Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, reaction to the football team's loss and a weekend recap from around Carolina Athletics. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:53] Okay.
[00:00:55] Welcome to episode 407 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And y', all, I'm sad.
[00:01:10] Yeah, I'm sad. I mean, shoot, after still sleeping on it and going about my day on Sunday, just still sad, still down. You know, I, like many of y', all, were very excited going into Saturday's game, albeit knowing it could be a tricky game, a challenging game, but with the way that, how that all played out. Yeah, you end up sitting here kind of down about it, and obviously I'm going to get into all that in a minute here, but it's tough, you know, like, if you know a fellow Gamecock fan, reach out, you know, show love.
[00:01:53] We are struggling right now and it's the third game of the season, so definitely a tough start to our week here. But, hey, we're going to pick ourselves up from our bootstraps, dust ourselves off.
[00:02:07] And just because we're mad doesn't mean we don't care. So, yeah. Before I get into that, though, let me jump into a week in review here, starting with, really, only the games are on this past Friday here. Luckily, they all are. Good news here. Women's volleyball was in action on Friday. They beat Virginia Tech 3 Nothing. Women's soccer continued their hot start to the year, beating LSU 3 to 1. Men's soccer continued their hot start, beating Old Dominion 2 to 1. And women's cross country finished second in the Adidas Cross Country Challenge. So how about that? Like, let's focus on the. That some of the good that was going on in South Carolina athletics outside of what happened on Saturday here. But of course, we do have to dive into this here. So if that's all you want to listen to, I don't blame you. Right? But you know, we gotta. We gotta talk about this, right? So, South Carolina SEC opener Saturday afternoon against Mississippi State.
[00:03:18] We had another lightning delay. Delay to deal with, but at least that one was at the start of the game.
[00:03:25] You know, I was talking to a buddy of mine who went into the stadium, trying to get there a little early, only to get hit with that delay. And he was like, if I knew that that was going to happen, I would have just stayed and saved myself the 20 something dollars I spent on beer while I waited. So definitely tricky from that perspective. But it's Really.
[00:03:47] I don't even know where to begin with this one, y'. All. I really don't. It's.
[00:03:51] It's really two sides right where the game started off.
[00:03:57] You couldn't have asked for a better start to the game. You get points immediately, then you capitalize on the Mississippi State mistakes, and you're spotted 16 points.
[00:04:09] Okay, absolutely lovely. Like, you couldn't have asked for a better start. Home. Home field is rocking.
[00:04:16] You're starting to think that, okay, like, maybe we can take advantage of this, you know, tricky Mississippi State defense that you heard about all week. Maybe Camario Taylor isn't ready for this moment. All the things start going through your head, but it's still so early.
[00:04:31] Now we can talk all day about the team not potentially capitalizing and getting some more points there, but nonetheless, you walk away up 16. Nothing. You're up two scores.
[00:04:46] That's what it really is like. Yeah. Couldn't. Could it have been a little bit more. Yeah, it's the, you know, can you point to it and say that's the importance of not leaving points on the table?
[00:04:56] Sure.
[00:04:58] But you walked away with 16 points. I wasn't mad at it then. I didn't. I wasn't. I wasn't screaming at the TV then. I was glad you're up 16 points. What happened almost for the rest of the game, though, is what we're going to focus on here. So Mississippi State creeps back into the game.
[00:05:19] They're down, or excuse me, they are going into that second quarter, they score 14 points, and it's a ball game all of a sudden. Okay, it's 24 to 23 going into the half, Mississippi State. So all of a sudden, you started. You. You started to feel that this momentum change is seriously headed in Mississippi State's direction. But then in the third quarter, Mississippi State just comes out looking like a totally different team. They score 17 unanswered points in the third to really start to pull away in this game here.
[00:05:58] So, excuse me, South Carolina was leading at the half.
[00:06:03] My memory is off here. But nonetheless, they come out in the third, Mississippi State does, and they take the lead in the third, and they start to pull away from it a little bit. And this is where the narrative of the game we're going to focus on, okay, I'm not going to rehash everything that happened for the rest of the game. The fact of the matter is South Carolina had a lead going into the half, and then they ended up losing the game at home.
