Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Game, Cox women's volleyball beats the upstate team. Football hangs a 50 burger, and I give my postgame analysis. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay. Welcome to episode 262 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And you gotta love a winning weekend, am I right? It's just phenomenal. Just feels so nice to be able to put your feet up, relax, kick back, enjoy Sunday, and then, you know, watch football, NFL, whatever it may be. It was a great weekend around Gamecock country, not just on the football field, too. I'm going to get into that in a second here, but I hope y'all had a lovely weekend out there watching sports, eating, drinking, chilling yard work, whatever you had to do. I hope you enjoyed it and are ready for a good week ahead here. Got a nice episode for y'all here. Gonna focus a lot on what we saw Saturday night. It was a fun one. Got that winning feeling back. You absolutely love a good, stress free game. But before I jump into that, a quick weekend recap from around USC athletics here. Starting on Friday, women's volleyball beat Clemson 30. Hell, yeah. Shout out women's volleyball team. That is phenomenal, because if memory serves, we had both soccer teams tie Clemson. So, so far in the Palmetto series, athletically, you've had both soccer teams Ty Clemson. So this is the first outright win, I guess, in the series, but on the good guys side. So shout out to women's volleyball, wiping the floor with Clemson 30. Gotta love that. And then on Friday, men's soccer unfortunately took the l two marshall. And then on Sunday, women's soccer beat Kentucky one nothing, one nil, as I believe they say on the pitch there. So just add that to the list of dominating Kentucky. It's just. It's phenomenal. Like this run that South Carolina is on across different sports, just beating the crap out of Kentucky. I'm here for it. I absolutely love it. I think it's hilarious. And Kentucky fans are just punching air. Yeah, absolutely love it. But let me jump into what we saw Saturday night, and I've said it before, but there ain't nothing like looking for a win on a Saturday night and then waking up Sunday when you found one. It is just phenomenal, isn't it? Gamecocks put a whooping on Akron 50 to seven. They hung a 50 burger. 50 burger is just so fun to say. It was just what the doctor ordered. And I think I gave off the sense in my pre game episode that this could be a little tricky, or this, this could be a situation where maybe the guys come in a little sluggish and it's a little frustrating. And in reality, this was how this game should have gone, and it did go that way. But I just think when you've watched enough Gamecock football like we all have, you know that sometimes these things happen. And when you watch college football, you see tricky games like this coming off an emotional game the week before. Sometimes the teams come in and they're a little lackadaisical. And I'm glad to say that that was not the case. I'm glad that it wasn't even really in question, and it was really that palate cleanser that we all needed. It was really nice to be able to see those guys lower on the depth chart, be able to get some quality playing time. We really saw that great effort from every unit, offense, defense, special teams. You saw the fun two point conversion. Like everything was really clicking, and that's how it's supposed to be. You know, this team that we have right now is sitting at three and one. They're three and one for the first time since 2017, and it's just the second three in one start since 2015.
[00:05:13] And so you look at it and you look at the last couple of games and you say, you know what? Like, these guys are clicking more that that week one game where everything kind of looked a little funky. I think it was exactly that. It was just week one. Guys have gotten it more together. Offensively, they are gelling nicely, and defensively, they are just continuing to roll there. And you look at the season or look at the schedule, excuse me, and you kind of have three different chunks, right? You have the opening four games, then you have the bye week, you have the next three.
