Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, Lenora stays loyal, basketball, SEC opponents are announced, and track and field brings home the natty. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:56] Welcome to episode, episode 326 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001, and happy summer, Gamecocks.
[00:01:11] First day of summer. How about that? I mean, if you've been living here in the south, certainly has felt like it at least, but it's great. You know, it's. I know there's always these online debates about is summer actually a good season? You know, when you're not in school and I still love it, you know, it always brings back memories. It's the time where if you take your foot off the gas a little bit, maybe at work. Eh, it's summertime. You know, summer Fridays, casual. You want to take an extra long weekend or, you know, take a vacation, totally fine. It's summer and I don't know. Sue me. I like it when it's warm. I like being able to lay out, get some color. Sue me. Yeah, there's some bugs and yeah, humidity sucks. But what are you gonna do, huh? It's nice. I mean, you know, spring is nice too, but nonetheless, happy first day of summer there. Got some fun updates for y' all this episode. Not super jam packed, but you know, some cool news out there. Gamecock related to go over with y' all. But of course, before we get into all that, I have my Gamecock calendar here and I have a piece of trivia for y' all.
[00:02:22] Before joining the Gamecocks football team, Hayden Hurst played pro baseball for two years in the minor leagues. In which MLB team's farm system did Hurst play from 2013 to 2014? I actually remember this. So y' all got it.
[00:02:41] The Pittsburgh Pirates. Garnet Thor. That's right. Pittsburgh Pirate minor league. How about that Shout out. Hayden Hurst, he was. He was a good player for us, you know, I mean, that offense, that's one of those frustrating mush champ teams that you can look back at some of the dudes on that offense for like a year, two years, and man, just how do you fumble that? For lack of a better term, no pun intended, but yeah, Hayden Hurst as solid Salah comes first rounder. You know, we can talk about living up to the building of a first rounder, but I'd say he had a quite successful NFL career. You know, he's been on a couple teams, but he's made impact. Seemingly Wherever he's gone and was a good player for us. And do y' all remember, this is a deep cut Gamecock memory. There was the one season where, for the life of us, we just could not find a punt returner to hold onto the ball. Just muff punts and fumbles for days. I mean, this is just like we are in the trenches here of the mush champ years.
[00:03:51] And at one point, they put Hayden Hurst back there to return punts just to catch the ball. I vividly remember this, and I swear this is not a Mandela effect.
[00:04:02] He returned a couple of punts. He didn't run because that certainly would be useless. But it was just get back there and catch the damn ball and don't muff it. Oh, my gosh.
[00:04:16] And now we went from now we got. We got Beamer ball, of course, fingerprints all over it. We had Pete Lembo, special teams guru, Joe D. Camillus, special teams genius with a fantastic resume. And special teams has won us some games under the Beamer era. It's just funny how those things add up there, but. All right, let's jump into things here. No more deep cut mush champ. PTSDs.
[00:04:42] Got some news from the track and field side of things. Yeah. Still kind of going on on the wings there. And a big piece of news as the Gamecocks are bringing home some hardware to Columbia. Jamisa Ford won the national championship for the 200 meters after winning the finals in Eugene, Oregon. Shout out, Jamisa Ford. That's huge. Won a national championship.
[00:05:08] You know, I mean, shout out, Gamecock track. We have had some strong track teams and some strong runners at South Carolina.
[00:05:16] You know, it's a place that can recruit well. But, you know, I wouldn't necessarily say track is the top thing that we do. And there are some schools where that is that. And so for South Carolina to go in there and. And to win the national championship, it's not the first time this has happened by any means, too. It's just incredibly impressive. So it will be really cool to see if anything comes of that. You know, Jamisa may be going for the next level and things like that. I want to say she's a sophomore. Could be wrong on that, but, yeah, shout out, Gamecock track. Bringing home a Natty from Oregon, that's huge. Absolutely love to see that.
[00:05:55] And changing gears a little bit here. Talking basketball. We've talked basketball a good bit here recently. I'm down with it. We're talking women's basketball more specifically. So really exciting here. We're going to do the same for both teams, actually. But the SEC opponents were announced for the ladies, so I'm just going to rattle these off and then we'll talk about it here. So the home games, home opponents, Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Mizzou, Tennessee, Texas and Vanderbilt.
[00:06:30] Away you have Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, A and M&LSU. So the first thing that caught my eye here was lsu. I mean, this has become a pretty serious rivalry here. Although, you know, Carolina at least, you know, regular season wise lately has been on the right side of this rivalry. But this game is gonna have juice. Malaysia Folwe transferring to lsu, some drama surrounding that. Tried to come back, you know, didn't, you know, may or may not have tried that. May or may not have been told. No, whatever.
[00:07:08] I wish like heck that game was at home this year because that would have been something. But that game is something to keep an eye out on. You know, if we're looking at the, the road games here, I, I honestly kind of think it works out well for us having to go on the road. You know, Florida could be tricky.
