Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecock's men's and women's basketball Cruise College Football playoff rankings. And the offensive coordinator search carries on. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Okay.
Welcome to episode three, 361 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope y' all had a fantastic weekend. Gamecocks was a good one for being a sports fan, huh? Crazy, crazy day in college football with the conference championship games. There's a fantastic slate of NFL on Sunday. And of course, you've got college basketball going on for throughout, including our Gamecocks, which of course I will cover. But yeah, really just wall to wall action and just love it. Like, I sneakily really love the conference championship Saturday. Like, I think like a football fan. Like, it's like, yeah, like no crap. Like, of course you do. But there's just something about sitting down and you're knowing it. We're going to get quality matchups here with playoff and implications. And that just takes us right to the big news from college football from the weekend of the rankings. And I mean, there is a lot of drama going on. I mean, most notably, you got two group of five teams in. So for the first time in the playoff era, we have two group of fives with Tulane and jmu, thanks to the chaos created by Duke, which your boy bet on if you were tracking correctly.
But it's just this fantastic dynamic where we have Miami and Notre Dame and they're going. And at the same time, here comes JMU that just slides into the playoff and yeah, they might get cooked. But you know what, it's just incredible to see those stories. And I very much am of the opinion that the group of five teams should have a seat at the table. But I also at the same time say we need to recognize that maybe it shouldn't be just an automatic handout, but rather where are you, like in the greater rankings and things like that. So I like having those rep. Those representation, that representation. Excuse me, but I do think the entire system needs some tinkering. And when we look at the system that led us to this Miami, Notre Dame conundrum, that is, I think, where we need to really have this objective metric or algorithm or something. Like the fact that you had Notre Dame above Miami kind of this whole time when they had played each other and Miami beat them, like, that's fine. But then the second to last rankings, Miami is on the outside looking in at Notre Dame and then to have it be flipped on the last day and have the committee chair basically say it's because BYU lost. To me, that doesn't make much sense.
Like these games matter and I don't care if it's week one, two or three, they matter. We do not have a preseason in college and I do think that the committee got it right at the end. I think the correct teams are in, although we can go back and forth about the actual rankings themselves. But what I do know, and I've been pounding the drum on this year in and year out, and I think you're hearing a little bit more of from the national analysts is that we need some sort of objectivity here, like whether it's a computer system or a series of metrics that you combine into a point system. But there needs to be something that the committee can point to and the writers can point to in the first place. Fans can point to and say, like, here's what led us to the rankings. And then you can have the human element of, you know, filling in the gaps or making some small tweaks and things like that. You have Bama staying put, which I found interesting. I agree they deserved to be in because I don't think you should hurt a team that was firmly in the playoffs and played in their championship game and loss. I don't think you can move them out completely.
BYU was already on the bubble. I think I understand the logic there. Little silly to me to have Georgia at 3. I understand it was a 12 matchup with Ohio State and Indiana, but based on what Georgia did to Bama in that game, I kind of felt that Georgia should be number two. But those top fours are, you know, it doesn't really matter. Like, yeah, you might get a little bit of a favorable matchup in the second round, but as we've seen in years past with this, you know, 12 team, sometimes it behooves you to have the play in that early round. So it's tough to say, but long winded way of saying it was a chaotic and exciting weekend of college football. We have our playoff field set.
Oregon A and M, Ole Miss, Tulane, like they're all in it. Texas Tech looks as good as anybody in the country.
And wow, it's. It's going to be exciting. I know I'm a Gamecocks podcast, but I'm a college football fan. I'm a college football junkie and this is what we all live for. But in the, in the same vein of football here, I'm sitting here on a Sunday afternoon, and I don't really have much of an update in the way of offensive coordinator search for the Gamecocks. That very well could change. And I could have to get on here and, you know, rerecord this or hop on social media on Monday and amend what I'm saying. But right now, I don't have an update for y'. All. There's a few names that are circulating, but they're all rumors at this point. But what I can say, and it's kind of what I think is the names that have been circulated are the right types of coaches for South Carolina. And Shane Beamer, in this moment, you're seeing rumors from, like, the Old Dominion offensive coordinator. You have Kendall Briles name in there. You've seen the guy at ECU be circulated and things like that. And the one thing that is consistent with that is it would be a change for. From what? South Carolina has run under three different OCs with Beamer, and especially when you're talking about a guy like Becker from ODU or Briles from tcu. Like, they have systems that they like, that they implement, and whoever it is at South Carolina, it needs to have its own unique flair, right? Like, I think to be able to succeed, at least at this point in time with South Carolina, we got to do things a little differently.
