Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, basketball challenges are announced, football recruiting heats up, and the game time slots are announced.
[00:00:09] Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:56] Welcome to episode 326 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope y' all are doing great out there. Gamecock nation moving right along here in the calendar I looked up the other day, which is like, holy crap, it's the middle of June. Like, this year. I don't know about y' all. This year for me has just absolutely flown by, and I know we got all of summer to look forward to, and that's going to be great. But at the same time, you know, there is a little bit of me that's already starting to peak around that corner for football. It's crazy. We're like 80 something days away. Or maybe at the time you're listening to this 79, it's just crazy. Like, you're starting to see a little bit of that momentum on social media. Like, oh, in just three months, this is what our Saturdays are going to look like. And yeah, I'm really looking forward to that.
[00:01:52] Never want to wish away time, right? You never want to do that.
[00:01:57] Summer's always fun. I have a very fun summer up ahead. But yeah, just. Just already excited for it. And it's been a busy week. I mean, just across all of sports, but Gamecock specifically, it's been a busy week. I have a decent amount to talk about with y' all, so that's really exciting. Sometimes in the off season, you know, you get just some slow news weeks, and that's just the nature of it, especially when we're in this gap between talking season and camp starting and things like that. But, yeah, there was a good amount of action going on here. So let's jump into things here.
[00:02:34] Of course, though, let's grab my Gamecock calendar here. I have a fact for y' all today.
[00:02:41] Bobby Bryant became the first Gamecocks baseball player ever, ever selected in the MLB Draft when he was picked in 1966.
[00:02:51] Instead, the USC2 Sport standout wound up pursuing a pro football career after being chosen in the 1967 draft. Wow. Shout out. Bobby Bryant, just an athletic beast.
[00:03:04] Love that. Two sports to get drafted in. I mean, you see that occasionally. Jameis Winston, Russell Wilson.
[00:03:12] Anybody else recently do that? I don't think so. I feel like Jamis is. I mean, there might be some other guys you might not grab headlines, but that. That's impressive. And then went on to be a pro football career. Shout out that. Shout out Gamecock Baseball begrudgingly. And shout out Gamecock Football for sure. Baseball, though, really is. Is doing some good work in the portal. You know, like, I made my feelings very clear, but at the end of the day, I would rather be wrong and have a winning team and have to eat crow about this staff than not right. And there's a lot of players that have been added and are, you know, being recruited for the baseball team. So social media, there's a lot of resources there, but the staff has done a really good job of bringing in quality pitching seems to be their primary focus. But they've recently added some good bats too, so we'll see. You know, it's. You had some key players leave the program, but they did manage to hold on to a couple other key, especially younger players as well. So maybe you bring in people who are being recruited solely by you, you know, by Monary and staff, and they kind of have their expectations set from the jump instead of a getting to know each other period, you know what I mean? And you know, they actually posted kind of like a help wanted ad, if you will, for someone to help with their data. And one of them was the trackman, which was a piece of equipment, the technology equipment that kind of had gotten out that the team was not using to help with pitching and things like that, mechanics. So maybe they're coming around on that idea. But I digress.
[00:04:58] But outside of that, there was a good amount of things going on this week. So we're actually talking basketball here. Yeah, it's been a while since we talked. Basketball was a tough season for the men, but I kind of miss talking basketball. College basketball is a lot of fun to watch. So the SEC ACC challenge matchups were announced.
[00:05:20] South Carolina will be hosting Virginia Tech Tuesday, December 2nd. So mark your calendar down. That's a good Power 4 across the aisle conference challenge game.
[00:05:36] It's always advantage being able to stay at home for one of these. It's an opponent who you're not going to be very familiar with.
[00:05:43] Of course you have film and things like that, but there's just not a ton of carryover right from one year to the next. I believe it was Boston College that the guys went up to and that was tough sledding. So being able to stay home, go against Virginia Tech, I don't know what kind of team they're supposed to have next year. Virginia Tech that is, but should be a good game. So December 2nd, Gamecock's taking on Virginia Tech. It's actually, it's kind of fun. Virginia Tech and football and Virginia Tech and basketball. It's kind of neat.
[00:06:16] Then in women's basketball, the same deal. The SEC ACC Challenge was also announced. The ladies will be hitting the road and going to play Louisville on Thursday, Dec. 4, at the Bucket. This will be a good matchup. You know, it's two teams that have been mainstays in the postseason. Of course, South Carolina going all the way a couple of times, a couple Final Fours. But Louisville feels like they're a team that's kind of always in the mix, hanging around the Sweet 16 Elite 8. So that's going to be a good matchup and it kind of stays in line. Not that I don't know how much say so the coaches have in these, but we know that Dawn Staley likes to schedule tough out of conference games for her teams. So you have this conference to conference challenge, you get the draw of Louisville, who, who has historically had a pretty good team.
[00:07:11] You're going on the road. They have good fan support there. So that's going to be a tough environment. That's going to be a strong game. So it just is in line with what we normally see anyway. So, yeah, we're talking Gamecock basketball. A couple games announced.
