Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks. The Gamecocks crush Kent State in the first football game. And a weekend recap from around Carolina athletics. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:55] Welcome to episode 403 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And y', all, what a weekend. I mean, I'm just feeling great. I'm sure y' all are as well. I know with the Labor Day holiday of it all, you're listening to this probably on Tuesday, maybe even Wednesday. But if you're like me, you'll still be riding the high of what we experienced last Saturday there. Football season is underway. It was great to have wall to wall coverage. You had Friday, football, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, wacky games all the way around. I'm not going to get into what we witnessed in Ann Arbor the other day because we had so much good vibes going on out of Williams Bryce and it just feels so good to be back. And I had a very busy weekend, personally. That's the Yalls concerned. I moved into a new house, so it was take a couple hours break, watch this football game, crush some beers, celebrate afterwards, and then the next day your in Lowe's buying blinds. And you know, no two days are ever the same. But it didn't matter because I had my Gamecocks hat on. And everyone who I saw you kind of gave a little nod to a little smile because after such a long wait, to finally get back out there and to do that in that fashion is just so rewarding and it just felt so right and so, so good. But let me take a quick step back before I jump into all of that from Saturday afternoon.
[00:02:32] Quick weekend recap from around Carolina. Athletics had a few games from the weekend here. Women's volleyball was in action on Sunday. They got the win over Troy 3 to 1. And then women's soccer, they kept up their great season start beating the College of Charleston on Sunday, 6 1. So only a couple results from the weekend, but a couple of good ones. And that ties in perfectly to the fantastic result that we saw Saturday afternoon in Williams Bryce as the Gamecocks smoked, crushed, smothered the Kent state golden flashes 57 to nothing. First off, if you were in Williams Bryce at this game, I commend you. Hats off to you. Even if you dipped early, like hottest game on record.
[00:03:22] Unbelievable that we had that sellout crowd and people hung around for as long as they did.
[00:03:27] You still saw some folks there in the fourth quarter. I don't know if y' all saw that video that was circulating where I don't know if he was a student journalist or I don't know, the outlet that he worked for, but was asking some students like why are y' all still here in the fourth? And if that doesn't get you jacked up or you know, excited to be a Gamecock, I don't know what does. That should be a commercial, but nonetheless incredible afternoon. The only thing hotter then the weather was Carolina's offense. And I mean, it's funny, like I don't even know where to start. I just don't. But we have to start with the offense. Highly anticipated new system with Kendall Briles. It was funny because that very first drive I think we all had some very high hopes. There were a lot of nerves and things like that and it looked okay, you know, you, you had that third down conversion but ultimately it stalled out. And I had some friends who immediately their PTSD from Mike Shula was triggered and they said nope, it's the same old, same old. Bad sack, tough blocking there, you know, he's got to step up, et cetera, et cetera. But you, you would have thought we were losing the game at that point if you were looking at some of my friends reactions here. But the fact of the matter was it was only that and defense stood up, got the ball back right away and South Carolina proceeded to rattle off 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 consecutive touchdown drives. I mean, what in the world. We haven't seen anything like that ever. I mean the closest comparison I was thinking was that Tennessee game where it just felt like everything was clicking a couple years ago and you put up 60 something points or whatever it was. But this just had a different feel to it because there was the anticipation of what will this new system look like. And you saw the contributions coming from everyone really.
[00:05:29] And in my estimation, I don't think Kendall Briles had to do anything that exotic. He mixed in some tempo and it seemed like whenever we tried to mix in tempo there was like procedural issues, whether it was the chain or whatever. Like that didn't seem to flow maybe as well as they would have liked, but there wasn't any crazy trickeration or anything like that.
[00:05:54] You didn't have any like herokulian efforts. Like the Jabri Coleman run was incredible. But what I'm trying to say is I think Briles was able to call more or less like the basic offense and just it was a situation where he was so Dialed in to what type of play needed to be called, when, whose number he needed to call. That as long as those guys went out and executed, they did. And you saw the results.
[00:06:23] I mean, there were a couple of instances where the little things just felt right, like it was a third and medium, and Lenore threw it kind of in the flat, but it was towards the sticks, and the receiver only had to turn up a little bit. I forget who it was right now. And it was just a couple of yards that he had to fight for instead of throwing it behind the line of scrimmage and things that we were so used to seeing.