You know, you got to have a system that other teams have to prepare for. You know, you look at Mizzou, and what they do is not flashy, but what they do, they do so darn well with that zone read nonsense, the gap running, whatever it's called, right? But, like.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: You have to prepare differently for it. And they are so well disciplined in it that maybe it doesn't blow everybody away, and it might not get them to the playoffs, but it wins them a lot of games. And they are. They have been in the mix for a while. So if you get a system at South Carolina that's a little bit different and takes a little bit of extra time to prepare for, that is great. And I want to see a system that plays with some tempo. I want to see a system that mixes in quarterback runs. I want to see a system that's aggressive and creative. Like, these are the adjectives that I want to be associated with the offense at South Carolina, regardless of who's on the roster. You know, I mean, Beamer, I think, has had this idea in the past of, you know, he wants a system that any quarterback could fit to.
Like, sure. Like that. That's fine. But guess what? Like, if you bring in an offensive coordinator who says, I need this type of athlete for my system at quarterback, you go and recruit that type of athlete, whether it's from the portal or from high school.
So I think maybe the logic was upside down for Shane Beamer this whole time.
And hopefully he hires a coach that has a modern, aggressive, creative, up tempo offense and opens his eyes a little bit to it. I mean, any one of these candidates would love to work with Lenoris. And if Lenoris stays, and it's sad to say we're talking about ifs here, but if he decides to say, I think he will benefit greatly from some new coaching, he has to do some work himself on some of the little things and I think he will. But I think a coach can come in and cater it a little bit more to his skill set. And especially if you talk about this group of receivers that could grow together another year. Talk about Nick Harbour, Malik Clark, Brian Rowe. I would love to see Mazio again.
And you continue to recruit well in that area. And with the group of tight ends, we have a strong young offensive line group. You have either Sean Elliott or a new O line coach there. Like you can see it, right?
But I'm excited to see where this search goes. I want the search to wrap up quickly, sooner than later, I should say. And we'll see how it goes, right? Like all I want though is someone who can bring a exciting modern and aggressive feel. Right. Like we don't have to be top five offense next year. Right? That would be lovely.
But to be top 30 would be fantastic. And you think about how the defense has done under Clayton White. Like he's been asked to do a lot, a lot of these years and the defense has leaned maybe a little bend, don't break at times, but they create turnovers and he's developed well, pretty much at every level at that, on that side of the ball. And then you look at 20, 24, when the offense was able to be aggressive and they were scoring in bunches and things like that, the defense was on fire. Granted, you had some elder statesmen in that group like Nick Debo, Kennard, D. Knight, right. But.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: When they were able, when they were able to be more aggressive and they weren't on the field as much, the defense thrived under Clayton White. So if we can get an offensive coordinator who is able to not only move the ball up and down the field and be, you know, top 30, top 25 in yards per game, but who can be top 30 or so in points, but Then you can also naturally, you control time of possession there. Like these are the things that we need to do. And it shouldn't be based off of a system that Shane Beamer thinks is ideal. And like the system he thinks is ideal might work at a Georgia or an Oklahoma. Well, even Oklahoma now had to bring in a guy, right? But point being, at South Carolina, at least at this point in time, and if you look back historically, like you have to be a little different, you know, like we needed Steve Spurrier and the genius that he is to elevate right in recent memory. And then when you try to beat some of these other programs at their own game, it's really, really hard, you know, and you need to zig while some of these other schools is a zag. Right. So very long winded answer to say I don't have an update on the search, but that's just my thoughts about where we're at in this thing. But all right, let's change gears a little bit here. Let's talk about games that have been played and scores that are actually here. Talking men's basketball here. They were in action Saturday afternoon taking on Stetson and they got a much needed comfortable win here after some close heartbreakers. And I know I was a little hard on the team after Virginia Tech and looking at Northwestern as well. This was a refreshing game here, beating Stetson 82 to 51. And look like, give this team some credit here because these are the matchups that this team struggled with last year where even it was these games that should be shoo in. W's didn't always come easy for this group.