[00:05:53] That's Ole Miss, Alabama and Oklahoma. Then you have a bi week, and then you have the final stretch. And looking at it before the season starts, you wanted to see at least this. You said if the Gamecocks could get to three and one, then everything sets up well for them because the goal before the season started was just try and get six wins. But now that we've seen that, I think we can start to say, you know what? We're going to be in more of these games than we thought maybe at the beginning of the year. So it's a fantastic effort by this whole team. Shane Beamer and his whole staff have had this team prepared and ready to play. The additions they made via the portal are paying off phenomenally. The guys who have stayed have developed and taken that next step and pretty much across the board. You know, I think the position groups are playing at or better than where you would have thought they were going to be at. You know, of course there's still things that you need to clean up. You know, I'm going to probably talk a little bit more about this next episode ahead of the bye week, but, you know, penalties, sacks, turnovers, these are things that need to get corrected. These are things that you cannot have linger really now into this chunk of SEC play, especially against some elite competition. But you have to like where South Carolina is. I am willing to say that any South Carolina fan you talk to at the beginning of the season, if you said, hey, you're going to start three in one going into the bye week, 100% of people would have signed up for that. There were people who were thinking we might be one in three at this point after the ODu game. So you're ahead of schedule in terms of the Vegas wins. You have to be feeling pretty good inside that locker room. I as a fan, feel pretty good. I like the team that we have and they're only going to continue to get better here. But let me get more into this game here. Shout out Robbie Ashford. We just have to start that. I mean, here's a guy who came to South Carolina knowing that he was not going to be guaranteed a starting job, ends up becoming QB two to Lenoris, but continued to put the work in, continue to improve, understands what the coaches are asking of him. He's played plenty of SEC ball. He's an experienced quarterback. He's more than adequate and he executed what they asked him to do incredibly well. We're not three in one without Robbie Ashford. You know, I mean, even wasn't it in the Kentucky game, Lenores? Yeah, he, he hurt his hip a little bit, whatever that was. Robbie came in and he, he righted the ship. He was steady Eddie with that. Then you have this Akron game. So he is a huge part for why this team is where they're at. You know, is he perfect? No, of course not. You know, there is a reason why he is QB, too, but he played incredibly well Saturday night and you got to give him his props. Shout out Robbie Ashford. So let me get into what I liked and didn't like about this game here, starting with the whole team. I really liked that they didn't let that LSU game affect them. I was worried about that possibility of some of the guys coming in, maybe just not as mentally sharp as they needed to be. Coming off that emotional rollercoaster, but that was not the case. And the guys came out and they had a very productive opening quarter. And when you saw that, believe it was 15 nothing after the first quarter, when you saw that, you had to feel good and say, okay, Beamer has these guys ready to play. There's no emotional hangover from LSU. We're not staring down the barrel of a trap game. The guys are in control here.
[00:09:42] If I'm going to nitpick, I'd say I didn't like that. Once again, we were the more penalized team. I think it was like six to five, so it was pretty even. But those things need to be continued to work on, right? I don't know how you correct some of these things, but the Gamecocks need to be on the right stat, the right side of that stat. Excuse me, in more of these games, right. Can you be the least penalized team? Right. Stop shooting ourselves in the foot. Don't give opponents any additional help. All of that. You have to continue to work on that. And I don't know what the answer is. And Shane Beamer and his press conferences have basically said the same thing, that he does not know exactly how to fix some of these things. But I think when you look at film and you take this week and you practice and you figure out, okay, where are some of the areas that are affecting us? Is it the pre snap? You know, is it procedural things, all that jazz? And you can work on that in this week here. Looking at the defense here, what did I like? I loved you only gave up seven points. I mean, I was really impressed, and they really imposed their will. Akron only had 154 yards of total offense. I mean, my crow to the game going into this one, one of them for the defense was to hold their leading rusher. I think I said under 70 yards, something like that. Their whole team was held to 37 yards on the ground. So it wasn't just one guy, you know, like, the entire team of Akron was held to 37 yards on the ground. You absolutely love that, because if there is a part of the defense that has maybe not been up to snuff or not as good and improved as the other aspects, it has been the run defense. You still need to work on that. But I think the guys went out there and they did a really good job of that against Akron. I liked what we saw out of the reserves as well in this game when they got in. You know, playing time like that will pay dividends down the line. I liked that the team continued to generate turnovers. Shout out. DQ. Smith. Absolutely love that with the interception there. It was just a good day in the office, right? It was just. It was just a good day in the office for this defense. We're able to impose their will.
