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 to episode 184 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 yeah, that stunk, right?
[00:01:35] That stinks. I sitting here normally try to come up with a little pun, little crack a joke here and there to kick off these episodes here, but that just stinks.
[00:01:47] Was a tough sort of saturday night Sunday. You process it all, of course, and things like that, but yeah, it was an interesting game and we'll get through together.
[00:02:03] I'll get into all of it in a second right now. But obviously, we have our football team sitting at a pretty precarious position.
[00:02:11] And you're still excited, you're still hopeful, you still see a lot of good that can come from the year. But it felt like that was a little bit of a moment that you came up short where it hurts. But I will get into the football game in a little bit here. But there was a lot of action around gamecock Nation to review over the weekend. So let's get this going here. Starting with Friday. Women's soccer beat Auburn two to one. Women's volleyball lost to ole Miss three to two. That's all right. Equestrian. That's right. We're talking equestrian. They beat UT Martin 14 to four. Swimming and diving. The women beat UNC Wilmington 181 to 119 and the men lost 158 to 142.
[00:03:04] On Saturday, you had men's soccer tie JMU one to one. And on Sunday, women's volleyball lost to Florida three to one. So sort of a mixed bag from the weekend, but some highs swimming and diving, equestrian, women's soccer on Friday, big Friday for Gamecock nation. And then sort of Saturday kind of leveled off and then Sunday went down, which is kind of our mood, kind of encapsulates the mood of Gamecock Nation, especially those like ourselves who are die hard football fans here. So, yeah, just going to dive right into this one. The gamecocks fall to Tennessee in Knoxville, 41 to 20. And yeah, like I said 2 seconds ago, it just sucks.
[00:03:56] That's like kind of it, right?
[00:04:00] I'm not mad.
[00:04:03] It's not this gut punch loss know, we've had just it just sucks. Right.
[00:04:09] You really thought this was going to be a I did. At least I thought this was going to be a close game. Throughout, and I knew it being in Knoxville, and it was a revenge game, at least from the Tennessee point of view. It was going to make for a huge challenge, but it still felt like a moment for this Carolina program to play spoiler yet again and get people talking about us.
[00:04:41] You know, maybe I didn't indicate all that in the pregame show, and I think talking to my friends and family, I was like, yeah, this game could go a few different ways. I really thought it was going to be close.
[00:04:54] I thought it was going to be close throughout. I saw a world where South Carolina just lights it up and we escape with a last second victory. But obviously that's not how it went right now. It was close. It felt like it was going to be that rock fight, that SEC type of fist fight game. It was that way for much of the first half, but that pick six right at the end of the half was just brutal. And it just set into motion the rest of things, really. Like, yes, you were able to sort of hang around a little bit, but when you look back at the game, and even in that moment too, that was a backbreaker. That was just something you absolutely could not do. It rejuvenated the fans. It gave them every reason in the world to be extra loud.
[00:05:47] You kind of were right there. And then it puts it to two possessions and again, it set into motion sort of the rest of things. But it's crazy because when you look at the box score of this game, which I don't always do, looking back at football games, but I really wanted to see for myself, where did things fall here? It's pretty wild because both teams, they looked pretty darn, even in a lot of the major categories. The rushing was the biggest discrepancy. Carolina gave up far more rushing yards than Tennessee did. Carolina held an edge in time of possession. I said that was going to be a crow to the game, to success. Believe it or not, South Carolina actually had less penalties than Tennessee, even though they were just very ill timed, right. The ones for Carolina just came at the worst moments, it felt like, and even comparable receiving yards. However, when you look at it a little bit more closely, the biggest difference, and really the difference making statistics, were third down conversions with the gamecocks only going two for 14 and sacks where South Carolina gave up six. So those are two very telling statistics that kind of tell you the story of how this game went. Just south Carolina was not able to keep drives going when they really needed to, and once again, the offensive line was suspect. So let's look at a little bit closer what I liked and what I didn't like from each side of the ball here. So starting with the defense. I liked creating the know. You knew it was going to take something like those to slow down Tennessee, give Carolina some momentum on the road, and that's exactly what you did. And you liked, know, getting it from those guys.