[00:07:25] It's crazy. You know, we're talking about the year moving along. Before we know it, it's going to be basketball season. Now that is some time. Respectfully, respectfully, I don't want to flash forward to.
[00:07:36] I want football season to go as slow as it possibly can. I felt this past season flew by, so savor it.
[00:07:44] But speaking of football, speaking of the gridiron here, Beamer and his staff are on an absolute heater on recruiting. I think I've said this before, I'm going to recycle it. The months should go April, May, Beamer, July.
[00:08:03] Because when it gets to official visit season and this staff gets that precious one on one sort of dedicated time to high value prospects, they tend to do very, very well and really for the last couple of recruiting cycles here. So as y' all know, I usually only talk about high school recruiting when it is headline grabbing and this past week it was.
[00:08:29] Plus it is the offseason. So football wise, not a ton going on. So you know what, why not talk about this here?
[00:08:37] The big news came when the Harris brothers, Aiden and Andrew, both committed to South Carolina. So this was a highly contested, highly competitive recruiting battle. You know, both are highly rated players and they were determined to go to the same school. So that makes it even more complicated. So not only do you have to win the recruiting battle for one really good player, you have to win it for two.
[00:09:09] And then you also have, well, do you have the room on your roster for that? They had. They are going to consider that. And Shane Beamer was able to land their pledges on their official visit. Really cool video from behind the scenes got out on social media and it was them two brothers, the two brothers and they were dressed in full uniform and their mom was with them and they were behind closed doors. And Shane Beamer said, I'm proud to announce the newest members of the Gamecock 2026 recruiting class. The room behind them goes wild, the doors fly open and they walk out with their mom and their full uniform. Just a cool moment. And it just, it speaks to the excitement and fun that this staff gets going on these official visits that they felt comfortable to commit right then and there and they had their mom included in it. It was just a really, really cool deal. And yeah, this is a big time get. So Aiden Harris is the higher rated of the two as a consensus four star D lineman. He's the sixth ranked D lineman in North Carolina in reading a little bit about him seems to have traits similar to Tonka.
[00:10:24] So if you'll remember, Tonka took a little time to develop but what made him so good was his just athleticism and his versatility.
[00:10:33] So that's a very high praise and high comparison. So very excited for that. And then Andrew is listed as a linebacker, but I've seen maybe could potentially play on the edge. So got recruited as an outside linebacker. We'll see how that goes. He is a high three star or a low four depending where you look at it. So nonetheless, two very talented players and frankly in two positions that this staff is going to have to really focus on over the next recruiting cycle or two.
[00:11:07] So not only are these two guys highly rated coming to South Carolina, and yes, it raises the recruiting ranks of our team and you'll have people tell you that that doesn't matter. And it's all about development and especially in the Portal era, it probably means a little less, which is all very true, but it does mean a little something, you know, especially for us fans.
[00:11:36] You know, when you get these two guys commit to you and you rise 10 spots in the national rank, that feels good.
[00:11:44] And with the other targets that this staff has to talk about, potentially landing top 20 certainly, but top 15 or more like that feels great. And that's how you Build sustained success. Especially when we talk about the Garnet Trust and all the work that they've done with recruiting or, excuse me, retaining talent.
[00:12:07] So very interesting to see. But yeah, so you're bringing in highly capable, highly recruited players. You won the battle over several other power for schools and I look at their commitment as really contributing to building a bigger pipeline from that area of North Carolina. Historically, South Carolina will always look at the Carolinas as, as a recruiting hotbed, of course, just because of the vicinity, the proximity rather.
[00:12:36] But there have been some close recruiting battles over the last couple of cycles where South Carolina has been on the wrong end of them.
[00:12:46] So if you can build back that pipeline in addition to what you're doing in the dmv. So you have North Carolina dmv, of course, South Carolina, where Beamer has done incredibly well, you sprinkle in Georgia, you. You sprinkle in maybe some of the Gulf Coast.
[00:13:01] That's how you build a good pipeline there.
[00:13:05] But the staff stayed busy outside of these guys and also got a commitment from safety recruit K.J. johnson. K.J. is a high three star, but this is an impressive get. He is a big defensive back. I think he's listed at 6:2, probably only going to continue to grow. And Carolina beat out Ole Miss, which is obviously closer to his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. So again, extending your recruiting reach, extending your brand, that's a big time gaff. And the staff stayed busy when they actually went into the portal and added running back Isaiah Augustave.
[00:13:42] So this is an interesting case here. Isaiah was most recently at Colorado. He was also spent his freshman year at Arkansas. So a couple of seasons at Power 4 competition at Big time schools. Last year for Colorado he actually led the team in rushing with 384 yards and four touchdowns. So you'll have to remember their offensive line was atrocious for most of that year last year. So leading the team is of course impressive.
[00:14:12] 384 for the entire team. That just kind of speaks to their offense having to lean on Shedeur and Travis. But that's, that's a different story.
[00:14:20] But when you watch Isaiah's highlights, he seems to run really, really well. He has that breakaway speed, he's tough, he has good balance. I think he just needs a good offensive line in front of him.
[00:14:34] And this is just a great get for this staff because you're never going to say no to stacking talent, especially at a position that is as physical and, and important as the running back position. Right?
