Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, CMB gets drafted, and I walk through my three critical games for this football season. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:56] Welcome to episode 328 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope y' all are staying cool out there. Gamecocks been a cooker out there this week. My goodness. It's not even something you can say like. Like, down here in the south, it's been hot. Like, no. Pretty much everywhere on the east coast has been hot. And it's just a funny talking point that you have with pretty much anybody this week, but seems like we're through the worst of it. Hope y' all have stayed cool out there. A lot of. Lot of weather talk on this podcast lately. We're talking about, I think, the summer solstice, last episode. Yeah, maybe that's my next project Weather. Who knows? But nonetheless, hope you all had a great week here. Ready for the weekend here. Got some stuff to cover with y' all in this episode. We're talking NBA draft, we're talking football season, and it's just. All of that, it's just so fun to break down. And when you start thinking about football, it really makes those crisp fall days just feel that much nicer, especially when you're sitting here sweltering in the heat. But of course, before I get into all that, I have my daily Gamecock calendar here for some trivia with y' all today. Let's see what we got.
[00:02:22] Can you name the Gamecocks football running back who led the SEC in rushing yards per game in 2020 at 113 yards per game.
[00:02:33] You remember, the 2020 season was obviously a little wacky, and that was the year of the bus. Kevin Harris. That is the answer. Kevin Harris. Shout out. Kevin Harris. So you still with the Pats?
[00:02:45] Oh, no. Felt like he could have really, if given a great opportunity at the next level, could have made something. He had the build. He had the physicality. That was a fun year for Kevin Harris. Probably the lone bright spot in that year. I just. I still remember that. What was it, like, 80 yard touchdown run he had against Vanderbilt in the pouring rain in Vanderbilt, like, near empty stadium because of COVID and we just whooped them. What was it? The three. Three wins in 20, 24 wins. Something like that. Something just so, so sad. But, yeah, Shadow Kevin Harris, 2020, led the SEC in rushing yards per game. That is just remarkable with that team that just really didn't do anything.
[00:03:32] Yeah, how about that? That's pretty neat. Learn something new every day, but. All right, let's get into the news of the week, the talk of the town around all Gamecocks here is the NBA draft. And it's funny because it's not often that we get to talk about the NBA draft as Gamecock fans, but here we are. It's fun. You know, we're always locked into the NFL draft and we just, frankly speaking, haven't had a whole lot to tune in for for the NBA draft. But this year was not the case. And it was a big night for the program and an even bigger night for our hometown hero, Colin Murray Boyles, as he became the first lottery pick in program history. That is incredible.
[00:04:21] Getting picked in any professional sport is remarkable. But when you have this identifier, whether it be, you know, it's first rounder in the NFL, right, like, oh, he's a first rounder. Like, how many first rounders you got to be a lottery pick is truly remarkable. Like, that's the top tier of draft picks in the NBA. And I mean, I'm going to get into it all in a little bit here, but we know how hard CMB has worked and we know the difference that he made for us the two years that he was here.
[00:04:57] And we felt he was a top tier talent. And it was that question of, well, nationally is he known? But these NBA teams, they do their jobs, they, they scout well in advance, then you have the combine, then you have your agents talking to people and there was that waiting game of is CMB gonna come back to school even while I think it's fair to say that for him at least, he certainly made the right decision. Lottery pick is life changing money. If you can get to that second contract, it's.
[00:05:32] It's just insane money nowadays and it's just great. And I think he got the feedback during that process of, hey, you might go up here. So just fantastic night for him and just, yeah, first lottery pick in program history. CMB etched his name in history forever there. But he is headed to the six. He is headed to the Great White north with the ninth pick.
[00:05:57] CMB is going to the Toronto Raptors. That OVO collab that the football team has with the merch like that all the more relevant now. This is a serious, major accomplishment for him and his family. Cmb, you know, he's just a great guy, you know, great teammate, has been all about the fans. He really deserves all that is coming his way and I think it was his versatility and the energy and the toughness that he plays with that made him desirable for NBA teams. He, his size is a little of an in between and he's able to work around that by just how hard he plays.
[00:06:37] And you know, he has those leadership abilities and he has that drive to take over games. So you know, I'm sitting here as a not NBA scout or coach, but it seems to me that, you know, he really just has to continue to work at his craft and adjust to the pace of the NBA and I think he can really develop into a really strong player. You know, you see guys of his same size who they do a couple of those things right and they can wreak havoc on teams as a tough matchup. And you know, you can put him in there for the NBA terms like with maybe a little bit of a smaller lineup and put him at the five and, and he can handle that.
[00:07:21] You can put him at the four and he can handle that too. I feel like that's where he really thrived for South Carolina. But you know, if he develops more of his mid range shot, doesn't really have that three point shot, if he can continue to develop that, which is what the NBA teams love to see from their bigs, if you can hit a couple of those, he can really do it all.