[00:06:47] So a small detail, throwing it towards the six. And then there was another run that Matt Fuller had for a first down. I believe he gained nine or maybe 11 yards, where a receiver went in motion to the left and it drew the eyes of the defenders. And then the play went to the right and you had a lead blocker on the outside, on the edge. You sealed the edge and Fuller cut up for the first down.
[00:07:14] Those are little things that you have to execute on. And the team did. And it was just so great to see. I. I loved the rushing ability. I. I loved what we saw out of Matt Fuller. I really liked what we saw out of Christian Clark as well. That feels like that's going to be the one, two punch.
[00:07:32] Jabri Coleman. That's exciting. I loved seeing how we'll get in the mix. I've been calling his name for a while, and even a gustave like you really liked what you saw out of the run game. And I think if you can establish that run.
[00:07:43] I talked about this before the game. It's gonna set things up and make you that much harder to defend. It was interesting to see Sellers not scrambling a bunch.
[00:07:54] You know, you had one, maybe two design runs that I can remember off the top of my head.
[00:08:00] Maybe that is a situation where, again, you didn't need to pull out that. Right. Like things were executing on a high level without that. So you can save that a little bit. Right. I did think there were a couple of instances, not a ton, but a few, where Lenores could have stepped up in the pocket a little bit better and avoided a sack or two. There were one or two throws where he certainly wants to have back, but nonetheless, 19 to 23 for 270 yards and three touchdowns and played essentially a half right. He came out incredibly early in the third. So phenomenal day from Sellers. The kind of performance that we hoped we would see and we did on the receiving front, absolutely Love what we saw to Donovan Murph when Jaden Sellers went down. There was all the talk of, you know, it's a deep run or excuse me, a deep wide receiver room.
[00:08:52] And the question was, who is going to step up. I was a fan of Murph's last year. I really loved what we saw from him this year. If he can continue to progress, he could be the type of guy that not this year, but in future years he could be a wide receiver 1 he has everything and has that full ability to do so. So if you can get him on that trajectory this year as effectively a third or a fourth option, that's incredible right there. Harbor made some nice catches as well. It was fun to see Mazio have himself a day. He has that one drop that he really, really wants back. That was a walk in touchdown, a little bit of an under throw from Lenoris on that, but nonetheless, love to see him get in the end zone and expect to see and hope to see more from him in that regard in the future. But I mean, 57 points, it's the star of the show like. And it goes to show that everyone was bought into this system because when Cutter came in and when Lucian came in at quarterback, it didn't matter. You didn't see the drop off, right? Coleman, it worked, Howell, it worked. You know, you saw, you saw other receivers get, get involved in this. I'd like to see Nitro Tuggle have a little bit more action again. It's game one.
[00:10:08] Lenore just missed him on that deep shot to the end zone. But nonetheless that's someone who I fully expect to see more involved as the year progresses.
[00:10:18] And it just felt great. I mean, that's what Shane Beamer said in the press conference that like it felt good to have an offense that was operating at such high level. And he joked about that 57 points is the new standard. And it's like, yeah, it felt great for us too, coach.
[00:10:34] And you know, we can joke about it I guess now, but it's like imagine if you did something higher like this a couple years ago like this, you know, we could have had more fun like this throughout. But at this, in as much as attention as the offense is getting, we have to talk about the defense some and it's crazy because they pitched a shutout and normally that's the lead story in a situation like this. And the offense, because of the anticipation and some of the plays these guys made certainly took the show. But the defense I thought played really, really well. The defensive line Looked solid. You saw Julian Walker make some hustle plays and plays that necessarily don't show up on the stat sheet. Just missing a sack there, but I thought he played really well. You saw Judge performing really well.
[00:11:26] It was very interesting to see.
[00:11:28] You saw Busey in the mix there. Then you also saw Currents in the mix there in the safety position. So that's going to be something that you're going to want to track. I talked about that before the game as to where are you going to get, you know that who was going to play in that second safety role opposite of Peyton Williams. I think you're seeing it still very much up in the air. But I liked what we saw from Currents. The linebackers had themselves a day. Anthony Addison with the sack as well. So it was a complete effort. And it was funny because as the game was progressing, you were kind of waiting for this turnover to come, right, and felt like you might be able to make one happen. And turns out you get that when some of the reserves are in. But nonetheless, that calling card of the Clayton White defenses of getting turnovers was still in play there. And when you hold the team to zero points, there's really not much you really can say in the way of what all needs to be improved upon. I think the team did exactly what they needed to do. I mean, there were a couple of.
