GamecockCentral.com is excited to announce that former South Carolina Gamecocks football linebacker Bryson Allen-Williams will be contributing his analysis of the football team for the 2019 season.

As a Gamecock player, Allen-Williams played in 49 games with 22 starts and is tied for 10th on South Carolina's all-time career tackles for loss list. He earned a degree in mass communications from the university and served as vice chair of the SEC Football Leadership Council.

Allen-Williams' latest piece for GamecockCentral.com features his analysis of several clips from the loss to Missouri, plus thoughts on the upcoming home tilt with Kentucky.

Subscribers may read the piece below. Not a member? Become one today and get 50% off your first year of an annual subscription with promo code BAW4. Here's how to sign up...

Already have a free log-in or are a former subscriber? Click here to subscribe and make sure the code BAW4 is entered!

Completely new subscribers? Click here to sign up and make sure the code BAW4 is entered to get your discount!

Having trouble signing up? Email Chris (at) GamecockCentral.com or Wes (at) GamecockCentral.com with your issue.

PLAY ONE - Kelly Bryant zone read play

ALLEN-WILLIAMS: With this play, it's 2x1 (two receivers to the left, one to the right). Jammie is leveraging the tight end, so it's probably a zone defense. In these type formations, with the back at home, they can do anything. Everything on this play really depends on where the tight end goes. With the tight end falling back, it changes the gap for the linebackers. You see DJ at the end, he "spills" and ends up having the dive (the running back). A lot of times in our defense, you try to make it easier on the edge players and give them the dive and put the quarterback on the linebacker. The linebacker should have fallen back. With that zone read action, it's a hard play, especially with someone like Kelly Bryant. The linebacker has to fall back and get over the top, and end up playing the quarterback.

CLARK: So, DJ takes the dive. TJ (Brunson) and Ernest (Jones) are the backers here, TJ is the WILL, steps into a gap and gets eaten up.

ALLEN-WILLIAMS: Yeah, by the guard. It looks like a regular zone play, but a lot of times when number two (the tight end, in this instance) is coming back like that, he will end up having to take him to the flat anyways. That's kind of like his coverage responsibility and his run responsibility. With the tight end falling back, it should have naturally put him outside. In the heat of the game, he probably thought it was a dive. As a linebacker, it's hard to see that guy, but you have to key him. DJ is going underneath and taking that dive, and you kind of have to trust him.

CLARK: Ideally, if TJ had gone outside here, then DJ Wonnum has the dive, TJ would probably be taking the tight end?

ALLEN-WILLIAMS: Yeah, he would be outside the tight end and Ernest would be where TJ is.

CLARK: And that would allow, because JT Ibe ends up getting blocked by the tight end, this is probably JT's play if they fit it correctly?

ALLEN-WILLIAMS: Exactly. The tight end is really just looking for the first thing that shows, linebacker up to safety. A lot of times that's what they're reading on offense. He looks inside and when he sees TJ is blocked, his eyes automatically go upfield.

PLAY TWO - Gamecock defensive sack

ALLEN-WILLIAMS: We have our big personnel up front, Danny and Aaron on the edges. They have their heavy personnel, we have our heavy personnel. With this play, when it's open for the ends, Missouri blocks down, that's a great play by JJ just to blow it up, get upfield as fast as possible. He reads it and makes a great play. With the tight end not blocking, he's a free player. He knows he has help over the top with the linebackers for the dive.

He was patient. He ends up "pupping", pinning the hip. That's what we call it when he takes that little pause right there, sees that Kelly Bryant keeps the ball, and makes a great play.

PLAY THREE - DJ Wonnum INT

ALLEN-WILLIAMS: It looks like we're man across the board. We ran this look a lot. The BUCK is kind of in the middle of the field. It looks like he's going towards the boundary (short side of the field), but this is a great play by him. Just being an athlete, seeing the back sit down right there, he ends up taking a blocker and falls off on the interception. That's another great play. RJ's coming down to read, it's his man, but DJ in the process of rushing ends up finding the screen.

