Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, the baseball season is over. Reflections on the 2526-year- thoughts on this upcoming football season. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:55] Okay.
[00:00:56] Welcome to episode 390 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And I'd like to start this episode with a moment of silence.
[00:01:14] Thank you. That was for the 2025, 2026 academic year, men's sports programs, because it is officially done, it is dead. The Big three major sports teams, their seasons were a complete and utter disaster, almost from start to finish, and hopefully we can put it behind us. And this will just be looked at as a really, really hard time in the history of the Gamecocks and the Gamecock fans, because, my God, from the fall, I mean, even last spring, right? Last basketball season, even, it's just been season after season of just not good, like.
[00:02:05] But if we take this year, right, if you take football season, the basketball season, and the baseball season, you're finishing at or right next to the bottom of the sec, you are looking at letdowns on letdowns, you know, missing expectations and, you know, coaching changes and just all of these things, you know, threats of mutiny, might as well be.
[00:02:37] So as a fan, give yourself a little bit of grace. You know, if you're grouchy and pessimistic about the outlook on this athletic department, I don't blame you, because you haven't been given a lot of hope in the last year and a half.
[00:02:54] And if you are having a hard time finding, you know, that light at the end of the tunnel, I don't blame you.
[00:03:02] We have been through it, and hopefully we can put it behind us, because in one way, shape or form, they have. There have been changes at every level at the Big Three.
[00:03:14] You know, maybe not head coaches at two out of the three, but you get what I'm saying. There's been staff changes, there's roster overhauls, there's more pressure, there's allocation of resources and everything that goes along with it.
[00:03:27] But hopefully, come the fall, we can start to feel a little bit better about our teams, and we can see some results across the board and hopefully in the not so distant future, we're talking about the Big Three having fantastic success, succession. So that's all we can hope for. But my goodness, it's been an absolute ringer for the Gamecocks. But let's turn our attention to, I guess, really the. The leading cause of this or you know, I guess the, the final nail in the coffin, whatever metaphor you want to take talking baseball here, the guys were in the SEC tournament after completing a really, really tough end of the regular season, big time losing streak, just not going into the SEC tournament with much confidence. But give it up for the guys. On Tuesday evening, they were playing Tennessee.
[00:04:27] They hung in there. They battled ultimately to fall short, 11 to 6 and ending the season. The grand total on the record is 22 and 35 overall.
[00:04:40] 7 and 23 in the SEC. That's good enough for a.386 winning percentage, losing streak of 13. Like, it is just absolutely brutal stuff here from the baseball program. And it just has once again come to a merciful end. I didn't in my wildest dreams, I, I would not have thought that I would be sitting here if you told me this a year ago, that I would be saying, again, it's a historically bad season, never having 30 losses in a year. We're sitting at 35 right after the historically bad SEC performance we had last year.
[00:05:28] To sit here and say, well, we're having another historically bad season. I would not have believed it.
[00:05:33] I mean, I talked about, you know, being on the bubble for the postseason before this year started. Of like, no, that's where I think we can trend, right? Like, you know, maybe we can mess around and win a dozen SEC games, right? Like these things that just didn't even come close.
[00:05:53] And I've talked about this at length. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse at this rate. But like, there, there's not much more you can say other than it is just God awful from the baseball program and Monary is gone. It is beyond question that Monty Lee is gone too. I thank him for his service.
[00:06:16] The thing that gives me hope is that there's going to be a lot of interest in this job. There's going to be resources committed from the university, from, for this job.
[00:06:27] This is a good program.
[00:06:29] We are in a bad spell right now. But a couple of bad seasons don't define a program.
[00:06:37] History does that. And history will tell you that South Carolina baseball means something.
[00:06:43] And I think that when you talk about coaches who this is their lives, they know that. And there's going to be serious interest.
[00:06:52] I mean, I, I, I put it out there on social media. I do feel bad for Monte Lee because in another universe, on a different timeline, he is involved in this program in a more major way. And maybe there is a world, again in a different timeline that he is the Coach, you know, like, if things worked out differently, like, maybe he gets the job over Kingston. Right? Like, if things worked out differently, maybe he gets the job. You know, after Kingston, like, there just could have been things that broke differently for him, because when you heard what he said after the SEC tournament, it's a guy that knows he's not back. It's a guy that is saying, I'm. I'm outta here. Right.