[00:12:38] Couple of plays that of course, they want to get back, but there were some times where, you know, the Kent State quarterback, he was mobile and he's able to buy himself some time and guys got him out of the pocket, got him off platform and he was looking downfield, looking to make a play. Nothing could happen.
[00:12:56] That's guys sticking to their assignments and staying in phase defensively in that backfield. That's guys hustling to get him to the sideline, get him out of bounds on the defensive line in that front seven.
[00:13:07] And I just thought it was a great effort from top to bottom. Now, look, of course there's going to be people who are going to say it's week one, you know, and it's Kent State. And you're absolutely correct. Like, this was Kent State and this is week one. But if you followed South Carolina as closely as we have, you know that these types of games have not always come easy.
[00:13:32] And, you know, it was funny because it was seven nothing after the first quarter.
[00:13:37] That first quarter flew, by the way. I don't know how that happened, but you put up 22 in the second and you know, this game's over at the half. But you look around college football and plenty of teams were off to slow ish starts. Some teams with higher expectations in South Carolina had some scares against lesser competition, such as, you know, like a Golden, like a, like a Kent State or whatnot. So I really wouldn't downplay this result. Of course, when you get into league play, that's what, that's your true measuring stick. The old adage of college football is you improve the most from week one to week two because you get to see, you know, how this all played out in true game situations.
[00:14:24] I think it's going to be imperative for South Carolina to improve in the margins off of this game.
[00:14:32] Couple of procedure things that you want to clean up, but really just see if you can keep up that execution on the offensive side of the ball and defensively with that communication.
[00:14:41] Really the improvement you want to see for me is going to be, you know, we'll see how Towson goes. You expect a similar result to this. Week two to week three is where you're going to want to continue tighten up. Those guys who are needing the reps are going to have plenty of them by then. And you're want to go, you're going to want to go into game three really at the top of your game.
[00:15:01] But right now, this was the exact, exactly what the doctor ordered for the Gamecocks here. You know, you, you didn't want to go into this game having a little bit of a scare. And, you know, this was what we had hoped for, right? You had hoped that you were going to have a strong defense where a couple of different guys could make plays. Like. Yeah, you think of Judge making a play like that makes sense, right? You think of, you know, Fred Johnson or Sean Murphy, like, making plays. Yes, that makes sense. These guys have been around their starters, but we talk about Anthony Addison getting into the mix. You love that. When you think of Julian Walker jumping off the page a little bit when you watch, that's exactly what you need in these early games to boost these guys confidence and to get them those reps in that experience. So that way in a, in a week or two, they do feel really strong there and then. Yeah, it just, it's great vibes. You know, it's. Again, again, I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, but it's exactly what you wanted to see, strong defensive play with different guys making plays when it matters. You saw some strong tackling on third down.
[00:16:20] You saw some times when, you know, Kent State maybe had a little something cooking. You know, they Had a couple of good plays there and it was snuffed out right away. I mean, they never even sniffed the end zone. You know, there was one drive, you know, a couple conversions here or there.
[00:16:36] And of course there's tape that these guys are going to watch and they're going to improve upon. But pitching a shutout, Absolutely. So that's what you expect from that unit. Right. We all felt comfortable with Clayton White's defense. Then on the offensive side of the ball, the question was, can you win the time of possession battle?
[00:16:53] Can you put up points? Can you keep the defense fresh? And they absolutely did that and then some.
[00:16:59] Absolutely love to see it. You're short in the fourth quarter too. Like, we very easily could have had 60 points in this game.
[00:17:07] So it's a really, really fun week one. And when we put the bow on it, you know, you want to keep up this momentum going into next week's game night game. Luckily, everyone can be a little cooler in this matchup, but you want to carry this momentum and just keep an eye out for those little things, right? Like how did the third down runs look? How do the, you know, running lanes look? What are they doing when it's third down, obvious passing situations and whatnot? I expect we'll see a little bit more wrinkles here and there against Tauzen continuing to install some things, but Lenores looked really comfortable operating this offense for the most part. Of course there's going to be some growing pains from, you know, various spots, but nonetheless, I really, really liked what we saw. And on top of it all, when we talk about wrapping up this weekend, Clemson got absolutely destroyed down Baton Rouge and it's absolutely things we'd love to see. So it is a great weekend to be a Gamecock. And 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.
