Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, thoughts after the loss to Vanderbilt, as well as a weekend recap from around Carolina Athletics. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:53] Okay.
[00:00:55] Welcome to episode 339 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001, and at least I'll try to do that this episode with y'. All. I mean, don't really have too many words to fill up 18 minutes here, because I'm sad.
[00:01:17] I'm sad just, like, probably a lot of y'. All. I mean, you know, I woke up Sunday morning here and just had this black cloud hanging over me. It was just like, shoot.
[00:01:27] What the heck was that? You know, it just. It stinks. You know, losing is never fun. And, you know, maybe I'm sounding a little bit dramatic here, but, you know, we. We put a lot of energy and, you know, emotions into our sports, and for super fans like me and you, it. It stinks. You know, especially when we're talking about first loss of the season.
[00:01:50] You know, first loss in the regular season going back quite some time because of how the team ended on last year. But, yeah, it just stinks. So gonna share my thoughts on all of that and. And process it, and we'll start to move forward. But before I do, let's jump into a weekend recap from around USC athletics here. Not too much to report. On Friday, you had women's volleyball in action. Getting a win against North Carolina. I actually think that was a upset ranked win there. So shout out to the women's volleyball team. And then men's soccer, they were in action. Saturday night, had a better result. You could have watched men's soccer. They beat UNCG 2 to 1. And that is it from the weekend. No games on Sunday. So, yeah, overall, two out of three, good results there. But, of course, we're here to talk about what happened Saturday night. Maybe there's some folks out there who are tuning in to listen to my misery. And you know what? That's your right. Maybe there's some of y' all here who are, you know, looking for, you know, some Gamecock therapy, as I've called it in the past.
[00:03:00] Group therapy. Shout out, group therapy. I don't know if it's still open or not, but, you know, so, yeah, let's just. Let's just dive into it here. South Carolina suffering its first loss of the season now. Oh, and one in conference play as they opened SEC play up at Williams Bryce, losing to Vanderbilt. I Just.
[00:03:20] I've never said that phrase, and it feels gross.
[00:03:25] Losing to Vanderbilt 31 to 7. Okay, so where do we begin?
[00:03:31] I don't know. It's crazy. I mean, you know, the nervous. The. The nervous energy that was around our fan base apparently was very warranted.
[00:03:42] You know, obviously, look, you're never going to beat a team 100 years in a row.
[00:03:47] Vanderbilt eventually was going to end that streak. I talked about it going into this. Shane Beamer talked about it going into this weekend. This is the best Vanderbilt team that he's faced with, but it's. It's the best Vanderbilt team I think we've seen.
[00:04:02] What, in 15 years, 20, you know, like, I don't know. It's the best Vanderbilt team that I've seen as a Carolina fan. Right. And so you knew it was going to be a fight going into.
[00:04:16] Just really sucks to have it end now.
[00:04:19] And you just didn't think it was going to happen at home at night. Like, I really thought that this was going to go differently.
[00:04:28] So, you know, I guess we'll start from the big picture and kind of work our way down to the game. You know, I'm really just, you know, spitballing here.
[00:04:37] So obviously you're sitting at 2 and 1, right? Which is still better than a lot of teams can say. Look at the team in the upstate. Right.
[00:04:46] But I think what this does is it just changes or resets expectations of the year. You know, I was chatting with a buddy who's like, you know, we're always good for one of these, right? Like, there's always a clunker Soul Crusher game in South Carolina football, and then there's always that one inexplicable win. So maybe we have that to look forward to at some point in the year. But a lot of people had really high hopes for this team this year. You know, talking about possible playoff, all that jazz. And like, technically speaking, that is still on the table, right? Because you can have two or three losses and get in. But I think this loss, the way it happened and all of the score, I. I think it just says, you know what, Maybe we're not quite there. You know, still means we can have a really successful year.
[00:05:41] You can have a good amount of wins, you can have a good year. You can continue this momentum and this trajectory that Shane Beamer is doing, taking this program.
[00:05:49] We can still have a lot of fun along the way.
[00:05:52] It doesn't change any of that. It just resets some of the expectations a little bit. Maybe that's Loser talk sitting here on a Sunday. But like, I just think when you lose to Vanderbilt, who might go on to have a good season, it doesn't matter. Like you suffer that early season loss when in, you know, October and November, you have these teams that you know are really good, you know, like an A and M, like Oklahoma, you know, so it just. Your margin for error now is razor thin and it was already pretty low. So it does that to the year. And I think that's part of why this loss stings so much is because we all really had such high hopes and excitement and a lot of that's just kind of changed right now. On top of your, you lost to a team that you haven't lost to in 17 years, 16 years. So there's all those factors that we're processing now. But if you take a step back, you can still have a lot of fun. You can still have a really good season. You know, like you can still compete at a very incredibly high level.