[00:07:47] Now, in the first Know, really, the defense held their own, only allowing one true touchdown in the first half, the other one being the Pick Six. So the defense set up the team pretty well, especially in that first half. So you definitely did like that the effort that those guys came out with in that first half, keeping it close from their perspective right now, what I didn't like was only getting one sack. And you almost feel like a broken record here because pass rush has been an issue this season and this was definitely not the spot that you want to not get to the quarterback at. And it's funny because the edge rushers should be more up to speed. Know, JT. Gere, Jordan Strong, Elijah Davis, like, and it's just not clicking right now. And even from the interior of the Know, that's kind of what we saw more in the Georgia game was you had a guy like TJ. Sanders being more disruptive. You just didn't have that right. So the defensive line was definitely something you did not like. Also allowing the quick score to start the third quarter right. Despite being down after that, the Pick Six, it was still a game right at that point, then down 14. But the teams were going back and forth to that point. So really the last thing that you could have done in that spot was give up a quick score. And that's what happened, which is funny because you're singing the praises of the defense in the first half, but immediately to start the second half, you give up a quick score and just again, just not what you needed right there. Yes, you were down two scores, but you felt like you were right in that game and it was your own mistake. But then all of a sudden you're down by more than that. But it is interesting, I could pick on little things here for the defense second half and things like that, but it was really a mixed bag for the defense overall. I mean, taking away the Pick Six Spencer gave up, they allowed 34 points, which still has the gamecocks losing the game. But I don't think you can fault them too much for this one. Like, yes, they gave up big plays and they had costly drives, so yes, you can for that. But against this high powered Tennessee offense, I really felt like they hung in there and creating two turnovers. They did all they could do.
[00:10:35] I mean, you certainly felt like it was going to take more than 34 points for South Carolina to win this game.
[00:10:44] So, yes, when your offense is maybe not clicking as you want to you need your defense to step up in that moment.
[00:10:53] You kind of felt like they did with creating some of the turnovers. But yes, they didn't fully hold up their end of the bargain. But I don't think that the defense is the reason this team lost the game. You know what I mean?
[00:11:08] Which brings me to the offense side of the ball. Actually, you know what? Real quick, shout out. We're going to go special teams. Special teams. Love the Kaisman moment. Friend of the program, Kai Kroger. Love him on that fake throw. That was great to see Beamer ball. That was a great moment. There was exactly what the team needed. And so shout out there. You always love that. Love to see Beamer ball. Now back to the offhead side. What I liked was Mario Anderson's. Run. I mean, highlight of the night, really, truly on the offensive side. He is clearly RB one. You have to go with him the rest of the way.
[00:11:45] DK and Juju, they can complement him but it needs to be Mario Anderson's job here on out.
[00:11:54] I did also like to see Juju. I liked seeing him get in the mix a little bit know he had been pretty quiet as far as touches go the last couple of games. So was really cool to see him. Also liked Trey Knox. He had himself a game you liked to see that I talked before the game is who is going to be that other person to step up if Tennessee is able to slow down leguette double him up. Trey Knox answered the bell. I think he had seven catches, something like that. He had a very nice night for himself.
[00:12:26] What I didn't like was I've said it a few times here it was Spencer's pick six before the half. That was quite literally the last thing that needed to happen in that spot. Being a very close game at that point. You were trying to drive, I understand, trying to be aggressive, trying to move the ball, that's fine.
[00:12:51] But you cannot make that mistake there. And it was a tough read too. It's just sort of out wide.
[00:13:00] He was forcing it.
[00:13:03] I just didn't feel like that was really the guy you needed to be throwing to in that moment.
[00:13:09] There was a few other instances of that but yeah, it was a tough read. It was really sort of the moment where you're like, shoot, this one might not go our way here, but I also really didn't like the offense not being able to settle into the regular tempo that we've seen this offense operate at. It just kind of felt like that side of the ball couldn't settle in and maybe a part of that is being in a raucous environment. Maybe it really did impact them, right? That's sort of what the opposing fans job is to do, right, is to get the offense off their game. But even so just kind of felt like they were unsettled for most of the night. And again, that also probably has to do with giving up six sacks, which, of course, is something that you never like to see. And for an offensive line that we've had a lot of questions about, it was a tough night. I understand you're starting two true freshmen with Tree and Trovon, but that was still very tough to see.
