Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, I share my pre game analysis as the football team heads to Oklahoma looking for a third straight win. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:53] Okay.
[00:00:55] Welcome to episode 417 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope y' all have a. Had a lovely week, Gamecocks. It's been a fantastic week. You know, it's been a week of basking in glory. I mean, it's been easy to forget just how fun winning is.
[00:01:25] Had a tough go at it on the football front. And these last two weeks, well, you know, bye week included. Right. Last two games have afforded us a lot of excitement, but this past win against Tennessee, the content that's come out of this one, I don't really have something to compare it to in recent memory. I mean, the 2024 Clemson game with Lenoris Run, that was outstanding. And there was a lot of content that came out of that. But, you know, it was the last game of the year and then like, the playoff rankings didn't go our way. And I don't know, I just like. That was a lot of excitement, but this, I. It's hard. It's hard to explain. Maybe I'm alone in this one, but it just feels like there's been still just so much chatter and happiness and celebration amongst our fan base.
[00:02:17] Basically a week later after that Tennessee game. And it's just seeing more and more edits coming out of that. That game. And then SEC network posting on Thursday, Thursday after the game, posting the locker room celebration, Shane Beamer's speech and dancing and everything like that. And it's just not going away. And I'm here for it. I freaking love it. If you're a Tennessee fan, you absolutely dread it, but that's not my problem. This has been an amazing couple of months.
[00:02:47] Excuse me, couple of weeks to be a Gamecock. We go back a couple months. Maybe a little bit of a different story, but nonetheless, I'm fired up. I'm happy to get back to it Halloween weekend. Hope y' all got some plans for that. If you're out in five points, that would be a blast. I'm in my 30s, so unfortunately, you know, a lot of my Halloween parties look a little differently, but nonetheless, still excited for the weekend. Going to be posted up, watching the Oklahoma game, handing out some candy to the kids, trick or treaters and yeah, gonna be a lovely weekend here. So let's jump right into this. I have A quick week in review. Only one score for y'. All. And this is equestrian team.
[00:03:30] They demolished Fresno State to a score of 16 to 2. Got a lot of matches and games coming up this weekend to recap with y' all on Monday. But, yeah, shout out to the equestrian team. Don't mess with our equestrian team. We're good.
[00:03:47] We take a lot of pride in that, too. But all right, let's turn our Focus to Saturday, 4:15 Eastern kickoff on Halloween. The Gamecocks are headed to Norman, Oklahoma.
[00:04:00] Last time we were at Norman, things went well for us. Hoping to manifest some of that. But, yeah, that's the storyline for South Carolina is can we keep up the momentum that we've seen over these last couple of weeks? The team is certainly trending in the right direction. Lenores has seemed to reach back into that level of LA Superman, LA Goat, you know, LA don't quit.
[00:04:25] And the defense has stepped up in critical times. You saw the defense really put their throat on Tennessee in the second half that last weekend.
[00:04:37] This marks the third game of Cocktober. And can the Gamecocks end this month on an incredibly high note? It's not going to be easy. You know, it's funny, I think when people looked at the back half of the schedule after the Florida win, there was a lot of renewed hope and renewed optimism there. And people were saying, wow, like the path to, you know, eight wins is right there. Nine. Even if you, you know, you could, you have to pump the brakes on that. Tennessee is a good football team. That's a huge, huge team win in all three phases. And I think people are looking at this game at Oklahoma and thinking, well, Oklahoma has underwhelmed to this point this year and South Carolina should be able to go in there and just simply have more firepower than the Sooners, and that should carry them. And look, that very well may be the case.
[00:05:28] One of the big storylines out of Oklahoma, if you will, is their lack of offensive production.
[00:05:36] You remember last year, Mateer came in there with Arbuckle, you know, his, his former offensive coordinator, and really took the league by storm. For a few weeks there he was in Heisman conversations and then he got hurt and really didn't look the same this year. To my knowledge, he's healthy, but he just has not looked like that first half of last season.
[00:05:58] Maybe some of that is the SEC catching up with that system. He came in with a lot of energy and experience and the league has caught up. I don't really know, but Mattier has certainly come Back to earth. He has very pedestrian levels this year. He has thrown a lot of interceptions this year. I believe it's seven picks on the year. He's had a few games where he's thrown multiple. So he is vulnerable now. They are coming off of one of their better offensive games of the year against Mississippi State, but their defense isn't as tough as we once thought it was. But the story from Oklahoma, while they have struggled offensively and South Carolina is certainly going to hope to expose that is defensively correct. Stop me if you've heard this before here, but Brent Venables has an elite defense.
