Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecock's reaction to the football team's collapse against A and M and the women's basketball team is the real USC. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:55] Welcome to episode 355 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, and I don't know if I can promise a timeline on this episode because I don't know if I have it in me to sit here for 18 minutes and think about what we all had to go through Saturday afternoon. Jumping right into it here. Gamecock football, part of one of the most epic collapses in SEC history, in school history, in college football history.
[00:01:34] Blowing a 27 point lead at halftime on the road against number three ranked Texas A and M, only to lose the game by one point, 31 to 30.
[00:01:49] I'm sick. It's absolutely sickening what we sat through and felt like witnessing a car crash on top of a train wreck in a fireball that you had no control over and yet you had to sit there and watch transpire over the course of an hour and a half or so.
[00:02:14] I mean, my God, it was the first half from heaven and the second half from the depths of hell that we had. I saw someone reply to one of my tweets and they said that the first half was last year, it was last season. The team we were used to seeing and enjoyed for all of last year, that was the team we saw in the first half and that was the team that we thought we were going to field this year.
[00:02:43] And then you get to the second half and it was the team that we currently have and the season that we've had this year. And I think that is honestly the perfect encapsulation because it was two different teams that we saw.
[00:03:00] I mean, in that first half, I mean, let's talk about the good, right? The first half I thought the offense looked noticeably better.
[00:03:09] It wasn't radically different, like maybe I thought we were going to see, but you saw some creativity early.
[00:03:17] You saw the use of some tempo getting in the run. Game looked much better.
[00:03:23] And I loved seeing Joanne Howell get some touches. I've been calling for him all year. You saw more Matt Fuller, you know, you saw Lenores scrambling well. You saw getting the ball to our playmakers hands and things just seemed to move. You would have loved to cash in for six in that opening drive, taking the shot to the end zone. I didn't mind it. I was talking to some buddies who did mind it. The problem was when you got that incomplete pass the second down went nowhere. So you were kind of in a third and long situation. You had to settle for three. But to still move the ball well in that opening drive was a positive.
[00:04:04] And to generate a good amount of points offensively in that first half, I think it was looking good, right?
[00:04:12] And then defensively they were lights out from the word go. Like, yes, you benefited from some drops from Texas A and M, but like, that's football, that, that's life. You know, sometimes they got that, they dropped the ball.
[00:04:26] It was a good amount of bend, don't break, you know, and you held them to field goals and field go attempts that they missed. And you know, you, you had mistakes in that first half from A and M and you really did for the most part take advantage of it and the strip, sack, scoop and score like you had everything going your way. You did exactly what you have to do to pull off an upset. I mean really just to win a football game, right?
[00:04:56] And it's what I said going into this game, I said it on the episode and I said it on social media that if you are going to do this, you have to jump on A. M. Early and then hold on for dear Life in the second half.
[00:05:12] That 27 point lead wasn't just what I had thought, right. I would. When I said that, I was thinking like, you got to jump out to like a two score lead or something like that.
[00:05:23] You had this team dead to rights. You had them rattled.
[00:05:27] Now, I understand they're a really good football team. They're number three in the country for a reason. They have playmakers all on over that team. Like it was going to be very strange for them to play as poorly as they did for four quarters, right?
[00:05:44] They shook it off at halftime and they locked in and they said, we have a job to do. You know who didn't lock in? Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks. I am sick to my stomach seeing this coach pumping up the crowd, walking to the tunnel at halftime, at halftime, you would have thought we won the game.
[00:06:08] It's one thing to be supportive and happy that we got such good fans. You can give the fans a nice little wave, a little clap above your head as you're going to that tunnel. But to be waving your arms and saying to the half to the reporters at halftime like, yeah, we beat this team by 24 last year, we could do it again. What are you talking about? We've won three games this year.
[00:06:32] You have this team on the ropes, dead to rights.
[00:06:35] Do you ever see Dan Lanning, Kirby Smart. Did you ever see Nick Saban celebrate at halftime and. Absolutely not.
