Alabama Crimson Tide at South Carolina Gamecocks Scouting Report: Three Questions for Alabama Has the Ball

by Gamecock Man on Oct 5, 2025 5:15 PM EDT in Football

Let's hope Gilmore isn't the one having to tackle Ingram too often Saturday.

This post continues discussion of this weekend's game with the Alabama Crimson Tide. Let's hear what you think in the comments thread.

3. Are we fast enough on defense to hang with Alabama?

This question is in response to something silver82blade mentioned in a comments thread. We looked, to put it bluntly, slow against Auburn. Other than with Shaq Wilson, though, I'm not sure speed was actually the problem. First of all, as we've mentioned several times around here, Auburn got away with a lot of holding in that game. It's hard for a lineman or linebacker to close pursuit on a Cameron Newton or Onterio McCalebb when the back of said defender's jersey is being held. (Don't be surprised if we're on the bad end of the SEC officiating again this wekeend--we may be at home, but this is Alabama we're talking about.) Second of all, the problem for our secondary seems to be a coverage problem. We seem to be giving opposing receivers a lot of room out of our zone packages. That's fine against teams like Southern Miss. or Georgia that we can shut down--and who self-destruct, as Georgia did a couple of times--in the red zone. It's not fine against Alabama, because they have the backs and big receivers to punch it in more often than not when they get close to the goal line.

Athletically, there's no lack of speed on this defense, at least not in the starting lineup. It's putting that speed to use that's been a problem for us.

2. Can we come up with any key turnovers to turn this game on its head?

Let's not beat around the bushes about this--it's probably going to take a big pick or three for us to put ourselves into position to win. Fortunately, Greg McElroy is a QB who does make some poor decisions from time to time. We need to make him pay on his bad throws.

A real key here is whether or not we can find a viable pass rusher. I hope our coaching staff is ready to dial up some clever blitzes, because we sure aren't getting much pressure from the ends.

1. Do we stand any chance against Alabama's run game?

This is really the kicker. You know that Alabama wants to line up and run Trent Richardson and Mark Ingram down our throats. That's what their offense is built to do. They don't want to have to win the game on McElroy's arm.

We were actually doing quite well against the run early on this season, and we didn't do too bad against it in the first half against Auburn, at least when it wasn't Newton doing the running. Late in the game against the Tigers, I think the problem was some combination of the holding and our defense's weariness after spending the vast majority of the second half on the field. Both of those problems might rear their head again, especially if our offense can't stay on the field.

Schematically, we've been much better this year against conventional rushing attacks. Mobile QBs are what have hurt us, so expect 'Bama to try to test us with Ingram under center. Let's hope Ellis Johnson has figured out something to prevent what happened last year from happening again.

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Read More: Greg McElroy (QB - Alabama), Mark Ingram (RB - Alabama), Shaq Wilson (LB - South Carolina), Trent Richardson (RB - Alabama), Onterio McCalebb (RB - Auburn), Cameron Newton (QB - Auburn), Alabama Crimson Tide, South Carolina Gamecocks, Auburn Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide at South Carolina Gamecocks, Oct 9, 2025 3:30 PM EDT, South Carolina Gamecocks at Auburn Tigers, Sep 25, 2025 7:45 PM EDT

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kleph from Roll Bama Roll here...

we posted a link to this entry today in our link roundup and a few of our commenters have disagreed with one specific point of your assessment:

Fortunately, Greg McElroy is a QB who does make some poor decisions from time to time. We need to make him pay on his bad throws.

if this is your plan, you are in for a long long afternoon. there a lot of things to criticize greg mcelroy’s passing game for but “poor decision maker” ain’t one. mcelroy has tossed three interceptions this year, a deluge when compared with his four picks last year maybe but not anything worth labeling him “mistake prone” by any means.

currently, he’s tied for 29th in the nation in terms of interceptions (with 24 others) . that’s good enough to be considered “average” in comparison with the rest of the country. to compliment that he’s got a 69.9% completion percentage — tying him for seventh in the nation.