[00:14:15] I did not like the boys not converting on the fourth down try. I didn't like some of the calls in the third down. Like I just said, like, throwing it short of the sticks out wide and things like that. And it was really sort of the first game where the passing offense just looked off.
[00:14:35] Really to this point in the season, we had relied on that and you felt really confident in your passing offense to keep you in the game, things like that. Move the sticks, it just was off. It just was not exactly what you wanted to see. Also, I did not like not seeing Nick Harbour or Tyshawn Russell really at all. Shane Beamer said that they need to get them more involved and they need to get better and deeper at receiver. And that's nice to say in the press conference after the game, but we need to see it in reality and we need to see these guys get some playing time because we need a little bit of a think. Especially, you know, you need that X factor. Right leguette is playing amazing right now. He's having a hell of a season. He needs some help. Spencer needs some know, I talked about Trey Knox. Had a nice game. He's a tight end. Nick harbor probably one of, if not the fastest guys on the field if you put him there. I understand these guys are true freshmen. I do. And especially with harbor, he came in later in the summer. He's learning a new position, trying to do it at the highest of levels. And he was battling a little bit of an injury in camp. So I understand that he's green and I understand that there's a learning curve. But freshmen play all the time and you have to take chances. And in college, sometimes you take the good with the bad.
[00:16:14] If you put a freshman out there like Nick Harbor, right, you can find a way to get him the ball easily and try and get him in space and just have him run.
[00:16:23] You might sacrifice some route running for other times he doesn't get the ball quickly. Maybe he has, you know, maybe he's working on his, like maybe, you know, you sacrifice some potential drops. But to me, he needs to be on the field more. Not this saying it right, saying that for two or three weeks now, we need to see it. So that was something that definitely was a little frustrating, for sure.
[00:16:50] Overall, for the game. It was just crappy.
[00:16:54] That's my adjective for this game, crappy. Annoying opponent and a crappy result.
[00:17:01] Both sides of the line of scrimmage remain a concern. And you know what y'all like depth pretty much across the board is a concern for me right now. Pretty much every position that you can think of, you want to be deeper. And so right now you have our team sitting at two and three and you all know I'm an optimist and all that jazz. I do feel that this is a better team than two and three, but the reality is that's where we're at. And so you're looking at the back half of the season that now is filled with pressure packed games because your margin of error is razor thin. Like, yes, when you look at the schedule, it was pretty front loaded in the sense of your hardest games back half. You have a lot more home games, right? You're home the entire month of November, but you do have a back to back road game with Mizzou and A M. That's going to be a challenging pair of games. But. You have Vanderbilt. Jacksonville State.
[00:18:11] Those are two games that you feel really confident about. So you start to look at the rest of the schedule and you're like, okay, what are some of the other games that we feel good about?
[00:18:21] Florida, maybe.
[00:18:23] Missou right.
[00:18:26] Kentucky, Clemson, they're at home, could be challenging. But your margin of error is just razor thin right now. And this bye week seems to be coming at the perfect time for this team. Despite it being a little bit on the earlier side when the schedule first came out, I didn't love that. I always like to see a little bit more balance or you don't want to have to play so many games and be a little maybe banged up at the end of the year, but I think this comes at the perfect time. Both coordinators need to take stock of where things are at and they need to self scout and they need to tighten things up. The team needs to get know there's a couple guys who have been banged up. They need to take this time to get as healthy as they possibly can. And this needs to be a time to truly develop some freshmen, particularly Nick Harbor.
[00:19:19] Now, the good news is Beamer has gotten his teams to play well coming right out of the by, and he has always had his teams play better as the year has gone on. But the pressure is on now.
[00:19:33] It is.
[00:19:35] So it's going to be really interesting to see what this team does in the week off. I will have a bi week retrospective, my next episode. So sort of just taking stock of where things are at, what to look for in the next half of the schedule and everything like that. But this is a big critical moment for this year's team, and they need to absolutely take advantage of this time off to get healthy and simply maybe get a little better, too.
[00:20:07] Again, feels like you're sort of right there, but because you're not there yet, you're sitting at two and three and you got some big games coming up and coming up in a hurry that you have to get ready for.
[00:20:24] For those of you interested, the six pack went three and three. We're on the way up. Again, we're on the way up. 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 Gamecocks. And please, like, subscribe and review the podcast. I appreciate all y'all. Go Cox.
