Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, the baseball staff take shape. Football position groups I'm excited about, and basketball team adds a transfer. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:56] Welcome to episode three 393 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope you are having a lovely week, Gamecocks. It's. It's been a lot of action in the sports world. I mean, college is, of course, there's nothing to write home about, but, I mean, we got a lot going on.
[00:01:21] World cup is exciting at the US Open, and in golf going on, we had the Stanley cup wrap up coming back to the Carolinas after a long hiatus. How about that? Shout out to the Hurricanes. Congrats to all Hurricanes fans. You guys earned it. That is a team that has grinded and been really, really good in the NHL for some time now, and it was really cool to see them get that done. So shout out to the Hurricanes. Shout out to the Knicks if you are a basketball fan.
[00:01:49] It's been a lot and it's been a lot of fun, too.
[00:01:53] So, yeah, there's just nonstop action. Hope you all are ready for a fun weekend ahead. Just continuing with that same thread there. But of course, we are here to talk Gamecocks here. Got a decent little episode for you guys queued up. We're going to talk a little basketball, going to talk a little bit baseball, and of course, we are dialing in to football. And yeah, like, I'm going to. I'm going to get into baseball in a second here. But it is funny, like, this looming coaching search was so big, and then when we finally hired Chanel, there's all the excitement and some of my buddies were like that. That's awesome. Love the hire, very excited by it. But now it's football season and kind of accurate, right? Like, there's still a lot to be excited about, baseball wise. And I'll talk about that in a minute here. But yeah, it's crazy to think, like, you know, when I talked about the. The game windows last episode, I'm talking planning with buddies of like, okay, what games are we thinking here?
[00:02:57] It's gonna be here before we know it, you know, don't want to wish the summer away. I feel like I say this every year. I don't want to wish the summer away. Got some fun stuff planned, but I'm, I'm excited. I'm excited for September here, but. All right, let's jump into this year Starting off with my handy Dandy Gamecock trivia calendar here.
[00:03:18] Got a fun one for y'. All.
[00:03:20] What? Two South Carolina teammates were selected by the Colorado rockies in the 2023 MLB Draft.
[00:03:29] Oh, that is a good one.
[00:03:33] I'm trying to think off top my head.
[00:03:36] Oh, off top of my head. I'm not too sure. Let's see, what do we got?
[00:03:40] Jack Mahoney and Braylon Wimmer. How about that? Shout out Jack Mahoney and Braylon Wimmer. It's. It's fun. Like this is. That's recent, right? So, you know, you think about some of the great things these guys did for South Carolina.
[00:03:52] Shout out these guys. I wonder what they're up to.
[00:03:55] Feel like I haven't heard of them being called up. I may have missed that. I don't think so. Well, I'm checking to that after this episode here. But yeah, shout out South Carolina baseball. Shout out Mahoney. Shout out Wilmer.
[00:04:07] I'm not going to say shout out the Rockies, but maybe the Rockies should call these guys up. I don't think they're doing too hot this year, but who am I to talk? My baseball team stinks. But nonetheless, moving on, we got some basketball news for you all here. The men's team. Lamont Paris continuing to work as he has added folks from the transfer portal here.
[00:04:30] Adding international pro forward Hugo Lopez coming in. I don't know if this is in that gray area that we've seen college basketball exploiting, but he was playing in Spain, to my knowledge, in their professional league, but he represented Spain at the FIBA U19 World cup in the U20 Euro basket. I think it's a little bit more of a depth piece here, but continuing to add some size and athleticism. Is Lamont Paris. Very excited for that?
[00:05:05] Yeah. Welcome home, Hugo Lopez.
[00:05:08] Very nice. And then sticking with the theme of rounding out some openings and whatnot, Kevin Schnall's staff has taken shape. He's zeroed in on who he is bringing with him to Columbia. I touched on Matt Williams, already pitching coach, but just gonna. Just gonna rip this off and then we'll talk about some of them as we get into that. Chad Ozdein, associate head coach Bill Cilento, hitting coach Tyler Shoemaker is the recruiting coordinator. Matt Peppin is the general manager. Dylan Eskew is the director of pitching development, and Mickey beach is the director of baseball operations.
[00:05:51] I think this is a good staff. I appreciate Schnall bringing some of his key guys from Coastal, guys who have recruited with him and have developed the system both analytically and on the field that he likes. But at the same time, I appreciate him reaching out and bringing in some other experience. Most notably Bill Cilento, who was the hitting coach at Wake Forest. Very well respected, has a fantastic track record of developing guys to go on and get drafted highly at the major league level. So I think that is a very welcome addition. And Dylan Eskew coming back home for the to being the director of pitching development, that's really cool to see. I mean, in college, it's one thing to be able to coach at your alma mater. Like, this is a big step for him. This is a huge career moment for him and he's going to come in with a fan base that's familiar with him. He's going to know some of the ins and outs of Colombia and, you know, some of the things that made it attractive for him as a player that Schnall can sell and some of the things that he wished that the team had or did or was in the clubhouse that maybe they could. And it's just gonna, he's gonna provide some really fantastic insight. And yeah, I'm just still very, very excited about the Kevin Schnall hire.