[00:07:26] Alabama may be tricky. Kentucky is a team that they were pretty good this past season, and I think they are on the rise. So look, South Carolina, even without full Wiley, you know, minus a little bit of, you know, I should say maybe a little bit of a new look, team going into this season, still going to be one of the best teams in the country. Right? And when you go on the road, it's tricky, especially in the sec, you're going to get every team's best shot.
[00:07:56] But outside of the LSU game, you know, I think this kind of works out okay.
[00:08:02] But we look at the home games here, I'm looking at the highlights. You know, not necessarily that they have a fantastic team, but Mizzou, that's always just a little chippy game. Tennessee, that's a game you always have circled for. Women's basketball.
[00:08:15] Texas, Texas at home, these two teams had a high stakes match in match matchup in March. There we go. That's a tongue twister. So that'll be a fun one. And yeah, I mean, the sec, like most others in women's sports right now, is a league on the rise. So it's going to be tough. There's going to be challenges. Some teams that you might underrate could come into that matchup against South Carolina ready to give them the best shot, and you're going to be ready for it. But dawn is really, really good at getting her teams ready for those games and fighting through those bumps in the road. And look, this past season can tell you a lot that you might have some games that don't go your way in the regular season and, you know, beyond. But when it matters most, the experience and the depth that South Carolina has and presumably will continue to have matters.
[00:09:18] So very interesting. They're really excited for it and yeah, we'll see. We'll see how it goes. And then staying in that same lane here, the men's SEC opponents were announced here, so let's do the same thing here. The away games for the men, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, lsu, Ole Miss, Texas and A and M home.
[00:09:45] Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, lsu, Mississippi State, Mizzou, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Vandy.
[00:09:55] I mean, that's a lot.
[00:09:58] That is a lot.
[00:09:59] The SEC this past year and, you know, kind of makes you believe it's going to continue is just darn good.
[00:10:07] I mean, you're playing Florida twice. That's tough.
[00:10:12] You're playing Alabama and Auburn on the road. Georgia was pretty good this year. I mean, this past season. Who knows how they'll be. LSU wasn't so hot this past year. We'll see how that goes home.
[00:10:26] I mean, it's just tough. You're looking at these teams that all of them really had pretty good years, like maybe didn't make it very far in March, you know, a team like Mizzou. But they, they found their stride last year. Mississippi State gave us fits last year. Vanderbilt, you know, they were pretty solid.
[00:10:46] You're on the road for Texas, who? You know, Carolina. Carolina played them well, but, you know, they have a new coach, don't they?
[00:10:55] Nonetheless, there's not a lot here that I'm like, oh, boy, this is a walk in the park. While also considering where South Carolina finished in the SEC standings last year, that there really wouldn't be many teams that you could feel incredibly confident in at least sitting right now. So we'll see how it goes. But I think the biggest thing that men's basketball has to focus on is just internal, is just getting this new group of guys to gel together. Lamont Paris has to get that going quicker, take care of business earlier in the season, have that momentum going into conference play. A lot of those things eluded the team this past season.
[00:11:34] And, you know, we simply didn't have the depth to compete with a lot of those teams, didn't have the clutch shot making to compete with a lot of those teams. So not necessarily that the early games would have affected that, but you got to take advantage of the. Of that Non conference schedule for sure. So that's the main focus for basketball for fans of men's basketball. Just let's get better. Let's focus on this offseason, on getting better, and let's not get ahead of ourself and worry about who may or may not be good in our conference. But yeah, nonetheless, start marking down your calendars for games you might want to go to.
[00:12:12] But all right, let's wrap this thing up with some football talk. Gamecocks football staying in the news here. Couple of things to talk about here. The biggest piece of news that broke this past week came from a transfer that did not happen in that Lenora Sellers reportedly was offered $8 million to transfer to a school and he turned it down. So first off, his name is Lenoris. It might as well be la loyal.
[00:12:44] You love to see.
[00:12:47] Seemed like it was 4 million a year for 2 years.
[00:12:51] I don't think it's come out what school that is. Rumors that it might be Auburn. It doesn't matter. The point is he stayed. And all the quotes from his family and for him are exactly what you want to hear. You know, I think Lenore had a quote, basically said, you know, I've been playing football for free my whole life.
[00:13:08] I go to a school that I wanted to go to. I'm in a place that I'm happy.
[00:13:13] No, no reason to leave. And that's exactly what you want in your building. You know, like that's the right mindset. And look, let's not act like he's not being compensated, you know, in the NIL era. He certainly is from appearances, from the glasses line that he has, from deals with the Garnet Trust, whatever it may be.
[00:13:39] But he wanted to play for South Carolina. And when we talk about, you know, going to a school in athletics especially, we say it, it's not a four year decision, it's a 40 year decision.
