Alabama Crimson Tide opens up SEC play with victory over South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Traveling to a place of past horrors, Alabama claimed the last bit of available SEC bragging rights Saturday afternoon. With its 47-23 victory over South Carolina, the Crimson has now won its last game against every team in the conference.
Before Saturday, Alabama’s most recent appearance inside Williams-Brice Stadium came in 2010 when the Crimson Tide saw a 19-game winning streak snapped with a 35-21 defeat to Gamecocks.
Led by a career day from Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama never trailed during this year’s contest. The left-hander completed 28 of 36 passes for 444 yards and five touchdowns, both career highs.
Despite dealing with a few early frustrations, Alabama was never in danger of reliving its woes from nine years ago.
Leading 24-10 midway through the second quarter, Alabama (3-0, 1-0 in the SEC) had a chance to seemingly put the game away after a failed fake punt from South Carolina (1-2, 0-1) gave the Crimson Tide the ball at the Gamecocks' 32-yard line. However, Alabama failed to capitalize as kicker Will Riechard’s 37-yard field-goal attempt sailed wide left.
South Carolina squandered an opportunity of its own later in the quarter as Alabama’s defense came up with a goal-line stand to end the half. After allowing the Gamecocks to march down to the 4-yard line, the Crimson Tide held firm on four straight plays ending with an incomplete pass from Hilinski on fourth-and-goal to send South Carolina away with nothing.
After the Gamecocks settled for a field goal on their first possession of the second half, Alabama slammed the door on any chance of a comeback as Tagovailoa hit DeVonta Smith for 42-yard touchdown to give the Crimson Tide a 31-13 lead.
Smith led Alabama in receiving with eight receptions for 136 yards and two touchdowns, all career highs. Henry Ruggs III also reached the century mark with a career-high 122 receiving yards with a touchdown on six catches. Najee Harris finished with 123 total yards (87 receiving, 36 rushing). The junior running back had touchdown receptions of 24 yards and 42 yards.
South Carolina’s botched fake punt wasn’t its only special teams mishap of the game. The Gamecocks almost took the lead on a fake field goal attempt in the first quarter as kicker Parker White ran in a 33-yard touchdown on an over-the-head toss from holder Joseph Charlton. However, the play was called back for holding, and South Carolina was forced to punt. The Gamecocks also failed on an onside kick in the fourth quarter.
Saturday’s victory moved Nick Saban to 17-0 against former assistants. South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp served under Saban at LSU (2001-04) and the Miami Dolphins (2005). Saban is now 3-0 against Muschamp with the other two wins coming while his former assistant was the head coach at Florida. Saban will have at least two more opportunities to add to that streak this season as the Crimson Tide will face Texas A&M (Jimbo Fisher) and Tennessee (Jeremy Pruitt) next month.
Alabama returns home next week to take on Southern Miss on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT on either ESPN or ESPN2.
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