[00:07:15] I'm not going to get into it all now, but there has been a flurry of activity, both bringing in players via the portal, bringing one or two guys back. Tyler back is returning to Columbia and then also just hitting the recruiting trail hard for the 2027 class. So he's hit the ground running, he's embraced the fan base, he's embraced the city.
[00:07:40] I mean, there's not much more you could have asked for at this point. Right. Of course we need to see it on the field.
[00:07:47] I was trying to temper expectations last episode. I'm still going to do that. But as far as what you'd want to see from your new head coach, he's doing everything that you would have wanted. So very excited by that and going to continue to track that movement there. But as I said two seconds ago, with the Schnall hire being official, it is all eyes forward to two football season. And so just going to continue to talk about that here. And I was thinking to myself of like, wow, like, you know, every off season there's excitement, there's hope. Right. And each year is different than the next because you're looking at the different position groups. And if you're like me and you're a junkie for this stuff, you're looking at the depth, you're. You're picking apart you know, who. Who is strong, who. Who could take that step forward, who's developed well, all that jazz, right? Who were you missing from years past?
[00:08:50] And more times than not, I try to convince myself that everything's going to be okay. If there's a group that maybe isn't as deep as one would typically like, it doesn't matter, like, whatever. But I wanted to share with y'. All, I'm saying my top three groups, in no particular order, that I'm excited about. Like, these are the position groups that should get you excited to watch next season and to give you reason to believe that this team can be better than it was last year.
[00:09:27] So starting off with the wide receiver group, there's a lot to be excited about here. This group is. Is deep. They have a beautiful blend of experience, but also some youth that is blossoming.
[00:09:40] And it's really cool to see because not too long ago, the wide receiver group at USC was pretty darn thin, and now we're in the opposite of that. And yes, there was one or two guys who left via the portal that really stunk to see, and you were sad to see them go, but Shane Beamer and Coach Furry Reloaded, but there's also that depth from last season with the young guys who still are here, who are primed to make a step forward, and they're all going to be in a more friendly system this year with Coach Briles. So, I mean, just looking at some of the guys here, of course you're being led by Nick harbor, who's primed to make another step forward in his development just by the additional reps and just by focusing on football. You saw it.
[00:10:29] You've seen it his whole career, but you really saw it, in my opinion, last year, where he just looked like a more complete wide receiver. And you saw when he can turn on the jets, what he can do. The chemistry is there between him and Lenores, and there is just so much to be excited about for Nick Harbor. But then behind him, you bring in a guy like Nitro Toggle, who has experience at the Power 4 level, who can kind of do it, all very excited about him. And then Jaden Sellers feels primed to slide into that slot position.
[00:11:02] Back half of last year, he started to. He started to develop. You started to see him take that step forward. So right there, there's three guys who you feel good at right off the jump.
[00:11:12] Don't forget about a guy like Mazio Bennett, who credit to him for sticking around. I thought he was primed to Jump in the portal last year or even the year before that junior year, we saw what he did his freshman year has been quiet since. I think he could be someone that could really thrive in this Kendall Briles system. I'm very excited by him. You bring in a guy in Jaden Gibson who was at Oklahoma. He has the size and the athleticism that you love. He's the same height as nick harbor at 6 5. He's battled injuries. You, you know, hasn't played a ton of football in the last season or two really. But if he's a guy that's healthy, you know, he might not put up gaudy numbers for you, but he could be effective for you and at least draw some attention from the defense which could free up Nitro or Nick. But young guys that I'm excited about. Donovan Murph, very excited about him. Saw some flashes last year. Lex Cyrus, didn't really play a whole lot last year. Came in as a highly recruited guy. Malik Clark, then, you know, you got, then you got some true freshmen like sequel Patterson, who you've heard some good things about, was highly recruited as well. The point is there is a lot of depth at this group. Those guys are going to stay fresh throughout the game and you know, let's, in my mind, let's. Let's put Nitro, Mazio, Jaden and Nick harbor in one category of their own. Like guys who you feel pretty good about, who have experienced things like that. Maybe a little bit older, maybe not Sellers, but you get my point here.
[00:12:52] All you're really asking for is some two guys from the group of Siko Patterson, Malik Clark.
[00:13:00] You have Gibson, Lex Cyrus, Jonathan Murph. Like if two of those guys can emerge and you're rolling in five or six deep that you're confident in, you can have a lot of fun as an offense there. Next group is the running backs. I've talked about the running backs before in a previous episode.