[00:13:53] That's what this is.
[00:13:55] Because Lenores has a chance to be remembered at South Carolina forever.
[00:14:01] And if you can leave your mark at a school like South Carolina that takes a lot of pride in its athletics and has a powerful and energetic and enthusiastic fan base, you're going to have a job for life, you're going to be taken care of for life and your family will too.
[00:14:23] Whereas you see in the transfer portal era, these guys are making short term decisions and sometimes, maybe a lot of times it's right for that individual in that moment.
[00:14:33] But when you're a player of Lenoris caliber who is trending to potentially play at the next level and potentially be drafted high, you're going to be making life changing money then anyway.
[00:14:49] So if you can stay at Carolina, make your impact there and for the rest of your life, have a place to call home and a network that will take care of you. Just look at George Rogers, you know, just the impact he makes around Columbia and the joy and just the camaraderie that he has with the fan base.
[00:15:12] If you bop around schools, you probably won't get that. So the loyal absolutely love to see it. And then similarly it came out that Dylan Stewart had, you know, schools trying to get him to jump into the portal as well and he turned them down, said he wasn't looking to leave. So yeah, absolutely love that, that you're two young Stallworths who have everything in front of them, who are the talk of college football in many respects are staying home and staying put. First off, it's crazy how openly corrupt this system is.
[00:15:49] You know, we, we talk about tampering and all that jazz. Like this is out in the open that a school offered Lenore sellers $8 million while he's enrolled at South Carolina on the roster. You have teams contacting Dylan Stewart to get him to go, to go into the portal. See, hey, any chance you want to jump in the portal, come to our team. Like what? That is just crazy talk.
[00:16:16] And the NCAA and all these, you know, nobody has teeth to enforce this. But there absolutely should be penalties.
[00:16:24] Like if you can trace back with, just ask Lenora says family. Hey, who'd offer him that deal? Oh, it was Auburn. Auburn should be penalized greatly.
[00:16:35] So not gonna get into that. But it's just crazy how openly corrupt the tampering is in this system. But the fact that you have these players staying, it speaks greatly to the culture of the program.
[00:16:53] And I think it's extra hard in today's era of college athletics. But I think that Shane Beamer has done a fantastic job of getting the guys to play for each other and playing for the name on the front of the jersey first.
[00:17:10] And that's what college athletics is all about.
[00:17:13] And when you have guys not only playing for each other, but playing for 80,000 people and beyond 80,000 people in Williams Bryce, that's what you get. You get your best players staying home. And it's also kudos to the Garnet Trust and some of the NIL engines behind South Carolina that at least we can stay competitive enough to be like, you know what? Nah, like I'm being compensated well here. I like where I'm At I like the coaches, I'm going to stay here. And I think that's the X factor where it's like, hey, you're going to be compensated. And now with this house settlement, it's going to level the playing field a little bit.
[00:17:51] But the culture and the coaches and everything and the team building that Shane Beamer and his staff do, it speaks volumes. And this is it.
[00:18:03] You know, there's plenty of examples where the best players on some teams in college leave and you're just scratching your head like, how could that happen?
[00:18:15] You know, like the best players right now as it stands, South Carolina, that didn't happen and I'm forever grateful for that. And all the more reason why this team has a chance to do something special.
[00:18:28] So very, very cool. And then being able to see that this week on TV was really cool. If y' all didn't catch it. The SEC network aired a behind the scenes show of the state of the program right now at South Carolina. So it was really cool to see for ourselves the grind that this team and these players go through to get ready for a season and then to come together as a team doing those team building exercises. The grind night, it's just the grit night rather, I think it is. But it's really cool to see that behind the scenes footage and to hear Luke Day, Shane Beamer and the other coaches talk about some of the methodology behind this and preparing your body to react in different ways and doing things a little bit differently that can prepare you for those situations that you find yourself in football.
[00:19:26] Really cool to see that. Really cool to hear the players and the players families talk about the culture at South Carolina talking about, you know, they talked a lot about some of the pairs of brothers, the Kilgore's, the Sellers, soon to be the Harris's, but you know, they weren't spoken to yet obviously, but just what that means and how big of an accomplishment that is and just speaks to the family atmosphere, the atmosphere of trust in that building and some of the other highlights they threw in there. Man, I was ready to run through a fricking brick wall just watching that.
[00:20:00] Clemson game highlights, Missouri game highlights. Whoo. Get you ready for football, man. Absolutely. Really, really cool to see. So yeah, if you weren't able to catch that, I'm sure they'll be running it again on SEC network, but was a really, really cool to see. And then that was after the Lenores news broke. So you're like, wow, like shout out Lenoris. And then you see this like wow. Hey, I think the team actually really likes each other, so maybe may make sense but really cool to see. 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.