[00:06:58] One loss doesn't necessarily kill you. It just tempers some of these expectations. But let's look at the game here. Okay, so first, first drive, South South Carolina gives up the touchdown to Vanderbilt.
[00:07:10] Like, oh my gosh, like that. That was easy. But Carolina marched right down the field and answered the bell. That first drive, things were clicking. Like we're saying that again, right? I think we saw a couple of good things. That Rasool is RB1. Like, he has the vision and the cuts. That Attaway, I just don't think quite can. Attaway's a good back. He's a good RB2. He's great in the goal line situations, good in third down situations. But Sewell can make stuff happen.
[00:07:39] Lenores was passing the ball around. He looked pretty crisp.
[00:07:43] And then you get, you get down there and you answer the bell. So you start the game thinking that, okay, like we're going to. We're in this a B, it's going to be a back and forth type of deal.
[00:07:55] South Carolina gives up the pick.
[00:07:57] Bad, bad throw. Tough decision by Lenore deep in the red zone. Like the one thing that you really couldn't do even if you settled for a field goal in that instance, to go up 10 to 7 really puts the pressure on Vandy and I believe they punted after, but it's still. It just sucked the momentum out of it. And then, and then things went sideways. And that's the story of this game, is that our quarterback got knocked out.
[00:08:24] You lose Lenores and you know, we have to monitor this situation, I'm sitting here on a Sunday afternoon. I haven't seen an update. Granted, I'm avoiding a lot of Gamecock social media, but that changed everything.
[00:08:41] You know, you're not going to lose your starting quarterback and have a ton of success ever, right? Like, but aside from that, like, there was that really bizarre couple of minutes there where Lenores is laying on the ground, then he's being tended to walking off. Luke Doty's warming up. All that time the officials are sitting on their hands, and then it was only when South Carolina snapped the ball did they blow the play dead to review it for targeting.
[00:09:14] And look, maybe the Vanderbilt guys saw them blowing the whistle and they eased up. But that play, Doty connected for harbor on a slant that it looked like harbor could have at least was a huge gain, but it looked like he was, he could have housed that thing. He had a full head of steam. So you go from maybe getting some momentum on your corner and like, who knows, if South Carolina gets that big game from harbor, they can get tempo, Doty can do some things, and who knows, maybe you score and, you know, you, you just have that momentum. But I think when you lose Lenores, the air was just taken out of the game.
[00:09:53] And, you know, you go into the half really, you know, still in that game, right? It was 14 to 7. You know, I was watching the game with some people and it's like, okay, like, we're, we're in this, you know, but it just felt like you had the makings of just not going our way.
[00:10:12] And, you know, I said to the group aloud, I said, if Luke starts this second half, like, if Lenores isn't able to shake this off. We didn't know what it was at the time, right? Assumed it's a concussion. But I said, if Lenores isn't, isn't able to play this game, I, I, I don't know. I think, I think it goes sideways and that's what happened.
[00:10:30] So, you know, it was just, you're giving up these long drives by Vanderbilt, which so far through three games has been their calling card, that these drives that just bleed you. And credit to South Carolina's defense for getting in the third and longs. But to, to give up these third and longs time and time again is tough. And we saw that against Virginia Tech a couple of times, who, they're just atrocious, by the way. Like, and then we saw it a couple times against SC Stadium. And so that's something that we have to keep an eye on and is that a lack of pass rush?
[00:11:08] Is it? You know, our DBs are fatigued. You know, you have to look at these things because that's going to kill you. And it did against Vanderbilt. So you hate seeing that. But yeah, Vanderbilt was just, you know, like, you look at the box score, they scored seven points in the first quarter, seven points in the second. Really not bad. Seven points in the third. So you can, you're looking at this thing and going into the fourth, you know, it was a two score game. It wasn't necessarily out of reach, but you just couldn't get the ball back.
[00:11:40] So that inability to get off the field on third down killed us, you know, and I understand that, like, you know, it's, you know, you're late in the game, but you know, I talked about that going into it. You know that like I said, this could be close going into the fourth quarter. You have to dominate the fourth quarter. They're going to try to keep play, keep away. And that's what they did. They ended up scoring 27 or. I'm terrible at math here. What's that? 7 to 7 is 14 plus 24 unanswered points.
[00:12:13] You know, it's just. And that's what they did against Virginia Tech offensively, you know, I mean, look, no one can replace Lenores. And the things that he does, he just, you know, like his escapability.
[00:12:27] He was seeing the field well. You know, he had a couple of those design runs that like, it looked like they were like on the same page for those few drives.