CLARK: I noticed that dating back to Muschamp's time at Florida, he would play the BUCK almost lined up like a MIKE linebacker at times. Why is that?

ALLEN-WILLIAMS: A BUCK standing off the ball, especially someone as athletic as DJ, it kind of puts the offensive line in a bind. There's so many things they can do: rush, read the quarterback, put him back on the line and any kind of stunt. It's hard for an offensive line to count that guy. They call him a "spinner" because he can go anywhere. Coach Muschamp does a great job with scheming to get his best pass-rushers chances to get one-on-one on weaker offensive linemen. There were some plays we had where I was the BUCK and got a one on one with the running back and would like myself to win that 9 times out of 10. That's kind of the same situation, I like DJ to win against a running back or any offensive lineman he can get one-on-one.

PLAY FOUR - Bryan Edwards TD

ALLEN-WILLIAMS: They have a double A gap (A gap means the space in between the center and guard) look, so it looks like they're bringing pressure. The guys end up dropping off. This play is really made by Kyle (Markway). Kyle gets out there; the guy that was on Bryan was man to man with him. Kyle knocks his guy off and Bryan makes the rest happen. That's a great schematic play. A lot of times when you have a look like that into the boundary (the short side of the field), teams don't really expect the ball to come into the boundary. It was an easy throw for Ryan and Bryan is an elite player and made an elite play right here.

Being able to scheme a guy open, the more times you can the ball into Bryan's hands, the better. I think they wanted to give him an easy ball that he could catch and make something happen.

PLAY FIVE - Defensive fumble caused, recovery

ALLEN-WILLIAMS: It's 3 by 1 (three receivers to one side, one to the other), looks like a zone. DJ is the "pup" player, pins his up and up. That's a great play by DJ and Aaron. Aaron's an undersized guy, but he plays so big inside. They tried to run a zone read. It's 3rd and 15, so they're probably trying to get a couple yards to get into favorable position to punt the ball. You see most of their offensive line just running up to the next level.

This is a great disciplined play by DJ to be patient on the backside, reads Kelly Bryant giving the ball. Kinlaw dominates his guard, and it's a party at the ball. Aaron ripped him and made him fumble.

PLAY SIX - Albert O TD

ALLEN-WILLIAMS: You can see we're in another man to man look. They came out in 11 personnel. 1 tight end, 1 running back, three wide receivers. We have more DBs on the field than you normally would have down the near the goal line. Another good scheme by Missouri, a really good scheme to play. They tried to get RJ one on one but you see the pick come from the slot receiver, they're already blocking. The ball is still thrown behind the line of scrimmage. If he's behind the line when the ball is thrown, it's legal. That's a legal play.

It's a hard play to make but you have to go either over the top or underneath. When it's this close to the goal line, you don't really want to go over the top because you're sort of giving them a way to the end zone. You have to get underneath this, they're already coming off the ball blocking you so you have to know based on film, based on alignment of the tight end. The tight end was kind of wide to begin with, he was right outside the hip of the tackle.

CLARK: Let's say you know somehow that Missouri is going to run this exact play. What's your defensive call here?

ALLEN-WILLIAMS: In a situation like this, this close to the goal line, we could still run the same thing. You'll tell the guys, pass it off (pass off the route to another defender) but a lot of times you don't want to that close to the goal line because a miscommunication is a walk-in touchdown. Either getting the guy on the line of scrimmage to go with him right now, but this is another hard play because if you do get them on the line of scrimmage, then you're giving another window for the slant. They already know you're man to man, so you can go fade ball, there are a lot of things you can do. We tried to go with pressure, five men on the line of scrimmage. Them coming off the ball picking turns into a run/pass.

***

THOUGHTS ON KENTUCKY

The first key: Kentucky has similarities to Missouri in that they implement the tight end a lot. They want to establish the run. They're very physical up front and want to make sure they establish run. They have big guys on the outside that want to make the 50/50 plays. This game will be about who comes out and wants it.

This week is really going to showcase a lot. This is a must-win for them and I think they're going to go out and live up to what they need to do.