Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecock's thoughts after a disappointing loss to Oklahoma and a weekend recap from around USC athletics. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:55] Welcome to episode 348 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And, y', all, I am tired.
[00:01:11] And no, I am not tired because I didn't sleep well or I need a coffee.
[00:01:17] I'm tired of having this same conversation Sundays and Mondays and Tuesdays all throughout the week, having the same thing said in my group chats, having the same explanations or trying to find the rationale and things like that with this football team.
[00:01:36] It's tough, y'. All. It is absolutely tough. And, you know, I have some thoughts, but there's a lot of just open question marks right now than there are really firm answers, and it really stinks, you know, And I've said it before. I'll say it again. You know, we love football. You know, our fan base, our school. Like, we are a football school, right? We're in the sec. We take a lot of pride in that. And we look so Forward to these 12 Saturdays out of the year.
[00:02:12] And you put time, energy, money. Like, I was at the game Saturday, and it was packed.
[00:02:19] And, you know, everyone's taking time out of their day, spending the money to be there.
[00:02:24] And so when things go sideways, it hurts. And you're allowed to be frustrated, right? And we care about this. And on the flip side, when things are great, you feel rewarded in all of that. But my goodness gracious, this.
[00:02:41] This whole thing has just gone sideways, hasn't it? And in a.
[00:02:46] In a bad way. Bad way. But. All right, let me do a quick weekend recap from around USC athletics before we jump more into that starting on Friday. Women's volleyball took the loss to Mississippi State, 3 nothing. Equestrian in action, beat Texas A&M 14 to 6. Women's Cross country, they came in first at the Crimson Classic. And then on Sunday, we had women's volleyball in action. They lost to Alabama. And women's golf came in fifth in the Ruth's Chris Tar Heel event. It's kind of neat. Maybe get some Ruth's Chris out of that.
[00:03:29] Nice.
[00:03:30] But yes, the main event, the main attraction from the weekend, which is the right probably turn of phrase given that it was the state fair game, is the football team's disappointing effort against Oklahoma, losing in front of the home crowd 26 to 7. And I don't really know where to begin.
[00:03:53] Again, I feel Like I'm saying some of the same things where, you know, the defense, it was not a perfect day on the defense early in the game. You had that third and long or it was like second, it was a second down, actually it was a second down and like 20. And you gave up the really long run which allowed them to convert and you know, they, they weren't able to get off the field on third down. Third down defense was not great.
[00:04:18] But holding Oklahoma to 26 points gives you a shot, you know.
[00:04:24] And yet again, to be let down by your offense in just pretty abysmal fashion is, is just this sad theme of the season.
[00:04:39] I don't know where to begin.
[00:04:42] I, I gotta, I, I gotta get something out there where the things that Shane Beamer did in the years prior, which, you know, a lot of times, not every time, but a lot of times we admired with, with from him and the things that were quirky and kept us in games or won us some games, none of that's working this year. Okay? Going for it on fourth down, it's, it's barely worked this year. I know you got the touchdown on it, but that was it. The fake punts, have we had a successful fake punt yet this season? And they've been called in kind of questionable spots.
[00:05:25] You know, you got Mason Love trying to throw the ball.
[00:05:27] He's not a quarterback, you know that, that was not a wide open throw. You gotta at least muscle it there. But so when you're not doing those things right, everything else just gets magnified.
[00:05:41] And if you're not able to do things traditionally and then you're not able to do things quirky, then none of it's working.
[00:05:50] So you score seven points. I have to start off with at the jump. I think it was the first drive South Carolina was answering or maybe yeah, it was the first drive you get right down deep in the red zone against Oklahoma, you're already down seven nothing and Shane Beamer decides to go for it on fourth down and gets stopped at the two yard line or whatever it was.
[00:06:15] In that instance, I found it shocking to not take the points. Your offense has been struggling every single game. Like this is not an anomaly, right? Like you needed some help on special teams in pretty much every game to spark this thing. And so in my opinion, your, your offense did a good enough job to get you right in the position to get some points early in the game to cut into the lead against a very good Oklahoma defense where you knew it was going to be tough sledding instead you're in the red zone where things are already tightened up and you don't kick and you get stopped. I understand that that led to some pretty good field position for South Carolina after that, but my goodness, like that was just not. That made no sense to me offensively, you know, it's just, it's just bad. Like I don't know what else there is to say about it. You know, Lenore's decision making is questionable at best. You know, not throwing, not throwing it away when it's a clear opportunity to.