[00:12:37] And it seemed like they, you know, that group kind of got the memo a little bit. And we'll never know because he got knocked out of the game. But you know, you have Luke Doty, who's played a lot of football. He's an experienced guy and the offense just couldn't get out of its own way, stuck in the mud, you know, like you had guys on different pages, it seemed like. And you know, I just, I don't know what that, I don't know who that's on, you know, like, part of me wants to say, like, okay, you have your backup quarterback, like experienced player be damned. Like, you know, he, he was a wide receiver at points. Like, you know, so you kind of say, you know, you lose your star quarterback, like, that's just naturally, this is the result. Like the offense was not good because of that. But then the other part of me says, well, is it like, you know, like maybe Shula could have done some different things. Like I was Waiting for a screen pass to Rasool. I thought that would have been a really good call just to try and get some blockers in front of him, like maybe spark this thing. Didn't see that.
[00:13:46] But, you know, like, late in the game on that fourth down, that pass that Luke did was just. It was a slow, you know, it was off. You know, they're on different pages, so I don't know, there's nothing you can do about it. You know, it just, it's. It's brutal, like, and it just feels like we didn't get a fair shake at it because Lenores got knocked out of the game. Guy hit him in his head, got, you know, targeting, got kicked out of the game and the rest is history.
[00:14:15] You know, because those couple of drives early in the game, offense was moving. You know, you were incorporating your tight ends. You know, you. You had good running game. You know, it. It seemed like things were clicking and then with a different signal caller, things changed. So, you know, it is what it is, right? Like you, you know, you sit here and it is what it is.
[00:14:40] You know, like it's still very early in the season, right?
[00:14:46] We're only three games into this.
[00:14:48] You have a big road test coming up that, you know, originally was like, okay, this could be the make or break point of the year. Well, you know, now, well, now it certainly is. It could break, but, you know, you have to rally, right? Like, football is a game of how do you handle adversity both in game and during the week, and how do you respond to it. Shane Beamer has tended to get his teams to respond well, but there's a couple of concerns.
[00:15:22] Offensively, this unit seems they're just on different pages and that falls on Shula, you know, and again, like, maybe you take it with a grain of salt because the Norris was out, but, you know, I've seen a lot of posts that it's just like, you know, QB1 or QB2, it just didn't look good and you weren't doing things to help it. And I think that's very fair. I think that's fair criticism. You know, like, he didn't really help Luke a whole lot. And you know, I understand there's on in theory similar skill sets, but, you know, some of the play calling just seemed off, you know, like it's like one play behind you do deep shot, you know, maybe could have done that earlier.
[00:16:05] The. On defensively, you know, the defense kept the team in the game. You know, like, I don't want to. I don't want to, you know, step on these guys too much. They kept the team in the game.
[00:16:19] When you're doing your offense can't even put up. You only scored the one touchdown. Like, you know, like, when your offense can't put up more than seven points, like, there's not much you can do. But third down defense needs to be worked on and you're getting ready for Mizzou, which is. Is a team that we know has given us fits, and we know they like to have these, like, extended drives as well. So there's a few things to work on for sure. First and foremost, as I sit here today with no major update, you just have to hope and pray for Lenoris speedy recovery. Like, hope. Hope he's well, you know, like, first and foremost, just as a person. Like, hope he feels okay.
[00:17:03] But then from a football fan perspective, if he's able to go, like, all right, like, you can breathe a little easier.
[00:17:10] It's been a wacky start to the year, man, I tell y', all, man, like, wacky start to the year. Like, 2 0. That didn't feel like a great 2 0. Now. Now you lose to Vanderbilt.
[00:17:22] Quarterback got knocked out. It just feels like this team hasn't settled. Like, it feels like this hasn't.
[00:17:29] But maybe in a weird way, maybe in a weird way, the loss can serve as a, I don't know, not a turning point teaching moment. We'll say, you know, this group, you know, they ended the regular season so hot, lost the bowl game last year. But that bowl games are kind of wacky, right? Like, so it's like. And then this team goes in and they're, you know, they're getting praised and, you know, they're talking maybe a playoff team caliber. Or maybe everyone in that building can exhale a little bit and be like, all right. Like, you know, we don't have to be perfect. Like, now we can just focus on the little things, get back on track here and see where it takes us.
[00:18:19] I don't know.
[00:18:20] We'll see. We'll see everyone, you know, we'll be ready to go on Saturday. It always takes a few days after a loss that stinks to get over it, but we do. It's sports supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be fun.
[00:18:34] Anyway, that wraps up this episode. Just a sad rambling of a deranged fan here, but 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.
