Grading all performances from South Carolina's Week 7 loss to Alabama

South Carolina nearly pulled off a stunner in Tuscaloosa but fell just short in the end. The Gamecocks, who led at one point in the fourth quarter, suffered a 27-25 loss to No. 7 Alabama on Saturday.

The loss now marks two straight for the team after jumping out to a 3-1 start. They’re now 3-3 overall and 1-3 in SEC play.

Let’s grade each position group and the coaching staff and break down how they performed this weekend.

Quarterback: B

LaNorris Sellers showed a lot of good things in this matchup with a shaky Crimson Tide defense. For the most part, he played well and completed 74 percent of his passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns. He also had his fair share of mistakes.

Sellers lost two fumbles in this game, one of which came in the fourth quarter right after South Carolina, with a five-point lead, picked off Jalen Milroe in the end zone. The other was back in the second quarter on a sack he should’ve maybe taken instead of trying to throw the ball away on his way to the ground.

But despite this, Sellers still gave the Gamecocks a great chance to win this game. He made a lot of big throws into some tight windows and was very effective in the run game before taking the sacks into account. He made a great throw to Nyck Harbor to lead a last-ditch effort to try and tie the game in the final minute.

On the two-point try that followed, Sellers overthrew an open Vandrevius Jacobs to keep South Carolina down by two points. It was a throw he needed to have in that moment but simply missed the mark.

When the offense came back out onto the field after a successful onside kick, Sellers launched a deep pass down the field to Harbor but was picked off by Alabama to seal the deal. So, while he played a pretty good game, there were still some mistakes that came back to haunt him and the team by the end.

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Running back: B

Rocket Sanders looked a lot like his usual self against the Tide, rushing for 78 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries with a long of 23 yards. He played a huge part in the success of South Carolina’s 16-play, 85-yard drive to open the third quarter as he ran the ball seven times and scored a one-yard touchdown to cap it off.

Oscar Adaway had four carries for 14 yards, which really isn’t a lot. But he did make three catches for 30 yards, including a 14-yard catch on a shovel pass from Sellers to set up Sanders’ only touchdown.

It’s good to see South Carolina and Dowell Loggains finding more ways to be creative in the run game, especially with using the running backs as pass catchers.

Wide receiver: B+

This game proved to be a very collective effort from multiple players in the receiving corps. Mazeo Bennett continues to look like this team’s true WR1 after running a perfect wheel route to score a 36-yard touchdown in the second quarter. He finished with three catches for 57 yards and the one score.

Many had been waiting to see when Harbor would finally make his presence felt. Saturday was the day for him to do just that. He only caught two passes, but his second catch proved to be the most important of the game. Down by eight with 43 seconds left, he managed to get a foot down on a ridiculous 31-yard touchdown catch to keep the Gamecocks alive.

Tight end: B-

Josh Simon hauled in five of his six targets and finished with 22 receiving yards. Michael Smith only had one catch but it was a good one as he caught a 15-yard pass on a crossing route from Sellers in the first quarter.

Offensive line: D

South Carolina gave up four sacks on Saturday, bringing the season total up to 26 with six games to go. The Gamecocks only need 15 more to tie last year’s unimpressive mark of 41 sacks allowed.

While Josiah Thompson finished with the highest PFF grade amongst all Gamecocks, he played a big part in the sacks that were given up. There were multiple times in this game where he got beat off the ball and let a defender swallow up Sellers in the backfield.

Cason Henry’s struggles continued as the team’s starting right tackle. Specifically on a sack he gave up in the second quarter, he was bulldozed by a linebacker coming off the edge. Henry had his hands on Que Robinson for maybe one to two seconds before falling backwards.

Jatavius Shivers would come into the game and play the rest of the way after Henry went to the medical tent. Shivers played 54 snaps and Henry only played 21, setting up an interesting battle to see who starts at the tackle spot this weekend at Oklahoma.

Defensive line: A

This is easily one of the best defensive line units, not just in the SEC, but in all of college football. Enjoy it while it lasts because a lot of these players won’t be back next year.

Kyle Kennard had another monster day with two sacks and three tackles for loss. He was also responsible for bringing Milroe down in the end zone for a safety towards the end of the first half. He is just a really special player.

Tonka Hemingway had been kept relatively quiet for a portion of this season but made a big play on Saturday when he sacked Milroe right before halftime. He finished with three additional tackles on the day.

Overall, South Carolina matched up well against Alabama’s offensive line and lived in the backfield for most of the game.

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Linebacker: A-

After giving up some early big chunk plays on the first drive of the game, it looked like the linebackers settled in nicely and played a good game. Demetrius Knight Jr. had the standout performance with one sack and two TFLs.

Debo Williams finished with three tackles, while Bam Martin-Scott also had three in the game.

The linebackers did a good job of keeping an eye on Milroe and making sure he wasn’t running up and down the field. Milroe did finish with 36 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, but both of his scores were from less than 10 yards out.

Secondary: B+

Milroe probably wants nothing to do with the Gamecock defense after the way he played on Saturday. In addition to taking four sacks, the Alabama quarterback also threw two interceptions, both nice plays made by the secondary.

On the penultimate play of the first half, Milroe threw in the direction of his receiver and was picked off by Jalon Kilgore who took it the other way for 31 yards before running out of bounds. This was a heads up play by him as he left enough time on the clock for a field goal going into halftime.

Later in the fourth quarter, with Alabama on the doorstep of getting into the end zone, Milroe floated a pass near the front left corner of the end zone, intended for Germie Bernard. However, he was intercepted again when O’Donnell Fortune cut in front of Bernard and picked off the pass to take away a potential score.

Now, the secondary did suffer a blown coverage that resulted in an Alabama touchdown in the final minutes of the game. But overall, it was a good day for the group.

Special teams: C+

If this grade were solely based on Kai Kroeger’s perfectly executed onside kick in the final minute of the fourth quarter, it would be an A+. But there were other things that went wrong in this game on special teams.

In the first quarter, the Gamecocks forced a three-and-out and geared up to bring the house to try and block a punt. Maurice Brown nearly had it blocked, but he was penalized for roughing the kicker as Alabama’s punter’s plant foot landed on a diving Brown and proceeded to fall.

After making his first field goal from 37 yards, Alex Herrera lined up to try an all-important 51-yarder midway through the fourth quarter. But his kick was no good and missed wide right by a good margin. It’s one of the situations where Herrera was counted on to make the kick by the team but didn’t. At the same time, the offense did him no favors by gaining three yards in three plays to set up 4th and 15 at the Alabama 33-yard line.

This is now the second time this season in which Herrera has missed a go-ahead or game-tying field goal in the fourth quarter. He previously missed from 48 yards as time expired in a 36-33 loss to LSU in Week 3.

Coaching: B+

This was a vastly improved game from a coaching standpoint for South Carolina. With how much the Gamecocks were counted out heading into the game, Shane Beamer and his staff did a great job of keeping the focus on the team and not being worried about the outside noise.

On the field, Loggains’ play calling was much better as the game wore on. There were definitely some questionable calls from time to time. But you don’t run into some of the offensive drives they had by dumb luck.

Clayton White continues to lead a defensive unit that has proven to be one of the best in the country. There are no moral victories in the SEC, but to hold high-powered offenses like Ole Miss and Alabama to 27 points apiece is impressive. The defense has been able to keep the team in every game so far this year, and it’s a shame there were too many mistakes made in other aspects of the game to result in another loss.

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