Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, the football team heads to Ole Miss for a night game. Basketball is around the corner. And I give my six pack of picks. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:56] Welcome to episode three, 351 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And happy Halloween.
[00:01:10] Happy Halloween to all the ghouls and goblins and trick or treaters out there. It's a great holiday.
[00:01:16] I'm a fan of Halloween, you know, I mean, obviously as a kid, you love it. Get to get free candy, go out with your friends, do things like that. Even though I don't know, I'm out of the loop. I don't have kids. But I think a lot of it's now like trunker treating. Like, I don't know how much of like actual door to door trick or treating goes on. I saw that somewhere. If so, that's. That, that's a travesty. But nonetheless, have a spooky, safe weekend ahead of y'. All. It's always exciting stuff. Sit down and watch a little scary movie. This is like my one weekend of the year where I'll watch something scary because otherwise I am just a sissy watch when it comes to that stuff. But I don't know, actually. I mean, if you're watching the Gamecock football team, that's basically watching a horror movie for the last.
[00:02:00] For the last, what, two and a half months or so, Whatever. It's been.
[00:02:03] Been a long year.
[00:02:05] Long year. Kind of scary at times. Definitely has been scary at times. I've. I've been woken up by remembering last weekend. But we're moving on. We're moving on with that. But all right, before I jump into this upcoming weekend game and everything like that, quick look back. Weekend review. Really not much to go over here. You had a couple of exhibition games going on. Basketball had that. Softball was doing some of that. And Wednesday, though, you had the women's volleyball team. They lost to Auburn, unfortunately, three to one. But yeah, basketball returns next week.
[00:02:41] Very, very exciting. The men's week. We are. We are a men's basketball team. We are under one week at this point. I think it's like four or five days by the time you're listening to this. So that's pretty exciting.
[00:02:53] And yeah, I mean, there's all these reports that there was a, like, secret scrimmage between Georgia Tech and South Carolina. One and a last minute shot.
[00:03:03] They, you know, were in a close one with the NC State in an exhibition, like a scrimmage type deal. So yeah, we'll see, we'll see how it goes at this point.
[00:03:12] It's funny, you know, it's still going to stay the same and I always put this disclaimer out where football is going to be the main focus of my show while it's football season. Right. And it's usually one of those deals where I'm deep diving into football and you know, we'll touch on basketball and then kind of wait until it's their time to shine.
[00:03:33] It might just be time to deep dive into basketball.
[00:03:36] It might just, especially if we get off to a good start. But we will see how it goes here. But speaking of the football team, here we are back in action. The team is on the last game before the next bye week. So it was that really murderers row of opponents in the month of October.
[00:03:57] And you still got one more that you know after the bye week. But yeah, so you're on kind of at that. You know, that's really the light at the end of the tunnel here where it's been a really, really tough stretch where you're hoping to maybe get on the other side of this thing and be okay as the Gamecocks take on Ole miss in Oxford 7pm Saturday night. And yeah, I mean, it's exactly that. It's kind of like you're taking this last big inhale before you go out there and you're facing another top opponent here hoping to try and do something. I mean, I feel like, I feel like a broken record and I kind of feel like that must be how Shane Beamer feels because really the only thing you can say and what we've said for the last couple of weeks now is just what an opportunity that you have, right?
[00:04:48] You went to LSU and you're like, okay, this would be an amazing opportunity to make a big time statement on the road at night. You came up short, Oklahoma, highly ranked team. You're thinking, wow, what an opportunity we have to come home and get a W that falls short. Homecoming against Alabama. Wow, what an opportunity against the top five team to really do this. You're desperate for a win. Try and catch them napping and you follow up short. And so here we are yet again with an opportunity for a big time upset for Carolina. Ole Miss ranked in the top 10. They are currently seventh right now, 71 overall, 41 in the SEC. And they're a great team. You know, it's funny personally, me going into this year, I thought they Were going to have a pretty big drop off. Felt like they had a lot of talent on that team last year. Felt like they lost a lot of production and they really haven't missed a beat. I think there were a couple of question marks, like at the quarterback position, who was going to be the guy? They got those answered. Lane Kiffin has his group rolling. Defensively, they're solid. You know, everyone thinks of Lane Kiffin. Offense, Ole Miss high flying. Like a lot of that is true. Defensively, they are also solid. They're not Oklahoma, right? Like, you know, you look at some of these games and you know, they were in a shootout more or less with Oklahoma, shootout with, with Georgia. But they still have some players.
