Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] This episode of Cox talking gamecocks is brought to you by the Mason Jar, New York City. The Mason Jar is the official gamecock bar for the New York City area. Fans and alumni of USC can come by the Jar for some great barbecue, cold drinks, and of course, to watch the gamecocks in any sport, all while surrounded by South Carolina memorabilia. If you want to get a slice of game day in Columbia, all while in the Big Apple, head to The Mason Jar on east 30th street. All right, here we go.
[00:01:13] Welcome to episode 185 of Cox Talking Gamecocks, brought to you by The Mason Jar, New York City. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 18 one to 2001. And just in case there are any new listeners here, first off, thank you very much. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the jungle. What I mean by that is I aim to keep every episode of the show from 18 minutes and 1 second to 20 minutes and 1 second. 18 one, the founding of USC 2000 and 120 minutes and one a Space Odyssey. But don't get on my case. Too bad if I miss it. A little bit here and there. Little up, little down. Sometimes you get a little more into it than other days, but what are you going to do? But got a little bit of a different episode for you all. Here it is, the annual bi week retrospective, where I will look back at basically where we're at to this point in the football season, talk about how we got to where we are. Got a couple of stats for you guys to share and then I will get you all out of here. I am recording this a little bit earlier in the week than I normally do. Going on a little vacation. Going to reset little R and R, and then also get my Zen in place for this home stretch of the football season. Going to put it out there to the football gods to help us as best as they possibly can. So with that, I don't really have many scores or updates to report, except one, which it is football related and that is the Florida game. So this is actually the game right after the buy, october 14 was announced that the game is at 330. So a day game at Williams Bryce for the first time this season and only the second day game for the gamecocks this season. So welcome to some perhaps maybe on welcome to Others, but 330, that is a great time slot. That's my personal favorite. It's just nice where you can kick off where it's light out. And then right when it's end of the third, beginning of the fourth quarter, it gets dark and the place just starts to go bananas. So should be a fun day in Columbia for everyone who is going. And I saw that the team, they already tweeted that it's a sellout already. So adversity or not, gamecocks are faithful and we are loyal and we will show out especially, I mean that's an SEC East rival. You got to take advantage of that. You absolutely have to go.
[00:03:53] But with that being said, let me jump into this retrospective here again with these things, y'all, I've said it before, I say it again. I'm not an expert. I'm not trying to be. Just sort of giving my takes. Just think of I'm someone you're sitting next to at a bar having a beer with that's about the level of expertise I'm bringing to this type of conversation here. But the gamecocks through five games, we all know where we're at. We are sitting at two and three, one and two in the SEC and it's a weird two and three. Right? It's a deal where that's not where you want to be, right? I'm not breaking any records here. That's not where you want to be. You have a losing record at your buy. You haven't looked particularly great in the last game and then on the road to but it's weird know, last year and even Shane Beamer's first year, you could say, know, maybe we're just quite not there yet.
[00:05:02] In the past two years you could know we just have this horrendously, inconsistent offense defense. We're a little thin, we're a little young, and it can explain the record this year.
[00:05:16] You look at the team and I don't necessarily think that I've watched where moments you're like, dang, we should be better than this. But then there have been some really great moments as well where you say, okay, this is a team that's not half bad.
[00:05:34] And I mean, you look at the front half of the schedule, it was definitely front loaded as it stands today. The gamecocks, well, I guess you face two ranked opponents as it stands today and you have faced three already, including the number one team in the country. So it was definitely a battle right out of the gates. And let me go a little game by game here, for better or worse for y'all here. Starting with week one, that was against UNC. You'll remember, it was the big build up to this week one matchup. You had college game day, you're in Charlote. All of our memories were off of last season and how this team ended and we felt that that should just continue to progress. There were plenty of question marks along the offensive line, the running backs, the defensive line, and I think just this hope of a high powered offense finally with the air of Satterfield gone, was going to be able to pick apart the UNC team, which last year had a very porous defense. That just was not the case. It was not the case. We went up against a veteran team, took the L, and all of the concerns that we had as fans really reared their heads, I think, more than we thought. Obviously, Spencer was sacked a lot. Running game was non existent, and it was just you were way too one dimensional. But again, you saw some flashes in that game, particularly in the offensive side of the ball where you said, okay, maybe we might have something here through the passing game that is rather week two homecoming. Not the actual homecoming game, but come home to Willie B against Furman. You get a nice, comfortable win, 47 to 21. You do exactly what you're supposed to do, which is beat the FCS team, despite maybe them giving you a little bit of trouble early on. Remember, we saw Lenora Sellers that game. We saw Nick Harbor that game, and you felt like, okay, this team can get its feet underneath them a little bit. Week three comes around. We have a massive challenge against Georgia in Athens. And for me at least, all I could think of was how sideways this game went last year. And it was, can you just be competitive? The Gamecocks were not only competitive in this game, they were winning at the half and not in a shootout. They were playing well defensively. The offense was moving. You saw a little bit more of the running game maybe starting to go, and you were toe to toe with the two time defending national champions. Unfortunately, I think a lack of depth reared its head in that second half. Also, some adjustments made by Georgia really just counteracted those made by South Carolina. You end up losing the Game 24 to 14. But it was a weird loss where I talked about it afterwards.