[00:06:31] And, yes, there's A late score to bring this thing a little bit closer. But in reality, the team was down 38 to 23, 41 to 23 into the fourth. And this game was over before you closed the gap here a little bit. Mind you, the Gamecocks were favored going into this game. You're at home, you were gifted 16 points and yet you left the door open for this team in the third quarter. And of course, Mississippi State is going to battle back. Like, I think it's evident that now that, yes, they are a solid team. They have. They are much improved from a year ago and let alone two years ago. Their defense, look, while tricky, not the craziest thing in the world, we still were able to put up points on them.
[00:07:26] Point is, they are a tricky opponent and it's not to take away anything from them. The point is, you knew you had to stay aggressive throughout this entire game and you had to find a way to continue to throw off their momentum. They were having their way with us in the second half. Guys were wide open and it seemed like they were running some very similar concepts over and over and over again.
[00:07:50] And then what's more is when you look at the team stats, if you're looking at the box score, South Carolina won in almost every major category. Better on third down, better on fourth down. More time of possession, more total yards, penalties, same yardage, but less penalties. For South Carolina, the big one that stands out is the turnovers. South Carolina had two turnovers to Mississippi State's one.
[00:08:20] So there's two stories, storylines that in my mind are coming out of this one, maybe three, but we're just kind of going to let them rip here.
[00:08:32] The narrative coming out of this game is that I think the fan base is beginning to sour on Shane Beamer.
[00:08:43] And it's just the truth because while he has this personality that you might like and he, you know, says and does a lot of the right things in the community and everything like that.
[00:08:59] A strange black eye on his tenure at South Carolina are blown leads.
[00:09:08] This game is the latest example.
[00:09:11] Texas A and M last year, LSU game two years ago. Florida game a couple years ago. Some of these are at home.
[00:09:21] I mean, I don't know his home record off the top of my head, but I feel like Williams Bryce, for as tough of a place as it is to play, we've gotten beat here.
[00:09:31] You know, he hasn't beaten Clemson at home.
[00:09:35] And so it's just this weird trend that you feel like you're in these games, you're winning the ball Game, whether it's in halftime, second quarter, early third, and you end up squandering the lead.
[00:09:51] So where does that come from? That these teams under Shane Beamer lack the killer instinct and that they come out in the second half typically flat?
[00:10:04] You know, like, are we making these adjustments at halftime? Certainly. Mississippi State came out in the half and they felt confident that they could go out there and continue what they started in the second quarter. And they could not only take the lead, they could go out there and hold it.
[00:10:21] That is a tale of two teams.
[00:10:26] So that is something that I think is going to be very interesting to watch over the next couple of weeks. I mean, you saw the fans in the stand saying, fire Beamer. And it's crazy that we're sitting here in the third game saying that some people are really on that train. But, I mean, I saw this line, and this is going to kind of lead me into my next point here.
[00:10:51] I saw this line on Twitter, so it's not mine, but I think it sums up the last year or two perfectly.
[00:11:02] And it is. Admiration and evaluation are two separate things. We can admire Shane Beamer. We can say he's a good man. He's a good family man. He loves the university. This is truly the place he wants to be. He was charged with improving the culture in and around our football program when he was hired, and he certainly did do that in that first year, really, two years.
[00:11:26] Okay. We can admire him for some of the fun games he's brought us, beating Clemson again, you know, but evaluation is totally different.
[00:11:39] I'm gonna. I might. I might bungle this stat here, but it's more or less the same.
[00:11:44] I think, in his last 12 games, Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks are 2 and 10 against Power 4 competition.
[00:11:54] That's. That's a season's worth of Power 4 teams, and you're 2 and 10. Okay. And then folks will be quick to say, well, you know, last year there was the Shula of it all. Like, sure, I can give you some of that. But the last few games, he wasn't there.
[00:12:11] And he ultimately was the guy that made that decision to hire Shula.
[00:12:16] So there is that.
[00:12:18] And then once more is you look at Beamer's press game, post game, press conference after, and he's saying that this game won't define this team this season. I sure hope that's correct.
[00:12:32] And it is early. Yes.
[00:12:35] But when you look at the schedule, okay, you don't have to be a football expert to know that it's A challenging schedule for South Carolina this year. All of a sudden, Kentucky looks more than competent under a new head coach.
[00:12:51] So that game feels more challenging than it was. Kind of similar to this game here against Mississippi State.
[00:12:58] Florida seems to maybe have gotten it together.
[00:13:02] Sure, maybe an Oklahoma or an A. And M feels more winnable than it did earlier in the year. But nonetheless, those challenges are in the front half of the year.
