5 things we learned from South Carolina’s 29-22 loss to Alabama
South Carolina, somehow, fell 29-22 to No. 4 Alabama on Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Here are five things we learned from the game:
1. Gamecocks have a finishing problem
In the wake of South Carolina’s 26-7 loss to Oklahoma a week ago, there was criticism of the Gamecocks, coach Shane Beamer and the construction of this USC roster.
South Carolina (3-5, 1-5 SEC) was outclassed last week, and it felt like the Gamecocks had cracks all over its program.
That might all still be true, but Saturday felt different. South Carolina wasn’t outclassed. It proved it has the ability to beat a Top-10 team in the country ... if everything goes right.
But this football team, beyond all its flaws, doesn’t know how to win. It had a fourth-quarter lead against Missouri — and lost by nine. It was tied at halftime with LSU — and lost by 10. And against Alabama (7-1, 5-0 SEC), South Carolina was up eight with under three minutes left — and lost by a touchdown.
It’s not even that this team shoots itself in the foot late in games — though USC did on Saturday with LaNorris Sellers’ late fumble — but the Gamecocks wilt in big moments. No one steps up. No one makes the game-changing play.
They can be an infuriating football team to watch, because they can look so close to breaking through then nowhere close.
2. The play-calling was different
South Carolina showed things on its first drive of the game for the first time all season. Offensive coordinator Mike Shula was calling offensive plays to get Sellers out of the pocket.
A couple of times, Sellers caught the snap, spun around and rolled to his left — able to make a throw on the run or take off. Later, he was running a sprint option, where Sellers takes the snap and just darts right into open space.
“I told Mike earlier in the week, if we throw 25 passes today, it doesn’t need to be just 20 sitting in the pocket and drop back,” Beamer said. “We need to be able to get the ball out of (Sellers’) hands quickly.”
To his credit, Shula adjusted well. And it worked — Sellers threw for 222 yards, his highest total in over a month.
As Beamer spoke of the new offensive wrinkles this week, he was clear that he spoke to Shula and insisted that things need to change.
“Let’s get whatever our best freaking stuff is schematically, and let’s get it in the game plan,” Beamer said he told the offensive staff. “I don’t care if we have 10 plays in the game plan. Let’s run those 10 over and over again.”
That sounds awfully similar to what he told then-OC Marcus Satterfield in 2022 before South Carolina hung 63 points on Tennessee. The only question: Why did it take until late October to figure that out?
3. Was Beamer’s end-game logic flawed?
OK, here’s the situation.
Alabama had the ball at the 25-yard line facing a third-and-10. There were 42 seconds left in a tie game and the Crimson Tide called a timeout.
Now, Beamer said he told his team: Try to stop them. But if Alabama gets past the first-down marker on the next play, let the ball-carrier score.
And, well, that’s what happened. Alabama wide receiver Germie Bernard faked an end-around and ran up the sideline past the sticks. South Carolina safety DQ Smith could’ve pushed Bernard out — conservatively — at the 10-yard line. But he listened to his coaches and let Bernard score.
South Carolina got the ball back with 34 seconds left. It had no timeouts and needed a touchdown just to tie. That’s an impossible situation, as USC proved by hardly moving the ball.
The other option: Make a college kicker hit a clutch field goal. (It would’ve been inside of 30 yards.)
Sure, Alabama kicker Connor Talty is 6 for 6 on the season from within 40 yards, and he’s 9 of 13 overall. But he’s also a sophomore who’s never attempted a game-winning kick, especially not on the road, in front of a student section and with South Carolina’s athletes trying to block it.
It might not have made a difference, but the Gamecocks won’t ever know.
4. Defense was good enough ... again
The MVP of this team might be defensive coordinator Clayton White.
The final stats never make it look like White’s unit was perfect, but to watch the Gamecocks’ defense the last three weeks is to know they have been phenomenal.
Alabama had just two rushing yards at halftime and only finished with 72. Tide QB Ty Simpson — the Heisman frontrunner coming into this week — played arguably his worst game of the season, completing just 56% of his passes for 253 yards. And until it scored on its final two drives, Alabama managed just one first down in the second half.
The Gamecocks, led by defensive tackle Nick Barrett and edge Bryan Thomas Jr., were phenomenal at putting pressure on and flustering Simpson. And the entire South Carolina secondary was stout in coverage, never letting the Tide connect on a deep ball.
It’s hard to ask for more — well, maybe just one more stop.
On the 14-play, 79-yard drive in the fourth quarter where Alabama scored and converted the two-point conversion to tie the game, the Tide was always ahead of the chains. Aside from one third-and-7, Alabama methodically — and easily — marched down the field.
That can’t happen.
5. Hard to think about a bowl game
South Carolina has four games remaining. It needs to win three of them to make a bowl game.
Those games are: at No. 8 Ole Miss and No. 3 Texas A&M, and home vs. Coastal Carolina and Clemson.
And there are two ways to think about Saturday in relation to the final two SEC games, knowing the Gamecocks have to win one of them to have a shot at bowl eligibility.
One, you think Saturday was the late-season spark South Carolina needed. That the Gamecocks are good enough to compete with Ole Miss and Texas A&M and learned enough from Saturday’s loss to get over the hump in one of those.
Or two, that Saturday was the Gamecocks’ last gasp. That they’ve proven time and time again they can’t beat elite SEC teams, so why would anyone think they’ll beat Ole Miss or Texas A&M on the road?
Which do you side with?
Next South Carolina game
- Who: South Carolina at Ole Miss
- When: 7 p.m. Saturday
- Where: Vaught Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss.
- Watch: ESPN
This story was originally published October 26, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