[00:06:51] He has those guys playing hard. They do a really tricky amount of scheme. Kendall Briles talked about how they do a really good job of masking what they're trying to do. He was saying that a lot of the defenses you kind of figure out like they boil it down to a couple of formations and a couple of things that they do. But what they do leading up to that is what's tricky to diagnose. And he really did applaud their effort that they play with. I believe the Sooners are right at the top of third down conversion for the off for the for their opponents. So that's really what has carried them to this point in the year. I mean they have held pretty much everybody, with the exception of Georgia under 30 points here and the name of their game is don't allow the opposing team to score a lot because we're not going to score a lot and we're going to play you close and we're going to see if we can grind you out. I mean it's funny like I just referenced their last game against Mississippi State a second ago. They only scored 23 points and people are acting like this is, you know, Matier's coming out party here. They still struggled in that game but you know they have playmakers. It's a team that has recruited well and it's going to be a tough matchup for South Carolina. So yeah, all that is to say that you can't just look at an Oklahoma team that has underperformed to maybe what the expectations of some people had going into the year. They're sitting at 4 and 3, 2 and 2 in the SEC.
[00:08:28] South Carolina still has to continue to level up and they still have to continue to progress. And there are things that happened in, in the Tennessee game and the Florida game that in the SEC can hurt you. And I talked about it post game of that Tennessee where you know there were times where the door was still open very much for Tennessee. I mean that it was a walk off kick. So you can't assume anything in this league.
[00:08:55] You know, I certainly like our offense a whole hell of a lot more than the Oklahoma offense.
[00:09:02] And I do think it's going to be a game where rather low scoring affair and I'm hoping that our defense makes a couple of plays that ultimately is the difference. But you know, South Carolina sitting as I'm recording this as four and a half point underdogs.
[00:09:21] So that tells you right there that you know, yeah, there's the home field advantage, right. They say that's about what, two or three points in any given spread.
[00:09:30] Vegas and the experts will still tell you that hey, Carolina, you know, still has an uphill battle ahead of them going into this one. So it should make for a very interesting matchup. It's going to be, you know, Ken Lenora and this offense continue to progress. And make no mistake about it, Tennessee has a really good defense just like Oklahoma has a really good defense.
[00:09:54] And Kendall Browns was able to scheme against that to get Carolina on the board early and we were able to do enough throughout the rest of that game to be in a position to win.
[00:10:06] And so if you were able to continue to game plan well and Lenoris is able to keep drives alive and you know, you look around in the receiver room, Mazio has had a strong season, DJ Black had a strong season. Haven't seen a whole lot of Nick Harbor. Maybe this is a game where he has a couple of those explosive plays. Even just two can make a big difference.
[00:10:31] But nonetheless this is a critical game really for both programs. I think when you think of it like loser, this game is back to.500.
[00:10:41] If Oklahoma loses, they have a losing record in the SEC. If South Carolina wins, we're 500 in the SEC with five wins overall, looking to go for three in a row.
[00:10:52] And I mean I. The season is back on right now, but if you can go into Norman and be on the right side of this one, I mean you have to be in consideration to be ranked and sitting at five wins with what that'd be four to play.
[00:11:11] It's not just this, like can you salvage a season like you've, you've salvaged it and like now go take it.
[00:11:18] So should make for a very competitive matchup. It screams this screams like close, stressful game akin to that Tennessee game. I will say I do think Tennessee probably has a better offense than Oklahoma.
[00:11:36] But. But just like you know, every opponent we face, they have the ability to have those explosives that you have to try and limit here. But with that being said, let me get to my crows to the game here. You can also check this out on Garnet and Cocky.com along with the rest of the team's content. Starting with the offense here.
[00:11:54] Convert on third down.
[00:11:56] I said it a second ago. The Sooners have one of the top third down opponent conversion rates. It's a mouthful. The defense is incredible on third down. I believe they're second or third in the entire country in that conversion rate.
[00:12:13] So keeping the chains moving and keeping the offense on the field for these extended drives I think will prove crucial and really like when you think of it could make the difference late in the game. If you have a team that has won on defense, if you're able to wear them out in that first, second and third quarter, if it is a close game late and you got to make another play late, I would love it if it's a defense that has been on the field more than they're used to.
[00:12:48] Manoris has to be able to stay aggressive in his scrambling and the offensive line really has to dominate in these short yardage situations. You know, you picture third down and I think a third and four or less, right?
[00:13:04] So offensive line has been playing at a pretty good level this year, right? Certainly better than we're used to in recent memory. So continue to play with that intensity. They have a strong defensive line but you know, they might have a defensive lineman that makes a player too in this game like just like Tennessee did. But for the most part you held those guys in check. There needs to be a lot of that in this game.
[00:13:26] My second crow on offense.
[00:13:29] Don't really know how to phrase this, but I'm saying like avoid the lull, right? It's unreasonable to expect points on every drive, but the Gamecocks have to be able to apply constant pressure against Oklahoma. These kind of tie in all together, right?