[00:08:41] I'm not in the business of moral victories, but you can look at that team and say, all right, your team, which kind of got embarrassed by a little bit. Week one just went toe to toe with the number one team in the country. You should feel pretty good about the dudes that you have on your team and the wherewithal and the makeup of their identity to go into Athens and handle business the way they did.
[00:09:07] Week four after that, this was at home at night against Mississippi State. Was a pretty cool matchup. Was looking forward to this all offseason. Was really a back and forth kind of game. Just a close, hard fought SEC battle. State has a good defense, and they really let Will Rogers air it out, which was something they had not done to that point. Kind of caught South Carolina off guard there. Ends up a high scoring game. South Carolina gets the win 37 to 30. This was where you saw the offensive line improve.
[00:09:43] Kind of saw that a little bit in Georgia as well. Tree Baby got the start against Georgia. Mississippi State, you saw it better. Mario Anderson really came out this game. Mississippi State, you felt more confident in him. Xavier Leguette, absolutely went off and you're back on track. You're back to 500 at this point. And then we all know what happened last weekend. You go to Tennessee in a matchup where they had revenge on the mind, and sometimes that can be a bad motivator. It can poison your team. It can kind of throw you off. It motivated them. It motivated them. They got the job done. It was a raucous environment. South Carolina could not get anything going.
[00:10:28] Obviously, Mario had that very nice run. You lose 41 to 20, and you end up at two and three at the buy. So it's a couple of stories from me here.
[00:10:40] One, this team is banged up. This team is absolutely banged up. You're down multiple guys on the offensive line who may or may not have been, like, rotating pieces. Obviously, Jalen Nichols, that's a huge piece, that he would have been a stallworth. But maybe Tree Babalade plays his way into the lineup. Maybe Travon Bach also plays his way into the lineup. So you're thin along the offensive line.
[00:11:09] Also, you have youth now on the offensive line. You have to grow up quick.
[00:11:15] Also, the absence of Juice, I think, is greatly, greatly felt because Leguette is playing so well. He's been able to mask that a little bit. But we don't have a guy on our team who was set to be like all SEC and was Rattler's favorite target down the stretch last year, and a guy who has big NFL aspirations and he can really do it all for you. So Leguette was supposed to be your rock solid wide receiver two, I don't think we really saw him taking his game up to this level. He's a bona fide wide receiver one right now. But imagine Leguette's play with juice's. Play?
[00:12:02] That is an offense, and that is something that is very, very hard to stop. These complimentary pieces that we talk about josh Simon, Trey Knox, Omega Blake, these guys were supposed to be compliments, and they were supposed to be rotating in. It was supposed to be Leguette and Juice as the clear one and two with Spencer being able to air it out at any given time to one of them because one of them is going to get the one on one matchup. So I think that has hurt the dynamic of this offense a lot. Now, obviously, aside from that, this team has been forced to play some young players. I just mentioned Tree and know you're also looking at a guy in the secondary like Jalen Kilgore. He's played very well, but there's not a lot of depth in that.
[00:12:55] You know, when Mo Kaba went down again, back to injuries, that's one that it almost gets forgotten because it happened so early in the year. Mo Kaba was supposed to be a stalwarth in this linebacking corps as well and was supposed to be a big three of Stone, Debo and Moe. Now, Stone and Debo are playing well, but then you have youth behind them in Pup, and then bam. Martin Scott, I like him, but he has never really taken his game to that next level. So you're thin at linebacker, so you have some depth issues pretty much everywhere you offensively going into this season, it was the big question of what does a Dawa Loggins offense look like?
[00:13:39] And I think through the first five games, I don't think I'm wrong in saying it's definitely a noticeable upgrade from what we've had the last two years.
[00:13:53] I think he's pretty good at scheming things to get guys open.
[00:14:00] They're moving it with pace.
[00:14:02] It looks more like a modern college offense. They want to be more balanced. There haven't been too many instances where I've just kind of shook my head and said, that was a terrible play call against Tennessee. There was a few, for sure. That was the first time where I was really questioning a lot of the play calling. Maybe not a lot, but point remains. But the absence of a run game has just really hurt this team.
[00:14:30] You go into the year in the situation that you're at because you lose a guy to the portal, you're not able to really bring another high profile guy in.