[00:06:44] And those are good coaches. Those teams win. Those teams put their throat on the other team and say, we're not letting you get up off the mat, and I don't care. That Shane Beamer afterwards was like, no, there was none of that going on in the locker room. We said, we got to keep our head down and keep grinding bull crap bullshit.
[00:07:06] I know that in the back of his mind, he said, okay, we did exactly what we have to do. We can cruise now. We just got to keep them off the mat a little bit, keep them on, keep them at bay a little bit. They're going to score, they're going to make a little run. We just have to hold on here.
[00:07:20] Something changed at the half. The play calling from Furry totally bottled up, you know, like.
[00:07:27] And that decision early in the second half, I want to say, was our first drive. The first or second drive in the second half, you were kind of on the edge of William Joyce's field goal range. It was a windy day, 4th and 2. I don't mind going for it. Like, in the moment, I was like, okay, I can see it. You're trying to be aggressive, right? Like A and M did, just score. If you can get this first down here, you can try to get to the end zone or at least set yourself up for a better field goal. I didn't mind it, but A M, I know that we had been moving the ball well, running up until that point, but like, that, it felt like you were kind of lucky to that, right? I just. The play call was like this run up the middle that got blown up right away. And it's like, didn't we just fire a guy? Because that's all he did in those situations. Like, I would have loved a better play call there in the second half.
[00:08:25] Lenores, who missed some throws early in the game, but then had some absolute dimes, like, he was playing really well in the first half.
[00:08:33] His decision making went out the window, you know, and furries, play calling, these route concepts weren't helping. You looked at some of these sacks he was taking late in the second half, and there was no underneath help. Everyone was running deep. And that was the problem with Shula, was that he would call these plays where Lenores has to sit there and he got sacked. And that's what happened in the second half.
[00:08:59] Defensively, you. You couldn't stop a nosebleed. Like, you know, it was just.
[00:09:03] Nothing was working that was working in the first half. And it's on the coaches to figure out a way to do that. And look, you gotta call out the defense because that is just abysmal to give up that lead, right?
[00:09:18] To give up those four scores and to surrender that 27 point lead, like, that is not good. Like they were getting gashed on those slant routes all day.
[00:09:29] You gotta find a way to do that. But they were lights out in the first half for the offense to get blanked. Like to not all you had to do was get a field goal at some point in the second half and you win the game.
[00:09:44] It's just crazy to me that you couldn't go back to the. Well, where was Fuller? Where was Howell in the second half? You know, like you were doing some things that showed creativity and they, they went away.
[00:10:00] It was. It's absolutely atrocious to lose that game. And then you were gifted the ball by a stupid mistake play call by A and M, where they were basically could walk in the end zone. If they just let Reed handle things.
[00:10:18] You're gifted the ball with a chance to say, okay, that was weird.
[00:10:23] Two and a half minutes to glory.
[00:10:25] Kind of like the freaking Alabama game where you're like, you got the ball, you can make it happen here.
[00:10:32] And you got that fantastic catch by harbor, literally putting his body on the line, going to the hospital afterwards. After that catch, you get a good run and then the subsequent play calls, sack, sack. And then you don't set your quarterback up for success to, you know, convert on the very long fourth down, which was asking for a lot to begin with. And then the ball game's over.
[00:10:58] I just, we deserve better than this.
[00:11:02] We do like three games leading in the fourth quarter against a ranked opponent.
[00:11:09] Oh, and three A&M, you're up on the road by 27 points and you lose, like that's on the coaching staff, you know what I mean? Like, yes, there were some poor decisions and poor execution by some of these guys on the field, right?
[00:11:29] And Lenores, this year has just not looked crisp from beginning to end, right? He had some throws that were just not good, missing guys, you know, but this is on the coaches like that, like there's a. Something happens. Like even if it's just like subconsciously, like less intense, less aggressive, like you looked at A and M like they were like taking it to us. The play calling was aggressive and they had to be.
[00:11:59] I mean, that there was. Early in the second half, I think we had them. It was like fourth and 12 or so.
[00:12:07] Reed scrambled and got the first down. Like, that was a backbreaker because if you stop them there, it really nips that momentum in the bud. But it was just a second half of just pure momentum.