[00:07:42] And then from a South Carolina perspective, it's really an amazing accomplishment, truly. I mean, Lamont Paris now has gotten two players drafted in the NBA in his short tenure here. Gigi Jackson and Lamont Paris, or excuse me, and cmb. Lamont Paris got them both drafted. And so now with one of them being a lottery pick, you can add all of that to the recruiting pitch. And I know we talk a lot about in football at least, you know, you don't want that necessarily to be the selling point of just getting to the next level. You need that buy in for, you know, camaraderie and team culture. In basketball it's a little different.
[00:08:21] You definitely do need that camaraderie and you want guys coming to South Carolina for the right reason. But when you look around at some of the teams that have been successful for a while, they produce NBA talent and it's a destination to get there, largely because of the one and done rule. You know, CMB came in freshman year, had a great year. You know, I think we were even talking about would he come back for year two and just maybe get drafted late first or in second round, comes back and you can leave after two. So if you can Tell that story to a recruit that, hey, like, you can come here and you can develop and we can get you to where you want to go in, you know, as quick as two years. It does help the recruiting pitch and it's just a little bit of a different animal with basketball recruiting. So it's great for the program, it's great for cmb. Congrats to him, Grats to his family. He deserves it all. And yeah, I'm not a Raptors fan, but I'm going to be a CMB fan and I hope he does really, really well for that team. And it's going to be pretty cool to see. I think he'll play a lot in his rookie year.
[00:09:31] I think Toronto is a team that could use an influx of some energy and talent. So it's going to be cool to follow along, but. All right, we're going to change gears here a little bit.
[00:09:44] Going to talk some football here. Today in particular, I was sitting around thinking about a cool fall Saturday.
[00:09:53] Waking up, having a cup of coffee, sitting on my couch watching game day with the camera panning over, the raucous crowd chanting. And they go to that desk and you see everyone fired up and I just got ready, I just got hyped up for football season. I was like, damn it, I want to talk ball, talking football.
[00:10:15] So I'm sitting here a little early for when I normally start to do preview talks and things like that, but I just can't help myself. I just can't. Gotta talk some football here. So I've been doing a lot of, you know, reading up on the team and looking at schedules, you know, just normal football obsessed activities, you know, looking at rosters and things like that I, I'm big on.
[00:10:40] When I look at our schedule, I like to look at the other teams that we play and like what kind of games do they have leading up to us? Are they coming off a buy? Are they coming off of a, you know, game that might be pretty physical? Are they playing next week, the week after us? Are they playing a rivalry game? They might be sleeping on us. Look around like that. I go down the rabbit hole on.
[00:11:04] But nonetheless, I've been looking at our schedule and I've singled out three games that to me are linchpin games that can make or break a great season and a possible playoff berth for the Gamecocks. So I'm going to share them with y' all. Again, like, not necessarily like a season preview here. I've just singled out three games that I think are of like Extra importance, like to get where South Carolina wants to go this upcoming season. They're all important games we saw last year that, you know, you can get a little bit of a margin of error, but really not a whole lot. And so for South Carolina to continue to progress and ideally take that extra step forward next year, talking about in terms of postseason play, these are a couple games that I think in particular you have to be keen on here. So funny enough, you know, when you look at the schedule, it's basically broken into thirds with the two bye weeks. Of course it's not equal, but you can kind of break them out into that, right? You have your first third, you know, whatever. And funny enough, the games I singled out are one in each third here. So for the first linchpin game, I have Missouri, September 20th, I believe it's week four. So last year I said that the first road SEC game would be imperative for the Gamecocks.
[00:12:43] That was Kentucky, which turned into a big win and really I think gave the team confidence that A, we can play well on the road, B, we're off to a good start here and C, we have some dudes here. Like, that was sort of a coming out party for, for the team. You had really great defensive effort. Like, okay, we have a legit defense. Mazio Bennett had a good game. Lenores had a good game and I think that made a difference moving forward. So this year you're going on the road in conference for the first time against a team that has given you problem over the years in Mizzou and last year. You know, I think we exercised a lot of demons in that game in that last second win. But it's just like for some God forsaken reason, Eli Drinkwitz seems to have Carolina's number. So you just can't overlook them. You just can't.
[00:13:40] I mean, the Tigers will look pretty different after losing key pieces, but they have done well in the portal, it seems like. And they don't necessarily recruit top 10, top 15 classes, but they seem to recruit and develop well.
[00:13:56] So going into this game, if all things go well for Carolina, this team will have already been pretty battle tested already and should feel really settled with whatever new faces are in new places on the field, a little bit of a new offensive scheme. Like all of that should be worked out by this point in the year. Okay. So this matchup presents a potential opportunity to open the season better than you have in over a decade. Right. Sitting at the fourth game, assuming you handle business leading up to that, you know, it's going out to Como. It's a tricky place to play.
[00:14:33] We know that it'll either be in the afternoon at night, so hopefully for our sake, afternoon. But if South Carolina can come on top with a W, then you potentially have a great record coming back to home with just one game to play before your first bye week, and that's against Kentucky.