[00:14:41] Yes, you have Juju, but he's just not that every down SEC back, so you had to convert. Dak Joyner, who God bless know, wants to do everything to help this team win, was willing to switch positions yet again, and I think we all saw the potential in it, and we saw the reason why he's just not a running back.
[00:15:01] This move probably should have happened two or three years ago for him, and he could have maybe found a nice little home for himself in the running back room. He's learning on the job in the tougherens conference in America against teams like Georgia, Mississippi State. So it just wasn't working, and it took a while to find the answer in Mario Anderson, but Mario Anderson himself is stepping up in competition big time.
[00:15:30] So you sort of had this tale of two cities, whatever. It's a bad analogy. But with Spencer elevating his game, and he has looked crisp. I mean, he made a bad mistake in Knoxville, but really outside of that, he hasn't made too many.
[00:15:49] Know in Georgia, he had a couple, but he had to right? Playing from behind, he raised his game leguette raised his knox has been pretty good. Amarian Brown. It's a guy I forgot to mention 2 seconds ago, but the passing game is something that you were liking, what you were seeing, but you need a run game to balance it when you get it. This team has looked pretty good. Furman Mississippi State Brad Crawford from two, four, seven sports tweeted some stats for y'all here. I'm gonna read them off.
[00:16:23] South Carolina's offensive stats after week five, scoring 27 points per game that's 13th in the SEC rushing offense, 87 yards per game. It's last sacks allowed, 4.6 per game. That's last tackles for loss allowed, 8.6. That's last total offense, 399 yards per game. That's good for 7th in the SEC, third down conversion, 36.2%. That's 11th and passing offense, 312 yards per game, that's fourth. So you can see that the passing game is carrying this offense where you have a top five passing offense yards wise, and it's carrying you for your total offense. Now, obviously the stats maybe are a little skewed. If you've done the last four games, maybe it's a little different.
[00:17:16] But the point remains, it is a very lopsided attack on the offensive side of the ball, and that is something that needs to be greatly addressed in this bye week.
[00:17:26] Good news is Shane Beamer has done a good job of getting his teams prepared and adjusted and corrected in the open weeks.
[00:17:36] But they desperately need to figure out, how do we stop giving up so many tackles for loss and sacks, but then at the same time, how do we get the running game to be a little bit more consistent? Because you look at some of the games left, florida has a really good rush defense. Missou has a very good rush defense. And Kentucky just kept Florida in check big time, who previous to that matchup this past weekend was running the ball incredibly well.
[00:18:11] So your concern on offense for the open week needs to how do we fix that aspect of our game, right? How do we protect our guys and get the running game going?
[00:18:23] Talked a little last episode. You also need to develop at wide receiver. Shane Beamer has said this himself. They need to develop quickly, get some more depth. That's Nick harbor. It's Nick Harbor. Do whatever you can to get him comfortable enough to play in this offense. He wants to play. I doubt he's sitting there saying that he can't do it.
[00:18:44] So whether it's coming up with a handful of plays that he feels 100% in or just putting him on the field to get some reps, he needs to see more action because he is an X factor. And I understand he came into the program late in the summer, battled an injury, all that. You're through five games now. You're going to have an open week.
[00:19:10] You've seen how we do things here. This staff needs to find a way to get him more involved on the defensive side of the know. It's really been a mixed mean.
[00:19:25] Stopping the run has certainly been an issue. Tennessee ran all over us last weekend, but at the same time, they held Mississippi State in check, which is what they set out to do. And going into that matchup, state had been relying on the run a lot. I think they held them to what was it like under 50 yards against Georgia, you only gave up 24 points now, granted, a lot of those were in the second half, and Georgia was able to run all over you, but again, you were still able to hold your own and then some in the first half. Week one, I think it was just you had some youth thrust in there. Remember, Nick got injured early in that first game. It's just with the defense, you're just not seeing I don't know what it is, just not seeing that attitude. Like, Mississippi State, they were swarming to the ball. They were looking good, but they still gave up these really bad chunk plays. And yes, they rose to the occasion in a couple of moments. And in Furman, they clamped down big time in the second half. But that's furman right there hasn't been this killer instinct, and there's this bad knack that's plagued this defense this year of not being able to just really stop the team when they're marching, right? Like, yes, they're able to create a couple of turnovers last week, but it's just been this georgia was able to go down a couple of times quickly and move. Mississippi State had their way a little bit. Tennessee, you open up the second half, you're only down by 14 points. You need a stop. Tennessee just goes down and scores.
[00:21:19] So Clayton White, he needs to worry about how do we get after the quarterback more? Who's going to be that guy.
[00:21:31] JT. Gear, he felt like he was building up towards that Jordan Strawn.
[00:21:38] How do we continue to get these guys along? How do we continue to be more disruptive up front, really in that front, then, you know, limiting the explosives through the air?