[00:07:28] The time he did throw it away was not the time to do that.
[00:07:33] You know, late, late on decisions to tuck it in, run his. He's. He's all over the place and he's been wildly inconsistent this year. And you know, we're at the point in the year that, where the sample size is big and you have to look at everybody. Lenores, questionable. Okay, offensive line, I was impressed from the standpoint of the. I felt like the penalties were cut down, but the execution still was not great.
[00:08:03] So that's an issue. But they have a whole new coach, right? It's not an excuse, but they're suspect. You're not able to generate the rushing attack. But the, the play calling, and I know this is such a cop out thing to say, but the play calling for the, for the 95% of the time is just bad. It's so predictable, you know. And like, yes, it's a fourth and one and like in theory you run it up to mid. Like, like if you're a good team, you should be able to run up the middle and get a frickin yard.
[00:08:36] You know, it's. Is it a sexy play call? Absolutely not. Is it a safe play call? Sure, yeah. Is it predictable? 1,000%.
[00:08:48] And on multiple occasions Oklahoma knew exactly what we were going to do and, and they stuffed us.
[00:08:55] So, you know, you're, you're sitting at this thing, there's. I don't see a miracle turnaround coming here. Right. Like last year at the midway point, you felt confident that you really had the dudes all over the team to be pretty good this year while. Yeah, you have some dudes.
[00:09:20] I, Offensively speaking, like this team is what it is. It is not a good offense. I was, you know, Oklahoma scored and at one point in the game, you know, I think it was in the third and the guy next to me was like, all right, well we just have to go down. We have to answer right now. It was 17 to 7 and you know, you're Making small talk with the people next to you. And I was like, but realistically, how confident are you that that can happen?
[00:09:47] And he said, no, I'm not very confident. It's like the theory is there, but in practice it is not.
[00:09:55] So I don't know what needs to happen. Because right now, Shane Beamer, the head man, the man who has the answer to all of this, has a guy in charge who has not been able to unleash any of this with any sort of consistency whatsoever.
[00:10:14] Shane Beamer was very testy and very spicy after that press, after the game, at his press conference and saying, like, yet again, like, we have not played up to our potential offensively. Whose job is it to do that, Shane?
[00:10:27] It's Shula's, you know, and by extension, it's yours as well.
[00:10:32] So you're seven games into this thing. You have a losing record, staring down the barrel of Alabama and Ole Miss.
[00:10:42] Like the season. There's not that much time left.
[00:10:45] You know what I mean?
[00:10:48] So, you know, like, what is going to change? Who is going to get them to realize that potential on a consistent basis?
[00:10:58] If you're just going to. This is like you're hitting your head against the wall. And normally with the Shane Beamer teams, I feel like that doesn't happen. You know, you fired Lonnie Teasley. Fine.
[00:11:07] Lonnie Teasley, while I agree with that decision, he's not calling the plays. He's not the one game planning. He's not the one who says, here's what we're going to do in these situations.
[00:11:18] Suspect fourth down play calls, suspect first down play calls.
[00:11:23] Just makes no sense to me.
[00:11:25] So in my mind, something has to radically change, and I don't know what that means. I don't see Shane Beamer firing Shula midseason. It was very uncharacteristic of him to let go of a coach mid year, albeit a position coach.
[00:11:40] I don't see him doing that.
[00:11:42] But I gotta be honest with y', all, like, I'd rather have Satterfield there. Like, Satterfield at least would try to get freaking guys in space with a swing pass, you know, swing pass. God, Shula.
[00:11:58] It's just crazy. And again, like, it's maybe like the theory is there, there's not a ton of motion. Like, early in the game, you did see some creativity when. When the team was able to move. You know, you saw harbor on the end around. I did like that play, call that where Sewell broke free. If he has a little bit more speed. That's six points, right?
[00:12:23] There was a little bit here and there, but for the most part it was. It's very vanilla.
[00:12:28] You know, I saw. I believe it was Pat DeMarco who said this on Upon a podcast recently, where on the designed runs. And I felt like I really saw this on Saturday on the designed runs. Lenores doesn't run with the same intensity that he does when he scrambles. So you're not even getting it there. You know, everyone's saying, you got to run Lenoris, got to run Lenoris. Like, you can only do that to a certain point, right?