[00:06:17] So that's exactly what it is. It's another opportunity for this Gamecock team to, you can say, maybe live up to the potential. You know, you can say play spoiler if, you know, that's kind of the time of year where we are, you know, talking about a one loss SEC team when some of these margins are razor thin in our conference where, you know, hey, that's the role South Carolina is going to have to try and play now.
[00:06:46] So be it, right? To kind of be the, the hunter, if you will, instead of the hunted that we thought we'd be earlier in the year. So, you know, it's really just a matter of consistency, right? Like some of the things that you did well last week, can you continue to do that, but can you continue to improve and develop?
[00:07:10] You know, we've all said it a thousand times. Shane Beamer's been asked about it, but, you know, his teams, pretty much in every season he's been the coach here, have gotten better in this last, you know, quarter, you know, third of the year, you know, late October into November. Beamer's teams have tended to kind of turn it on.
[00:07:35] And, you know, I don't think he knows the exact reason for it, but do you see some of that right where. This would certainly be a hell of a time to pick that game where you're gonna go, you know, pound for pound with Ole Miss at their place at night and get this thing going a little bit here. So it's really interesting to see. But yeah, sitting at 7 and 1, it is certainly a challenge for the Gamecocks. And, you know, I think with Ole Miss, you kind of look at it and it's just keeping the ball in front of you, you know, not letting them pull away a lot. They've been in some close games. You know, they, they beat LSU 24 to 19. They escaped barely to Washington State, but I think they were peeking ahead to Georgia there. Georgia, they, I believe, blew a fourth quarter lead. And then Oklahoma, if you caught that game, that was, that game was absolutely bonkers. Or that was a back and forth game in Oklahoma, you know, gave up a late touchdown for Ole Miss to win. So it's sort of that opposite of South Carolina where the Gamecocks have let some games slip through their fingers late that they could have won a la, Alabama, Missouri, right?
[00:08:52] Whereas Ole Miss, maybe with the exception of this Georgia game, has seemingly been able to kind of close a lot better than the Gamecocks. And maybe, maybe it's a situation where, hey, if it's, if it's a fourth quarter game and this is a moment where South Carolina has to sort of zig while they've always zagged in that position. Like, I'll take it, right? Like I said, going into the Alabama game, I'll take a close fourth quarter game. I think I even said just second half game, I'll take it again, right? It's stressful, but like, damn, I'm starved for a win. We all are. Like, and if it takes a nail biter, a stress one, so be it. Like, let's let it rip and let's try and go down there and, and give them a fight. So let's get into my crows to the game here. For the whole team, I'm saying, bring that same edge that we saw last week. It felt like the whole team played not just with a little bit of swagger and, you know, loose, right. But it seemed like they had an edge to them. Like they knew that it was an opportunity and they knew that they had to come in and play a little nasty, play a little tough and they weren't gonna back down to this highly ranked team. Bring that same energy, you know, you're on the road. Beamers teams have kind of been so, so on the road, right? Couple of big wins, but generally speaking, it's been tough sledding.
[00:10:22] So can you go and do that? Oxford is a, you know, beautiful town from what I've heard.
[00:10:29] I don't think it's, you know, it's certainly not a Neyland Stadium type deal, right. It's not Kyle Field. It's going to be rocking. They have a great team. They have a lot to be excited about. It's going to be a tough atmosphere, but people have come into Willie B. And handled it. We've, we have done it on the road at times. Happens Every week in college football that home teams lose.
[00:10:52] Why can't we make that happen on the defensive side of the ball? My first Crow is continued to get strong defensive tackle play. Nick Barrett and Montcal were just absolutely demons last week and it was a big reason why that defense played so well. Just because they clogged up the middle, they clogged up the running lanes, they disrupted the quarterback and they did a lot of the things that you would expect these older, more experienced players to do.
[00:11:22] So if we can get that same level of productivity, even you sprinkle in pikes, Gabe Brownlow, Dindy, right, some of these other guys, that would be a huge, huge bonus for the defense. My second crow is be prepared for the change in tempo. Okay? Ole Miss is not a Tennessee where it's pedal to the metal all the time, but they will mix in tempo. It could be for a couple of drives, it could be for a couple of plays. But then as we've seen, they are certainly not afraid to slow it down.
[00:12:00] You know, I mean, I think hopefully some of the injury or non injury nonsense is behind Kiffin and these teams, but they are not afraid to try and slow things down. Right.
[00:12:14] Beamer talked about that in his press conference where sometimes they'll go fast, but sometimes they'll get in the huddle, try and choose some clock and then they'll just try to keep you off balance. So when they do hit the gas, this defense needs to be prepared for that.
[00:12:29] Now my third Crow to the game here.