[00:21:50] You're going to have a couple of matchups where you should have your way with the teams, but there's going to be plenty of others where you're going to need some good defensive efforts. And Clayton White needs to figure out who his guys are and how he can get them to play a little nastier. So looking ahead to the last not last few, there's two months left in the schedule here.
[00:22:19] It's sort of a mixed bag, right? You open up after the bye week at home against Florida. You absolutely love that, right? Florida, they haven't looked terribly good this year. Yes, they beat Tennessee at home. They didn't look good at all. Against Kentucky, you feel like that game you absolutely have to have because again, you got two wins. So all of a sudden, the pressure is on, and this is an uphill battle the entire rest of the way.
[00:22:49] I mean, I don't want to think what's the path to six, because there's still a good amount of games left.
[00:22:57] You got seven games left, right? 123-4567. You got seven games left.
[00:23:05] So I'm not going to sit here and say, okay, well, how can we find six wins? But you kind of might have to start thinking like that, right? So Florida, I'll get into it closer to the game. But that is an absolutely must win game. That's a toss up game that's at home. Florida has not looked good. They don't have their buy before this matchup. You need to handle business against them. That brings you to 500. Then you go on the road to Mizzou. You have back to back road games after the bye week, after that opener with Florida, you're going to Missou.
[00:23:42] Mizzou has given us fits the last couple of years. That's not a crazy, intimidating place to play. It's not Nealand, but it's a tricky place to play.
[00:23:52] So you have to find a way can this team get that ranked road game? It's ranked road win, rather.
[00:24:01] It's been a tale of two teams under Shane Beamer, and I understand you're still building this thing up, but how this team plays on the road versus home has been drastically different.
[00:24:14] Have to find a way to try and reverse that trend. That's a pretty good spot to do it.
[00:24:21] Then you go on the road again to College Station against Texas A M. That's always a house of horrors, right? But Texas A M, they're kind of struggling, right know they've had their ups and downs as well. Then the whole month of November, you're home. Jacksonville State, Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Clemson.
[00:24:42] Again, this team has played very well at home. You absolutely love not having to leave Willie B. For an entire month. So you're looking at four games, two of which you feel great about in Jacksonville State and Vanderbilt. And then you're looking at what I think are two winnable games in Kentucky and Clemson.
[00:25:03] And we should know a lot about this team by then. Is Mario Anderson continuing to be the RB one? Does someone else step up? Do we get the offensive line figured out? Is Juice back at any point this year? All of these things can kick in and this team can start to roll.
[00:25:25] It starts with Florida, though. So you're looking at the back half of the schedule and I see toss up games. I don't see a single game that I think you're just really not really going to have a shot in. I thought that before the season started against Georgia and I did not feel great before the season started against Tennessee. Felt a little bit more confident going into it Saturday, but it held true.
[00:25:54] So Shane Beamer, the onus is on him to conduct a lot of self scouting in this open week.
[00:26:05] And it's on Dawa Loggins and Clayton White to look at their units and figure out how do we get it going because both sides of the ball can be better. Spencer's doing all he can.
[00:26:19] I'm not going to fault Spencer at all, really, in this one.
[00:26:22] Who's. Another wide out that can step up if Juice can't go. Is it AB? We need to see more of him. Is it harbor? We need to see him. Is it Omega Blake? We need to see him. Right. Spencer and X are doing all they can on the offensive line. Who's stepping up defensively? Who's going to start to get after the quarterback consistently?
[00:26:42] How can we limit the explosive plays through the air? Do we need to move some guys around? Do we have to maybe line up a little differently? I don't know.
[00:26:53] October aka cocktober. You got three games. If this team can go two and one in October.
[00:27:00] Say you beat Florida and you beat Mizzou at their place. It's a whole new season. You'd be staring at four and three with a whole month to go. Last year will tell you, and I am falling back into this trap of looking at last year. Last year's team and everything they did has no bearing whatsoever on this current roster. It's just fact. It's not the same know a couple of key pieces, but just it's a different team. But what that team did at the end of the year will tell you that anything can happen and anything is possible. And Shane Beamer's teams have consistently improved as the year has gone on and it's an incredible trait of his first two seasons in Colombia.
[00:27:48] He needs to find a way to have that continue to happen.
[00:27:52] Use this time to get as healthy as you possibly can. Do a lot of self scouting, get ready to come out firing against Florida, get yourself a nice SEC win, get back to 500, and then find a way to get an upset win that's going to put you back on schedule. And that's where we're at.
[00:28:16] So funny enough that I gave my little spiel about my 18 one to 2001 because I am very much over this episode. But hey, it's a whole retrospective. I had five weeks to cover. Give me a break. But with that y'all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, twitter or x is coxgamecocks. 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.