[00:13:50] Last game, Tennessee, South Carolina scores early, quick, right? And then talked about it where in that late second, right? But really that third quarter the offense was stuck in the mud and that was a field position game for a little bit. Both defense really leveled up in that third quarter there.
[00:14:10] But that's not what you're going to want. You know, you're on the road in this game, you're going against the top defense. The offense has to avoid that prolonged lull and just dominate the time of possession really. So of course you're going to have a drive that stalls or a series that you're on different pages. Like those things just, they do happen in football and it's frustrating to see. We as fans expect perfection all the time. I mean players and coaches want that too, but it just doesn't happen that way.
[00:14:43] But what we can't have is a situation where it's three drives in a row that really amount to nothing.
[00:14:51] Or like back to back three and outs. Like that's tough. You have to be able to maintain that time of possession. And even if it's a deal where you know, you just have a nice long drive and you can totally flip the field and dominant time possession or even if it's a situation where you get those, you know, 40 some on yard field goals, you need to be able to convert in the red zone, of course and I do think that is actually going to be the difference in this game.
[00:15:24] But avoid the lull dominate time possession.
[00:15:29] Don't get stuck in the mud in those middle almost in middle innings. Got the World Series on the brain. Middle quarters.
[00:15:36] Shifting gears to the defense here defensive crows contain Satania iii.
[00:15:43] Oklahoma offense has left little to be desired this season. But wide out Isaiah Satania iii full name here, is a true playmaker. He really is. He's been there for a while. He's a senior wide receiver leaves leads Oklahoma in receiving yards and he's Matier's top target. Okay, I'm looking at Judge Collier, I'm looking at Gerald Kilgore to continue to play at a high level and make it tough on Satania to get separation. I think he plays a lot in the slot so that would really lean on Kilgore having a big spotlight on him.
[00:16:20] We've seen busted plays by this secondary in the past. You have to really limit those when you have a true playmaker like that against you. Maybe crow and a half here, play smart. Would really not like to have any targeting penalties at Vicari and team. That would be lovely. And then second Crow on defense here win the turnover battle.
[00:16:46] And it's funny because I feel like I've brought this up multiple times this season, but it's true. Like it's, it's so important. But this is a unit that has been towards the top in the SEC almost every year pretty much for takeaways and that's just not the case this year. There's different factors that play into that. Luck is one of them.
[00:17:08] But it just is so crucial in turning the tide of a game. Just look at last week.
[00:17:16] Like Tennessee up until that Dylan Stewart force fumble was winning the turnover battle 1 nothing.
[00:17:23] Dylan Stewart evens the odds 11 we end up winning the game without that turnover, who knows.
[00:17:32] So if you can go up against an offense that is already struggling and create a takeaway or two or more, that's going to take the wind out of their sails, it's going to take away the momentum and it's really going to kill any hope that the Sooners are turning this thing around.
[00:17:50] I think some folks there think that maybe they are turning the corner offensively. I don't know.
[00:17:56] We got the dudes on defense to really shut that down and I would hope we see that in play. So yeah, overall for this game it on paper feels like it's going to be a close one.
[00:18:11] You do think that South Carolina offense trending in the right direction can do enough against this Oklahoma defense? Meanwhile, on the opposite side of things, South Carolina has the defense to continue to give Matier and those guys problems.
[00:18:29] So I really do think it's a situation where it's going to come down to like two possessions like peppered in the game that South Carolina got in the end zone and Oklahoma didn't like. I could see this game being like 27 to 20 in South Carolina's favor with two possessions that Oklahoma had to settle for field goals.
[00:18:49] Ends up losing by a margin of that pretty much. And it's ultimately South Carolina's defense in the red zone that makes the difference.
[00:18:59] But let's go. Happy Halloween. Hopefully there's plenty of treats out there in Norman. See what I did there? No tricks but alright, let me give y' all my six pack of picks and then I will get y' all out of here. It's actually a five pack of picks. Go and craft beer with this. Just it's not the best slate.
[00:19:18] Honest to goodness. I was really trying to find a sixth one. I just. I couldn't do it. If you want the bonus I guess take Georgia. But nonetheless ACC Cal versus NC State. Give me state minus seven new interim coach boost with that big 12k state plus one and a half versus Colorado. Colorado's a mess. Big Ten under 51 and a half. Ohio State versus USC. Still is weird to see that that is a conference game. That's a fun night game on Halloween. Put that in the bar in five points if you're out.
[00:19:51] SEC Mizzou minus 10 versus Arkansas I guess and the group of five ECU minus 5.5 versus Temple. Go look at the ECU helmets. This is a helmet game. The only reason why I'm picking them.
[00:20:05] But 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 Gamecox. And please like subscribe and review the podcast. I appreciate all y'. All go Cox.