[00:13:12] So you have to find a way to navigate the next three weeks, starting with going on the road against Alabama.
[00:13:21] But this is also the same guy who said, we're going to be sitting here at the end of 2026 hoping to see our name called for the College Football Playoff. You can't just say that and then lose to Mississippi State at home.
[00:13:36] So the Shane Beamer watch is on. I mean, it's, it's crazy to say and I'm not calling for anything just yet, but at the same time, like, the results are the results.
[00:13:49] And unless we're talking about a serious turnaround this year and you get on a streak where, you know, yeah, two years ago with a similar looking team, core group of guys, you lost two tough early games and then you went on a run. So it's. And then, you know, we look back at 24 is the year that, like, okay, could have propelled this program forward.
[00:14:14] It's still on the table. It is.
[00:14:17] But it's tough sitting here today when you were in a spot that you've been in so many times before and the result was the same.
[00:14:27] So that's one aspect out of this. The other one that, look, I'm not going to go too crazy on it, but we have to say it.
[00:14:36] Lenora Sellers has not progressed in the way you would have hoped.
[00:14:40] And I feel like we all have been so excited for the talent that Lenora Sellers has because it's there and he has all of the physical abilities in the world and his breakout season in 2024, he gave us hope that we had a guy that could change every single game.
[00:14:59] Last year, it was not there.
[00:15:02] And yes, we can talk about the Shula of it all, but you can look at some of those games and there were poor decisions that didn't really have much to do with the concepts at times. And again, the last couple of games were not Shula and you still did not see that development.
[00:15:20] We're in the third game under Kendall Briles. You, you're really not seeing much of that development. You're seeing bad mechanics throwing the ball, not putting zip on it, terrible reads like, yeah, you got. You got bailed out with one of the interceptions, but some of them were just terrible reads.
[00:15:40] Not, not getting guys open, not. Not recognizing the linebacker, dropping in the coverage, things that an older quarterback should be able to do.
[00:15:50] Lenoris magic has tended to come from these broken plays where he's able to roll out or scramble and find the guy, and that's great.
[00:15:58] But when it comes to doing the normal quarterback stuff, standing in the pocket, stepping up, finding the second progression, he hasn't improved all that much.
[00:16:10] So now you have, you know, these two figures in the program, the two most important figures, your quarterback and your head coach, who, again, admiration and evaluation are two different things.
[00:16:26] I want Lenora Sellers to do all the things he can. We all do.
[00:16:34] And we've given him and this program the benefit of the doubt. A lot of it for last year.
[00:16:42] But now, when it matters most against Mississippi State at home in this game, that really could have propelled you. Mississippi State's ranked in the AP poll now.
[00:16:53] You could be. You could have been three. And, oh, and yes, if you're looking at that first half of the schedule, like, wow, this is kind of challenging.
[00:17:01] Your margin of error was greater now.
[00:17:05] I mean, now with. Now, it almost feels like we're back to, like, where can we find six wins?
[00:17:11] Whereas before going into this game, it was okay if we can head out of this one at three.
[00:17:18] Well, hey, like, yeah, those talks of, you know, eight or more, like, really feel like they're on the table, especially given if you performed well, you know, but you can't place the blame on just one individual, right? It is. It is a team sport.
[00:17:36] You. You gave up 41 points. Like, yeah, Mississippi State has a very good offense. They could go on to have a really good year. Maybe that takes a sting out of it a little bit, but to me, not really.
[00:17:48] The defense seemed that they just were not able to figure out what was going on. And Clayton White was not able to make those changes in game or at the half to stop the bleeding.
[00:18:04] And the defense outside of the first quarter just really wasn't able to get any push.
[00:18:09] You know, understand Taylor is shifty, but you really were able to disrupt him early, and you were unable to do that throughout the game. So the team's in a tough spot as we head into the next week, first row, test at night against Alabama, who seems to be really, maybe having their stuff together, coming together well early in the season. So it's a challenge. And yes, is it possible that this team is not defined by this loss. And if this loss feels a lot worse than it is because it's staring us in the face and it was the SEC opener and everything, like, yes, but at the same time, I think we deserve, we deserve better. A But we also reserve the right to critique top to bottom, this team because when you do build yourselves as a much improved unit and a team that can take that step forward and you're at home and you blow that lead and you know you have a third quarter, second half, that's just not competitive, we reserve the right to raise question marks top to bottom on everybody. So with that, that wraps up this episode.
[00:19:23] 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.
