South Carolina has a lot of questions going into Saturday's game as well

As many questions that are out there about Alabama this week, there are just as many questions about this South Carolina team going into Saturday's game. The Gamecocks really put the college football world on notice when they destroyed Kentucky in week 2 of the season and got out to the 17-0 lead against LSU. Many people still feel that if LaNorris Sellers doesn't get hurt, or if the refs didn't throw some questionable calls on a few pick sixes they would have won that game as well.

The blowout loss to Ole Miss last week really shocked people because it seemed Shane Beamer's team was on the verge of possibly being a true contender in the SEC.

Now they come into Tuscaloosa and it doesn't seem like anyone knows what to expect from this team.

The silver lining for this South Carolina team is how questionable the Alabama defense is against the run. If I'm Offensive Coordinator, Dowell Loggains, I like my chances even in Tuscaloosa with Sellers and Rocket Sanders in the backfield. The Tide will have their hands full shutting down this potent rushing attack.

As good as this backfield can be at times, South Carolina fans especially have to be struggling to understand how they were so lackluster against Ole Miss establishing a running game. Some of it is Ole Miss may have one of the best defenses in the SEC, and it will be interesting to see if they are more successful running the ball against an Alabama defense that can't stop a mobile quarterback or a solid running game.

If South Carolina can sustain drives and keep the Alabama offense off the field, than they may make Saturday a much closer game than Vegas sees it going.

South Carolina hasn't been very good on third down this season, so there are questions of whether they can be anywhere similar to Vanderbilt with staying on the field Saturday afternoon. The blueprint on how to beat Alabama has been drawn up and now the question is if the Gamecocks will be able to follow those needed steps to do the near unthinkable. It will be interesting to see which team responds from a tough loss a week ago.