[00:07:40] But he fully acknowledged some of the things that the person who takes the job after this needs to do. Talking about, like, building back a program and a foundation, you know, winning those in state recruits, keeping the best talent home, having that Gamecock culture, not just trying to piece together these teams. And, yes, you have to do that through the portal now and things like that, but you can still have your pipeline of recruits, and it's exactly right. And I think it gives you more than a peek behind the curtain of what Monte Lee has had to deal with these last couple of seasons.
[00:08:19] So we'll see who takes the job next. I mean, you know, you can read the message boards, you can read social media and whatever, and. And there's a few names that have been floating around. I think the guy that everyone has their eyes on is Coach Schnaul. Schnall. Schnell out of Coastal. He's obviously done some great things in a small stint there. College World Series, you know, following that up with a really strong season this year.
[00:08:49] The thing that I think concerns some people about him maybe having the interest in the job is, you know, Coastal, if I'm not mistaken, is like his.
[00:08:59] His alma mater, or he has the connection to Coastal. So it's not necessarily bringing back, like, a Gamecock, which is fine.
[00:09:07] But is the interest there?
[00:09:09] Certainly there's a pay bump. Certainly there's more. Nil.
[00:09:13] I've seen the coach at Kansas, his name get thrown around. I've seen the coach at Georgia Tech getting thrown around. But whoever it is, I want to see a track record of winning.
[00:09:23] You know, like you. You could go the assistant route if you really want to. That feels risky to me. Like, I think the Gamecocks and Donati should be in a position of strength here, but we'll see how it shakes out. I hope we get a resolution soon. Ish. You know, obviously these coaches, they have their own postseasons to deal with, so who knows? Exactly, But I would hope in the next two or three weeks we have a resolution. And whoever it is, I hope they fully understand the magnitude of this job and the expectations that come with it.
[00:10:03] But with that being said, you know, we are full off season mode here in the show and it's certainly a little bit earlier than we have in the past. But if you followed along over these last few years and so if not, you're new, like we switch gears to football mode. Of course, if there's updates from across any of the sports that are major headline worthy, I talk about it. But we're basically just going to go, you know, topic by topic, just think of talking points for football all building up towards the two week season preview that will lead us right into week one. So if you're working backwards, you got week one, then you'll get my second half of the football season preview predictions, first half of the season before that and then we'll go, we'll, I'll talk about newcomers that we're excited about, upperclassmen, breakout candidates, position groups and just general thoughts on the program. And that's what we're going to get into today. At first, I do have a little bit of recruiting news.
[00:11:06] Four star running back Braden Tyson recently committed to South Carolina. He chose the Gamecocks over Florida State, Rutgers, a few others, Miami, Purdue, they were in the mix.
[00:11:18] He is a four star running back out of Georgia.
[00:11:22] 6 foot 235, ranked the number 23 athlete nationally. So it's a good get and I think I saw it was the first high school recruit commit since 2024, which is insane because that's Coach Blackwell, right.
[00:11:44] Who could not recruit or just refuse to recruit. So you get Stan Drayton comes in and not even a full year on the job gets a really big time running back commitment. So shout out to this new staff and that's what I'm talking about. Like there's hope on the horizon for this football team, for our athletic department in the form of some of these new assistants, whether it be on the football team or even on the basketball team as well. But welcome home Braden. Like that's very exciting. That's a big pickup.
[00:12:16] Running back is another position where you just can't have enough. Just continually bring in some talent. You can use the portal to plug and play, but there's a few of those positions that you gotta take some as many as you can in the recruiting classes. We've seen what happens when you don't, you know, the last year or two depth has been a little bit of a problem there.
[00:12:39] Now it's helped, you know, we've kind of reduce some of that via the portal. But now if you can do that organically, it would be very nice.
[00:12:47] But with that being said, I wanted to pose a question to y'. All. I saw this amongst our fans being talked about for this upcoming football season, and the question was, what does success look like in 2026? I think it's a fantastic question.
[00:13:07] And I think, like, most times, I'm probably going to try and sit on both sides of the fence here, which is what I feel like I do with a lot of my T.
[00:13:14] But in reality, I think there's levels to this, right? Like, there's levels to this, man.
[00:13:23] I'm gonna start with the bottom. We're gonna go up.
[00:13:28] I could stomach a seven and five year.