[00:12:32] You know, this may be a big ask, but generate multiple turnovers, I mean, it's just if you're trying to win this game, that's just what's going to have to be right. We're just plain truth.
[00:12:43] You can't, certainly can't lose the turnover battle. And if you get two, I would certainly hope that we could be in the right side of the turnover margin. So they love to throw the ball. They love. I mean they like to do everything really Ole Miss. They. And they do both really, really well running and throwing. But we got players, we got dudes on that defense who can get after it and, and hopefully continue to generate some havoc and create some of those turnovers on the offensive side of the ball. My first Crow continue to find the end zone more than one time. Wasn't that fun on Saturday? I know it didn't end well, but man, seeing multiple touchdowns, it's normal. That's normal football and that's what we need to continue to see on Saturday and every Saturday from here on out.
[00:13:37] So if you want to try and win this game, start with scoring multiple times. You're going to need it, right? This is not a game where you can hope to win 13 to 10, right?
[00:13:51] Like, you're going to need to score 20 or more points.
[00:13:55] Like, period. Like probably more than 28 if we're being honest.
[00:14:00] So do that.
[00:14:03] My second crow, I like to spread the field more. You know, we started to see some of this, like some of the things that people have been calling for.
[00:14:13] We started to see a little bit last week. Not as much as maybe a lot of us would like, but spread out the field more. I think part of the problem we've seen to this point in the year, with some of the exception being last weekend, is we're too close, we're too crowded. So you'll have just a lot of guys in the box and it makes the running lanes harder. And even on some of those short and intermediate throws, there's just. If they're playing zone, everyone's just close knit and it's hard to get that space. So let's spread it out a little bit, create some lanes and continue to double down on that. And my third pro is continue to feed Matt Fuller. Sewell had a good game against Bama. I like everything that I see from Matt Fuller. I think you're at this point in the year where you got to just lean into it. He's built for it. Continue to feed him. But, you know, really on the offensive side of the ball, it's, can you. Can you continue to do those things that you did well last week, which seemingly was trim down the playbook a little bit and lean on our strengths more than just the occasional flash, right? Like, just keep going to the well until they stop it. Which I know sounds like a concept that shouldn't be novel, but to Mike Shula, it was.
[00:15:32] So can this offense take the next step? Right? Like against Alabama, that offense was not perfect. It felt much better because it was noticeably improved from where we had been to that point in the year. But there's still lots of room for this group to continue to grow and reach that potential. So I would love to see that, right? Just continue to do some of those things. I could throw in here, mix up the tempo. We saw a little bit of that, too. Moving the pocket. We saw a little bit of that. The deep shot to Harbor. Let's do some more of that, right? Those things that were working against Bama, let's continue that. But can we add a little Bit more. Can we add another wrinkle or two and just continue to double down on what works for our guys? Don't worry about the theory of it all. Just go out there, run the plays that our players feel most comfortable with, and get the ball to your best position players, skill position players, and let the chips fall where they may. And, you know, like, on a side note here, you know, there's sometimes online, like, some shaming that goes on when people criticize coaching decisions and things like that, play calls and whatnot. And like, oh, like, you're just a couch coach and things like that. I see that a lot. Like, you know, I don't really engage with a lot of it, but I see it a lot back and forth.
[00:16:57] The average fan, like, can be knowledgeable now, right? Like, you can sit there and watch enough football to point out a couple of things and say, well, why aren't we doing this? And don't be shamed into someone who may have technically more experience or knows how to break down film or what. Don't let someone tell you that you can't tell. Have that opinion, right? Some of the things that we saw South Carolina do against Alabama were basic things that people like me and you have been calling for for weeks, like spreading out the field, getting Lenores on the run, right? Mobile pockets, things like that. So I. That's where I think sometimes, like, it's like, kis, keep it simple. Stupid, right? Kiss, right? So if you can just do some of that against this Ole Miss team. Like, you don't need to outsmart yourselves. Just go out there, you got some guys who can make the plays. Just go out there and lean into it. So let's see how it goes, right?
[00:18:00] Halloween weekend, just crush a bunch of candy and watch this game. Should be fun, but. All right, let me give you all my six pack of picks and then I will get y' all out of here. In the ACC, I'm going Louisville minus 10 and a half versus Virginia Tech.
[00:18:16] Virginia minus five and a half versus Cal. In the Big 12, Cincinnati plus 10.5 versus Utah. Big 10. Penn State versus Ohio State over 45.5 in the SEC.
[00:18:30] Interesting line here. I'm going Mississippi State plus four and a half versus Arkansas. And then the group of five give me Central Michigan versus Western Michigan minus four and a half. But with that, y', all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media.
[00:18:46] 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.