[00:14:48] So this is a great get for the offensive Staff as a whole. And really, I think this is an insurance policy for the Rasul Faison case. Right.
[00:14:59] So, you know, the NCAA is just still dragging their feet on this, and I think this is the staff's backup plan, really, if that goes the wrong way in that decision, or, I mean, God forbid, this drags in into the season.
[00:15:16] So this is a good pickup here. You're never going to say no to that. I mean, look, if we were to have a player who was on our roster who's a junior and last year ran for 400 yards, four touchdowns, he has highlight reel capabilities. You'd be excited about that guy in our room. It just so happens he played somewhere else.
[00:15:41] You know, if not Sewell, then it'll be attaway as RB1, but then the rest of the guys are going to get their cracks at it, and the more talent you bring into the room, the better. So this is a great pickup. It'll be interesting to see how much he plays if Sewell does get cleared. But I think it's a deal where, you know, you're just going to have to feed the hot hand. And again, that's not a problem.
[00:16:06] You know, Sewell has great numbers, but will they translate exactly the same to the sec? I bet you that's also what this staff is thinking about, too. So let's stack that room with as much talent as we can and let's ride. So really cool. Really exciting there. But then in other news from the football team, again, just a busy week. The game time slots were announced for the season. So that's what I'm saying. Like, we're just inching closer to the season and it's just hyping me up.
[00:16:38] So the exact times are not set for all games. We know that that comes closer to the physical games themselves, but with the new TV deals kind of being consolidated, we at least know the time window. So remember, they did this last year, they're doing it again this year. So it's kind of fun. You can plan accordingly. We can talk about it.
[00:17:03] I like it, and I think it is just better for the fan experience, especially if you're coming from out of town and you really want to go to a night game. Or let's say you're driving and you really just can only do the day games. Well, now you know which games you can plan around.
[00:17:20] So the highlights here, I'm not going to go through each and every one, but the highlights here, the first two home games are night games, including the SEC opener against Vandy which we talked about that already. That was previously announced. So that's really cool. Week one, of course we know that's at 3:30, I want to say, but that's in Atlanta.
[00:17:40] The game against LSU will be in a flex window. So that game will either be between 3:30 and 8. So a later game at LSU if both teams are trending well, I bet you that's going to be a night game. That's going to be a tough, tough challenge.
[00:17:57] But we have revenge on the mind in that game for sure. So we'll be interesting to see. The Oklahoma game in Columbia is in the early window, so will be either noon or one o' clock. It's funny because I think it was a noon game in Norman as well. So you know a game where you're looking to really get up for that one in the noon slot. Home against Bama is in the late flex window. So similar to LSU 330 to 8. That I believe is homecoming. And that's going to be a big game that's going to be a big draw for everyone. So love that being a little bit later could potentially be a night game in Willie B. But regardless, those later games, of course more raucous crowd at A and M will be in the early window. So either noon or one o' clock. And that feels like you kind of dodged a bullet a little bit because that game tends to feel like it's at night. I think we played them during the day once in recent memory. So anytime you can get any little bit of an edge at A and M, that's a tough, tough place to play. So we'll certainly take that. The Clemson game was announced and that game is at noon. That's not even like in a window. So that's an interesting one because everyone wants a night game for Clemson especially. It's at home this year. You want Willie B. To be rocking, but you know, my first thought was noon worked out fine before, you know, it's. It's worked out fine for us twice against Clemson. If we could just get it done at home, that would be, that would be the, the key there. So all in all I think it's a pretty balanced draw here.
[00:19:37] You have two night games. Granted, one of them is against SC State. Right. You know, you at least have two. I believe it's an opportunity to add two more. But Bama and I want to say the Kentucky game are in that late flex window. So you hope that at least one of those can be a night game.
[00:19:56] Bama especially a team that's going to present a challenge.
[00:20:00] But regardless, when you look at the road games, I think you kind of draw them okay, right? Especially A and M being early.
[00:20:11] LSU at night, that can be really difficult. Clemson, of course, from a fan perspective, like I just said, like, you want that to be at night from a fan perspective, but I think pretty much across the board players and coaches would rather play it early. So if you're at home early, game, wake up and go, let's get it going.
[00:20:33] The stadium is going to be packed. It's the Clemson game, right? So we'll all just party later, right? We won't party on the front end of the day, we'll party on the back end of the day. So I think it's pretty even. Anytime you go through this, you wish you could have one or two go different Mizzou's in that late afternoon flex window. You hope that leans towards the day. That's a tricky place to play. It's given us fits in the past. But all told, I think it's pretty balanced and all that matters is how you perform on the field.
[00:21:03] And with the excitement that we've seen around Gamecock football, I think every game, no matter the time slot at Willie B. Is going to be absolutely electric and rocking. So bring it on. We could play every game at fucking 9am Excuse my French.
[00:21:17] And I don't care.
[00:21:19] I'll be there fully sending it.
[00:21:22] That's how hyped up I think this entire fan base is for this season. Just the excitement. I'm fired up. See, this is what I'm talking about. I'm itching for football with that, y' all. That wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media.
[00:21:37] 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.