[00:13:32] I think that would be an okay year, right? That's a marked improvement from last year. That's not eking your way to a bowl game, right? Like, to win seven, you are seeing improvements pretty much across the board compared to last year.
[00:13:49] You're getting into a bowl game presumably, you know, in that last month of the season, and then you're winning one more, maybe the Clemson game, right?
[00:13:59] And then you get a halfway decent bowl game, you know, like, it's nothing. It's. It's no great shakes. Maybe it's like the Music City Bowl.
[00:14:07] A couple guys will sit out. The rest of the team gets to play. We get one more. Like, maybe you can end the year with that eighth, but I could stomach that. I don't know if I would label that a success, though.
[00:14:19] But it's certainly a win compared to last year. And I think seven wins, Beamer is safe.
[00:14:28] And I might have a whole episode on Beamer in the hot seat because he is on it. Make no mistake about it. Like, a lot of that has died down with some of the great hires he made. But if he has another down year, he's probably out of here.
[00:14:43] And I can make the argument that scraping by and just getting six wins might not be enough, but seven, I think he's safe, and I think you can stomach it. Eight wins, I consider a success.
[00:14:55] And that's where I think this program needs to. That, like, it needs to live there. Like, if you can live around 8 and 4, you know, almost every year, I'll take that as a win. Right? Like, of course, notwithstanding, like, a four win year eight, you're in a. You're in a fine bowl game. You know, you've probably had a big upset or two along the way. You've cruised past the teams you're supposed to. You probably beaten Clemson. That's a good year. I put 8 and 4 as a success. That's beyond stomaching it. That's, that's a good year. 8 and 4. I'll sign up for 8 and 4 damn near every year.
[00:15:31] Especially considering that would be a huge bounce back for this core. It'd be a signal that right away Lenores and the offense are clicking with Briles. That'd be a fantastic year and you would feel confident in the staff and the rest of the roster thereafter.
[00:15:50] Now, Shane Beamer passed a comment more or less when he was asked about success and like the goals for next year and he, I don't know if he did this on purpose, but he very cleverly said success, you know, more or less is like being in the conversation. That's the key phrase for the College Football Playoff. He didn't say making the College Football Playoff. He said being in the conversation.
[00:16:16] We were in the conversation two years ago and that was a hell of a year. Right. You're in the, you're in the conversation with nine.
[00:16:24] So if you really boil it down, you have the head coach wanting to be in the conversation and basically that's his North Star metric. I want to be in the conversation.
[00:16:36] We're not at a 24 team playoff right now, thank God.
[00:16:40] I don't think eight wins. You're in the conversation. So it's nine.
[00:16:44] And that is a fantastic goal to set because if we are in the conversation, like, man, that was a hell of a year and it was a lot of fun kicking ass and having all those wins and being on that six game win streak. Right. Like that would be a very, very successful year. So answering the question, I have success at 8 and 4, like that, that's a good year. Take that.
[00:17:14] If you go beyond that, that's icing on the cake.
[00:17:19] I mean, I would like to think that if this team could get to nine and three, it really depends who those three are. But if it's, you know, let's say Georgia, A and M, Tennessee. Right.
[00:17:37] Three losses that, you know, those teams are probably going to be ranked or maybe Oklahoma. Right. Like, yeah, like, okay, it's not this, you know, tough, tough loss. And if you handle business and you have a couple good upsets on the, you know, on the road.
[00:17:54] Yeah, like maybe you really could get on the bubble again and who knows, like maybe this year South Carolina has a little bit more expectations. Like there's a little bit more name recognition within the program than it was two years ago. Like maybe things break our way with the committee.
[00:18:11] But answering the question. I have it at 8 and 4. I could stomach 7 and 5 and I would be okay retaining Beamer at 7 and 5. I think I say that now. I was ready to let him go after the A and M game last year, so these things are fickle. But what do you all think? I think it's, I think it's a fun topic of conversation.
[00:18:33] You know, do you accept 7 and 5 after coming off a really down year or are y' all thinking it's it has to be a good year or this year air it's a waste? Very interesting topic of conversation. Save it for the dinner table or when you're at the bar. But with that, y', all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is Cox Gamecox.
[00:18:58] Instagram is just the name of the show. Cox Talking Gamecocks. And please like subscribe and review the podcast. I appreciate all y'. All. Go Cox.
