&M, great defensive line, take over the game defensive line. South Carolina has that, too. Young, talented, athletic quarterback. Well, South Carolina also has that,” McElroy said. “Two teams that really pride themselves on being super physical and trying to run the football. Both teams do that.”

Finally, McElroy shared that he feels like the Gamecocks and Aggies are on the rise due to having really good young quarterbacks.

He mentioned LaNorris Sellers in particular as a QB with an incredibly bright future.

“We’re going to see some really good football from him in his career,” McElroy said of the Gamecocks’ young quarterback. “He’s just getting started and he’s still a young guy and I still think he’s trying to figure out how to operate at the highest levels of football… [But] when he figures this thing out, look out. It’s going to be a huge problem.

“Because how many times in the game did we watch a Texas A&M defender get hands on LaNorris Sellers, looking like it’s going to be a loss of 7, 8, 9 because they sack the quarterback. Only to see him shed, evade, create and take off.”