And the games that have been to lesser competition.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Typically have gone pretty well for South Carolina here. So 82 to 51, the guys took a big run into halftime and really just didn't take their foot off the gas there. You had a lot of guys scoring here. Meeche Johnson leading the way with 17 points. Elijah strong, nice, nice game from him to 12 points. Grant Polk with 12 points as well. Kobe Knox with eight. So just a good team effort. A bounce back win probably feels really good in that locker room there. And the guys are going into their exam breaks this week, as are the ladies. So no midweek games here. They pick up action Saturday evening, seven o' clock against the Citadel. So we'll look to continue things there. But yeah, I mean I was, I was encouraged and excited to see this from the guys.
I mean, I didn't think necessarily you were going to drop one to Stetson, but it might have been a little bit of a question of will they have a little bit of a slow start? Will some guys look sluggish? You know, do they have to dig themselves out of a hole? And the answer was no. Like they responded in the right way. So that's a credit to Lamont Paris. That's a credit to the guys in the locker room here. And yeah, I just want these guys to continue to get that momentum. And when you head into conference play, it's not going to be easy, but if you can eke out a couple close wins, you know, it's just exciting, right? And just like be competitive. Find yourself in the games late second half like they you have against Virginia Tech, Northwestern, but just find a way to get it done. And if you can do that a couple of times in those close games in conference play, that's. That's very impressive. Maybe there's one or two games that you are able to have a little bit of a comfortable day and then you let the chips fall where they may at the end of the year.
But then moving over to the ladies here, I wanted to back it up a little bit here. Thursday night, the Ladies took on Louisville. I kind of glossed over it as they were playing while I was recording, but it was part of the ACC to SEC challenge that they do every year. And the ladies got a big w here. Close one, 79 to 77. This was a gritty game that the ladies really had to battle against on the road. A very impressive win here for Dawn Staley and company. This was a nice game. You saw some veterans stepping up. Tessa Johnson with 20 points. Joyce Edwards with with 12, Medina with 23. But shout out to Raven Johnson. 11 points. Yes. 8 assists. But she had a really nice moment late in the game where she recovered from an earlier mistake and late in the game was able to set up the team well. So again, seeing veteran leadership and depth on display by this team, I'd like to continue to see some of the bench get more involved with from this team, but, you know, you're seeing scoring from across the board in different key spots by Dawn Staley's team. Now, I also am getting a little bit ahead of the curve here. I'm recording while the ladies are playing North Carolina Central. No disrespect to NC Central. I felt comfortable jumping on the mic here in the third quarter as the ladies are up 73 to 27.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: So spoiler alert, I think the Gamecocks are gonna win this one here. Ladies just got after it right away. I'm reading some mid game box scores here. Joyce Edwards has 20 points, Latson has 19, Okot has 10 and McDowell with 12 points here. So, you know, it's just another one, another example where Carolina goes and plays a tough power team.
They grind out a W, show some grit and determination and then get right back to business and doing their thing in front of the home crowd. So look.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: Early take on this team is there's a lot of playmakers, right? And this team has different players who can step up and get you a big game when you need it. And I think especially there's a lot of excitement for me personally around Joyce Edwards, she can do it all. And if you can get a great game from Tessa as well. So there's experience and yet at the same time, some youth there. I think maybe not quite as much depth as we've seen, but I think it still can be developed. You've had a couple of closer games. You know, you look at the Texas game and Louisville as well, a little bit more of a closer, closer calls and we're used to early in the season from this team. But you're missing some folks from years past who did a lot for you, right? And you're finding a little bit more of your identity and finding out who owns what in this thing.
Ranked third in the country. I think that's very appropriate. You're still a top five team. You're one of the best programs in the nation.
Things might just look a little differently. And especially, you know, we're still kind of shaking off a little bit of rust here. But I still am very encouraged by this team and excited to really sit down and continue to dive into this roster and things like that.
But with that, y', all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is Cox Gamecocks. Instagram is just the name of the show. Cox Talking Gamecox. And please like subscribe and review the podcast. Subscribe. I appreciate all y' all Go Cox.