last year his four picks tied for fourth in the country and earned a 60.9% completion percentage, 33rd in the nation. of the 35 quarterbacks in the country who were as accurate or better last year only one had fewer interceptions.

there are very real weaknesses to mcelroy’s game. he has trouble spreading the field vertically at times and seem genetically disinclined to slide when he runs the ball and avoid the hit by the defender. but he makes good decisions with the ball and almost never makes a bad play decision at the line (watch if he calls a time out. coach saban is about to scream at somebody but it won’t be mcelroy).

pressuring him might work in that it’ll stymie his ability to implement the passing attack forcing us to go exclusively to the running game. which is exactly what y’all were able to do last year and it put you right in the teeth of point number 1 above.

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by kleph on Oct 6, 2025 2:11 PM EDT reply actions

Fair enough.

Thanks for the information; you’re certainly more informed about McElroy than I am. “Poor decision maker” is probably not exactly the right way to describe McElroy. I think what I was trying to say in too few words is that I think McElroy’s ability to read coverages and throw the ball accurately in the vertical game is limited (basically what you confirmed), and I think we can force him into making mistakes if we can put him under pressure when ’Bama goes vertical. This, of course, will require figuring out a way to slow down the run and short passing game.

McElroy certainly seems like a decent game manager, but you have to admit that that term is a bit overplayed. It’s a little bit obfuscatory to call someone a QB a great decision maker when that player is rarely called on to make big plays for his team. McElroy’s completion percentage is built largely on screens to Julio Jones and swing passes to Mark Ingram. Of course, when those plays work so well and you can rely on your defense to put you in good field position, why do anything more risky?

I should say that in saying all of this, I’m not trying to disrespect ’Bama. McElroy is a far more than serviceable QB, but against a team with so many strengths in other areas—particularly the run game—I think forcing McElroy to throw down field is one of the areas that we might be able to make some hay in.

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by Gamecock Man on Oct 6, 2025 3:51 PM EDT up reply actions

the bottom line is he doesn't make mistakes

instead of throwing that ill advised pass, he’ll hold it and either go to the check down or try to get back to the line of scrimmage. sure, the vertical game suffers, but then the defense trots out on the field and the rumor is they are pretty good.

and this isn’t disrespect at all, it’s a pretty reasonable analysis of our approach. earlier today i quoted a passage from DC kirby smart’s presentation at the 2010 Coach of the Year Clinic which pretty much lays it out simply. i’ll repost it here:

We [Alabama] win because we can run the ball and stop the run. It is that simple. People say that is old-school mentality. It is, and we practice that way. Everything else we do comes off that premise. Historically, the teams that can run the ball and stop the run win more games.

The offenses today want to throw the ball. The Players like it, and it is fun. At the University of Alabama, we are not about fun. We are about toughness, being physical and winning ball games. The players have fun by winning games and championships. We do things that way and our players buy into that idea and play hard for us.

this isn’t rocket science. and we aren’t asking our quarterback to win the heisman. but dismissing as just a game manager kind of overlooks what he actually does to help the team win. not screwing up means you seem vanilla but it also means you wait for the proper opportunity and act when it presents itself.

which is pretty much exactly the way coach saban explained it in an interview last week:

“There is an old saying, if you take what the defense gives, they will eventually give you the game. So, if the people aren’t open or they are dropping deep in zone and taking the vertical throws away and you drop the ball down to the check down and the guy gains six, eight 10 yards, that’s a positive play…. The quarterback makes good decisions and gets the ball in the right places and he’s got the patience to do it and that’s one of the reasons we have not turned it over a lot is we’re not putting the ball where it shouldn’t be going.”

eventually, the defense is either going to stay focused on the danger of ingram and mcelroy will find julio in man to man somewhere. or the defense will try to take away the short passes and we unleash richardson and see if a safety can actually block him with a full head of steam. that opportunity won’t be there but a few times a game and, almost always, mcelroy is ready to take advantage of it.

Roll 'Bama Roll: The Champagne of 'Bama Blogs.

by kleph on Oct 6, 2025 6:02 PM EDT up reply actions