[00:12:19] I don't know what to say.
[00:12:22] There's not much more. You know, like, I put this loss squarely on the coaching staff because to not make the in game adjustments when you figured out what or what. What wasn't happening is pitiful to be. I mean, it. Just seeing that clip of Beamer walking into the tunnel at halftime, like, that's unacceptable. Like, pumping up the crowd. Like, keep your head down, keep focused, keep grinding, and then you can celebrate. And he was doing shit like that in the bowl game last year, pumping up the crowd during the game. Like, what are you doing?
[00:12:59] Like, attitude reflects leadership. The guys see this, they see their coach celebrating and talking about beating this team. Like, you have a task at hand here. You cannot. You have no laurels to rest on.
[00:13:14] Like, my God.
[00:13:17] Second half, fourth quarter collapses. All throughout this year, that's on the coaches. You can't close these things out.
[00:13:24] I mean, I'm not calling for anything extreme right now.
[00:13:27] I understand if people want to. You have every right to. After Saturday, knock yourself out.
[00:13:33] But my God, this was just. It's embarrassing. And I feel like I've said that a couple of times after a few of these games, but this was embarrassing.
[00:13:42] You couldn't. You couldn't piece together three points.
[00:13:46] That would have been the difference. You couldn't find a field goal in the second half. The entire second half.
[00:13:52] You win the game, you beat the number three team at their place.
[00:13:56] You did everything you had to do in that first half and you just had to do one. One little thing, you know, one extra stop in the second half, one extra first down, get you the field goal. It's just.
[00:14:10] I got nothing else.
[00:14:12] I got nothing else. There's.
[00:14:15] It's just. It's a sad state of things, really. You know, you look at the year and you say, we got two games left and then we can turn the page. And it's a page. I think we're all ready to turn just to flush this season down.
[00:14:29] You know, you hope you can be Coastal and you hope that you can just end the year on a fun note and chime de Clemson. But at this rate, this team can't close.
[00:14:39] They can't. This coaching staff can't close.
[00:14:43] It's crazy to me that we're sitting here again talking about a blown lead, poor execution, late games. Like, that's not winning football.
[00:14:54] The good teams Win in the fourth quarter. And that was something that Shane Beamer used to always talk about and they used to always try and do.
[00:15:02] I don't know what happened this year. It's just. It's pathetic. Pathetic what we saw. And sad. We deserve better. We deserve better.
[00:15:10] It's just.
[00:15:12] I'm just sad. I'm angry. It's all the things.
[00:15:17] In any event, there was another game, a fun game that went on this weekend. The women's basketball team took on the other USC, which is fun.
[00:15:26] A battle for the real SC. And the Gamecocks got the W there. 69, 52. Carolina jumped out to a first quarter lead. A little bit of a back and forth, but it was a strong second half. Things that I wish we could say for the football team.
[00:15:40] Strong second half by Don Staley squad to beat usc. And that's. That's a good win there. You know, I know there's no juju Watkins out there, but SC has a pretty good squad here. Joyce Edwards leading the way with 17 points. Tessa Johnson and Raven Johnson with 14 apiece there. That's just. That's a good team win. Impressive, to say the least. So we'll. We'll keep an eye out on the next game for the ladies, which is Winthrop Wednesday. The guys play Radford on Tuesday, so plenty of hoops to keep you occupied. Hang in there, y'. All. Hang in there.
[00:16:17] My God.
[00:16:19] It's just. It's funny. It just the.
[00:16:21] You know, I've said it in variations before, but just sports are. It's a funny thing, like, for those of us who are big sports fans, it's funny. Just the grip it can have on you, and they can take you with these emotions that are just some of the high highs and some of the low lows. And part of it is that you just literally have zero control, right? And you want to, with every fiber of your being, you know, say, like, I want to do something to stop this.
[00:16:53] And you can't, you know, and so you just have to sit there and live with the result, you know, and it's just.
[00:17:00] It is what it is, you know? But for us super fans, it just. It stings, you know?
[00:17:07] It stings.
[00:17:08] Hang in there, y' all with that. 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 co.