[00:14:54] So last year Mizzou had the more experienced quarterback and they still fell short.
[00:15:02] This year, Carolina will be with the more experienced quarterback along with the receiving core that really clutched up, made some big plays in that game last year.
[00:15:14] So this is a make or break game because if you win here and hopefully have handled business in the weeks prior, then you're looking good nationally and in the SEC because you play Vandy the week before and then you have everything in front of you.
[00:15:31] But on the flip side, if this game doesn't go your way, then again talking about the margin of error, it just drops drastically and you're only in week four.
[00:15:42] I mean, we saw the team survive some early lumps last year.
[00:15:47] Early lump, right. But that's not what this team is trying to. This team is trying to take that next step this year.
[00:15:56] And so it's going to be a tough game, but you should match up pretty well. And it's really a question of can you play well on the road early.
[00:16:04] Last year this team played well early and hopefully they can continue to build off of that.
[00:16:10] My second linchpin game against Alabama, I'm not going to rehash what happened last year, but you know, we're only one or two plays away in that game from winning and potentially that game putting the Gamecocks into the playoffs this year, that game is at home. It's homecoming. Willie B. Should be rocking. But regardless, this is a matchup that's very intriguing because Alabama is Alabama still, but maybe they're a little bit more vulnerable than in years past.
[00:16:44] And under Shane Beamer, we've seen multiple times highly ranked teams come into Williams Bryce and struggle.
[00:16:52] His teams really have generally played well at home. So this team can come into this one inspired for homecoming, maybe with a little bit of redemption on the mind. But make no mistake about it, this will be a tough one.
[00:17:08] And so the objective for the team here is to change the results from last year. If we're looking at last year as the marker sitting here in the off season, you basically say we gotta flip one or two games, right? This is that game. If you can flip this game to a W from last year's L It doesn't matter what the rankings are going into this one because Alabama going down is still big news and it would be a massive conference win.
[00:17:39] This game is also smacked in the middle of the gauntlet of the schedule.
[00:17:44] The following week, the team hits the road to Ole Miss.
[00:17:47] So if you do skid here, there's potential for trouble the very next week.
[00:17:52] So finding that win to keep the Gamecocks in an upward trajectory in this one is imperative.
[00:18:00] My third linchpin game here at Texas A and M. This is later in the year.
[00:18:05] Now, we know that under Beamer, this matchup has obviously become more competitive, but it has shaded the way for the home team.
[00:18:16] A and M is always a talented group for whatever oil money reason they have, but it's also safe to say that their quarterback situation will be more settled than it was when they played Carolina last year.
[00:18:30] Good news is this game is slated for noon or 1pm Eastern, so Kyle Field is a little less intimidating.
[00:18:38] But this is a critical game, right? This is the SEC finale.
[00:18:43] So if you're sitting here and you're imagining a scenario where Carolina picks off picks up where they left off in Clemson last year and has strong success this year, this is your last chance to win a game to put you near the top of the sec.
[00:19:03] And if you're in that top tier of the sec, there's a great chance that you are highly ranked and a very good chance, if not the same, that you're in the playoff conversation.
[00:19:16] And the only way to stay in that conversation is to win and look like we'll get into the schedule. Season predictions later this summer. I'm not sitting here saying that Carolina is going to be undefeated in this game. I don't have that right now.
[00:19:34] And because of that, though, this game is the linchpin for the postseason hopes.
[00:19:40] Because if you've handled business right and you know you get one or two games, whatever that don't go your way, you're sitting here in the final three games against an SEC opponent, there's a good chance that they're ranked or they're like just off the cusp.
[00:19:59] And this is your last impression for the sec, so to speak.
[00:20:05] You know, you're talking about ending the year strong here. So you need to find a way to go on the road late in the year. Everyone's beat up, bruised, battered, I believe it is. Also, after a bye week, though, hold steady in this game, win another one on the road and stamp yourself in the committee's mind. That's really what this is about too. It's leaving that big impression because the committee last year, you know, maybe they're going to change a little bit.
[00:20:37] The Clemson game, it meant something for the committee, right? We're just talking the committee, not the fans, of course.
[00:20:44] But it didn't mean quite as much as I think anyone else thought that it would.
[00:20:49] So this is your chance to really stamp yourself in their head, because if not, and things go the other way, you're looking at a similar scenario to last year's Clemson game.
[00:21:01] So the idea here is to win and eliminate as much guesswork as you can from the committee.
[00:21:09] So there you have it. My three games that I am circling as critical for this season, South Carolina, of course, you need to handle business in every game, but in those particular, I think this is assuming that the season is going well.
[00:21:26] Those games are coming at critical junctures in the schedule. And so you have to take care of business again, you got to have things going your way. And this is all assuming that we continue to develop and continue to progress at these critical positions.
[00:21:41] And of course, assuming that maybe some of the gaps or concerns that we have are mitigated.
[00:21:48] But we'll talk about that on a different episode. For now, that wraps up this episode, please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is Cox Gamecox. 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 Cocks.