[00:12:55] And a lot of the magic that we're used to, those came on broken plays.
[00:13:01] So the team is just absolutely out of sorts right now. I mean, we were cheering when Oklahoma, you know, like, decided to go for their. You know, they decided to punt it when it was like a fourth and close around midfield.
[00:13:17] Like, that's. That's tough. You know what I mean? Like, so right now, the state of things is not great. I mean, it really isn't.
[00:13:28] Matt Fuller, five rushing attempts.
[00:13:32] I don't know, man. It's just not.
[00:13:37] We're not in a good way here, you know, And I understand that the team was dealing with some injuries. You know, you got Brian. Brian Rowe out. Offensive line is thin.
[00:13:46] But even so, I just don't see the fight. I don't see the grit, I don't see the life, the spark that we were so used to.
[00:13:58] And I just don't know where you go from here. I really don't like. It was a very disheartening afternoon in Williams, Bryce, and I think that's what makes it so frustrating is that, you know that the.
[00:14:13] There are players there. Like, we have good players. You know, you have a quarterback in Lenores who should be one of the best in the SEC this year. He. He really hasn't been. He's been wildly inconsistent.
[00:14:28] You have a couple of wide receivers that you feel really good about.
[00:14:33] I don't know. It's really tough, you know, and you can't expect to have a special teams play or a defensive score. You can't expect these things. You know what I mean? And I feel like a lot of times this South Carolina team is waiting for something like that to happen. Like, this offense is waiting for something to spark them, and you just can't rely on that. I don't know. It's. It's. It's bad, you know? So you're officially in the back half of the season. You got five games left.
[00:15:12] Where do you go from here?
[00:15:14] You know, like, are you going to just keep trotting out the same game plan and you're going to keep trotting out what you've been doing and, and hope that you can score early enough? Like, this team, you know, I, I don't think they're capable right now of coming back. Like, they don't have that. Like, okay, it's game time. Let's go. Let's go. Put the ball in the end zone. Like, we have to put the team on our back right now. They can't. They're lost.
[00:15:40] And I think that's part of why Shane was aggressive with that fourth down call early in the game, because he wanted to tie it and take the fight to Oklahoma a little bit. But you got to know when, you know, like, points are at a premium for this, for this offense, and if you can cut into that lead and then you can turn around to your offense and say, hey, like, you guys got there. Let's just finish it next time. And eventually that did happen. You know, you go for it on fourth down, harbor gets the touchdown. But that was a miracle in itself, you know, to get there. Those runs were atrocious.
[00:16:16] You know, we don't have anyone who's like, outside of Fuller in a, you know, a smaller showing who can run between the tackles. Sewell just can't do it, you know, So I don't see how you can keep trotting out the same game plan and expect things to go differently.
[00:16:34] I don't know what it means, though. You know, I mean, I've said it before. It when it was 22, 20, 22 in those last two games, you saw a different game plan and the team looked just different.
[00:16:50] Do we see something like that? I say, why not?
[00:16:54] You're three and four right now. You're. You're stuck in the mud. This team cannot get it going, radically change this, this, this offensive identity, you know, throw out parts of the playbook and then just fricking keep it simple and just try something different.
[00:17:13] And I hate to be this guy here, but, you know, thinking about the off season now, because this season has gone just down, you know, so side sideways.
[00:17:24] Beamer has a huge, huge decision to make about Shula, where, you know, he has an offensive problem.
[00:17:32] And I don't think you can, in your right mind bring Shula back. It's not in Beamer's nature to fire guys after one year.
[00:17:43] A lot of people were calling for that of Satterfield, but that was Shane Beamer's. First year. You know, we're in year five now, and you had an opportunity to do something really, really good, and your offensive coordinator was not able to unlock that potential.
[00:17:59] And so he's going to have to think long and hard, and I'm sure he already is. But, you know, you may have to make a tough decision or two in this off season to maybe start thinking about saving your own ass, which is a really, really crazy thought. But when seasons go down the drain and they, and you waste potential like this, you got to start looking everywhere and looking at the top offensive coordinator. That's, that's, that's the number one thing right now, fixing this offense. But yeah, not the most bright eyed and cheery episode there, but it's just the state of things. Hopefully something does change and I do think that if that happens, this offense can click in a way to finish this season strong and find a couple of wins. But we need to see that change.
[00:18:50] But with that, y', all, 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 Cox.