[00:13:20] I like the depth here as well. But it's a group that while there's not a clear cut RB1 today, I feel very confident that one will emerge by the time we're really into SEC play. I think the Mississippi State game will tell us a lot, but there is a scenario where maybe there's not this bell cow bonafide RB1, but in a better version of last year, you could have two or three guys who if they get the touches and they're feeling it, that game can do really well for you. Isaiah Agustave, I'm high on him. Christian Clark. I'm excited from him coming in from Texas. Juwan Howell, I've been calling his name since he transferred from SC State.
[00:14:11] He's been quiet this offseason. Haven't really read a lot about. I haven't heard a lot about him.
[00:14:15] But when he has made some big runs, you see it. He has the size, he runs hard, has struggled with, with some fumbles in the past, but nonetheless. And then of course Matt Fuller, which I think right now anybody, probably even Shane Beamer, would say Matt Fuller is RB1. Like if we were playing on Saturday, he would start. But that's not to say that some of these other guys can't come in there and and play some very meaningful snaps. So again, you're looking at a room where you really have three or four guys who you feel confident in, which again is more than we have said at South Carolina in the running back position. I mean, you know, we had Rockin Sanders, of course, but I think in years past there maybe hasn't been four deep. Right. So I'm very excited about the running backs as well. And then if we're looking on the other side of the ball here, I'm going to cheat a little bit and I'm just going to say the D line because I was looking at this edge group and I was like, oh, I'm pretty excited about these guys. But then you look at the interior line and I'm really excited about that. So I'll quickly touch on the edge groups.
[00:15:29] You have Dylan Stewart, of course, the big get in the transfer portal was Caleb Herring. Like that's who's going to be opposite of him. That's who you're hoping could have a Kyle Kennard type year. A you take pressure off Dylan Stewart, who you hope has a fantastic season.
[00:15:44] But Caleb is able to take advantage of the attention that goes maybe to Dylan and can go above his averages as well. And then of course you've got like, you know, Anthony Addison, Julian Walker coming in as a freshman. A lot of excitement there, but he's going to need reps and I think that's been said even by the coaches. He's really good. By the end of the season, he could be playing a lot of snaps and he could turn out to be a really great player for us down the road.
[00:16:11] I don't know if I'm expecting Julian Walker to do some of these things in the first five games. It's just going to take time. He has to adjust to life in the sec, you know, is George Wilson going to come out and be healthy. So there's about four guys here that I'm really excited about. There's potential that there could be more.
[00:16:32] You really hope that there is because you want these guys to be fresh into the fourth quarter. But when you look at the defensive line outside of that, there is a lot to be excited about. And that was the drop off we saw from two seasons ago to last year where that interior group just was not as experienced and not as deep.
[00:16:52] You had moments where you saw some guys getting, you know, flashes of, you know, realizing some of their potential and whatnot, but just. Just going down some names here you have.
[00:17:05] You have Troy Pikes coming back. You have Christian Ingram. Kelby Collins was the big one, of course. Gabe Brownlow did Dindy. Staying around, experienced guy, knows what you want. And then when you bring in Tomi Waduraj from Illinois, that's a guy who's played a lot of football. He's coming as a redshirt senior has been really effective.
[00:17:27] So again, it just goes back to the depth here. Aiden Harris as a freshman, a lot of excitement about him. Caleb Williams, redshirt freshman. Right. There's excitement about him, too. Noah Clark as a freshman, excited about him. So it's another group that is going to be anchored by some of these older guys.
[00:17:47] Pikes, Gabe Brownlow, Dinley, Tomi Wa. Right with that experience. But there is some excitement there with these younger guys. And I think that's going to be a big difference too. And that's going to free up some of these edge rushers, right? Like, it's going to make life easier for them. And when we are able to not necessarily have to blitz a lot of. And you leave those guys on islands. Clayton White's defenses have done really, really well. When you're able to free up those. Those DBs and let the linebackers sit back and whatnot. So kind of cheated a little bit. And I combined the edge rushers and the D tackles, but nonetheless, like, that's. It's the defensive line, right? And if they all. If one group does well, it should benefit the others. It was hard to pick this, y'. All.
[00:18:38] I will take time in an episode to talk about a group or two or whatever it may be that I'm a little bit concerned about.
[00:18:48] But when I was looking at who to be excited for, it was hard to whittle it down to three. I'm excited about the linebackers. I think there's a lot of depth and experience in the dbs. I think, you know, maybe there's some concern about, you know, who's going to be at the corner position, right. Especially like the maybe the number two position. But nonetheless, there's a lot of guys with experience there. Of course you're excited for Lenores, so there's a lot to be excited for. But those are the position groups that I am particularly excited to see get into action.
[00:19:22] But with that, y', all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is Cox Gamecox.
[00:19:30] 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.