[00:12:08] I like this defense, man. You know, it's something where this unit can travel and it can keep us in games and they just have to continue to play well, execute, play clean, and good things can happen. I really, really was impressed. I mean, you only gave up seven points. How can you sit here and not, you know, I mean, so if I'm going to say what I didn't like, I'm going to say you gave up seven points. You know, you didn't pitch a shutout like that would have been sick. But alas, you gave up the touchdown. But you know what? That is going to happen here. If I was going to look at a couple of things here, not winning the sack battle, I was a little surprised at the end of the game to look at it and see it was just two sacks for South Carolina. Akron had three, I believe. I would have liked to see a couple more tackles for loss. So it was a deal where maybe you're not generating like you're not getting home because I did feel that, like the defense was able to affect the quarterback. I feel like they were able to impose that pressure and things like that. So you got to make sure you can get home a little bit more. Kennard continues to have an amazing season. Shout out him. Was so great to see him have a good night there, especially after the center of attention that he kind of found himself being in after last week there. But really, really impressive with the defense there. Now, looking over to the offense here, what I liked, I got. I got to give him a shout out again. Robbie Ashford. Loved Robbie Ashford. Three total touchdowns. Used his legs well and he was very efficient with the past game, going 15 for 21. You know, a lot of folks were saying, you got to trust him. Let's air it out. We have to work on the passing game, get these receivers more work. I think you certainly did that. I absolutely think you saw that, right? And that was my next point here. I really liked Maisie o. Bennett. I mean, we are seeing a budding star right before our eyes. I mean, hometown kid playing incredibly well as a true freshman. Not the first time I've shouted him out after a game here. That touchdown, he was wide open. It was beautiful route. He has great hands. He's quick. Absolutely love him. So he's only going to continue to get better. That's the most exciting part about this right now, where the Gamecocks are at, right? Especially on the offensive side, you know, guys are going to continue to gel and improve. I was also glad to see my guy, Gage Larvidane get in the mix. He had a couple big catches, that r1 deep ball. You saw him get into the mix a little bit against LSU. He was a guy that was banged up in camp, didn't really able to start the season as well as you would have liked, but he was my guy when he transferred here. After reading about the different guys, I thought he was going to be this guy that could emerge as the top wide receiver coming out of Miami. Ohio has played a lot of college football, has the size and everything like that. Now you're starting to see him get more comfortable. Jared Brown, he didn't play, but if he's able to get healthy, you're looking at Bennett Brown and Larva Dane as a pretty good trio of guys. And that's not even with the complimenting piece of Jacobs, Campbell harbor and so on. So was really glad to see these two guys get going here and I just really liked what we saw out of some of these backups as well. Like, I like to see what they brought to the table. Shout out, Connor Cox. Great last name, friend of the program, absolutely love to see him getting to the end zone. Davis Bevel getting some playing time. You saw the emotion he had after that touchdown. It just means so much for these guys. And it's again, that playing time that is going to pay dividends down the line, whether that is this season or next. For a guy like Conor Cox to get into that game action and score a touchdown like that, it is absolutely phenomenal there.
[00:16:14] And I also just really liked the game plan. I mean, Dowell Loggins was aggressive all game and especially with Robbie, he was able to play to his strengths really well. I think there was a lot of concern of, you know, is he going to be able to do he being Robbie, everything that Lenoris can do and do they have to change the game plan? Are they going to trust his arm? Right? Does he have the arm to do it? I think a lot of those questions were answered and we're all very excited about Lenoris. I think his ceiling is through the roof, whatever it is. But Ashford showed that he can hold his own. And I think you don't have to change the game plan all that much because they do have some similar skill sets from the standpoint of they both can use their legs, but really great game plan by Dowel. Stayed aggressive, put up 50 points. Absolutely love it. I mean, when you think of what I didn't like, it's hard to think of that when you drop 50. I would have liked to see Josh Simon get a little bit more involved. I think though part of that was Robbie was distributing the ball well. You know, Josh Simon had that one catch, but he was involved in some other plays as well. Great run blocking there for Robbie, too.
[00:17:26] And then once Rocket went down, it really was Robbie who picked up the slack running the ball. So I would have liked to see some more consistency from our backup running backs. Right? Oscar Attaway had a nice day from the two touchdowns, but would it like to see a better average, a little bit more yards on the ground? Jordan Howell got in there. I think he looked decent. Matthew Fuller got in there again. It's great that these guys got those reps, but you want to see some more consistency there because it's only going to get more physical from here. I really got to hope that rocket is nothing serious, right? Like you absolutely have to hope that he is okay. They took him out and kept him out out of a lot of precautionary. Shane Beamer said after the game they don't think it's anything long term, which thank goodness he said that. But you know, that's right after the game. Who knows how it felt on Sunday and what they look at on Monday and things like that. But it was just a situation where it just kind of got rolled up on and just got to hope that he can rest. It got the bye week coming and just get healthy for SEC play. But this game all told here it was that breath of fresh air. It was really nice to be able to sit back in this one after what was an extremely emotional game against LSU and look like that game will come up again in conversations. That game will come up at the end of the year when you're looking back at whatever the record is and say, damn, that one we could have had, but we got a win. Now that game is officially in the rearview mirror and this team is back in the win column and feeling good. The start to this team being at three one is exactly what we could have hoped for for this part of the season. And again, I've said it once already, this team is only going to continue to get better. So name of the game right now is watch the film, understand what you did really well against Akron. What were some areas of improvement, but take this week rest up, get healthy and then lets have these guys get back to the practice field and continue to gel and continue to grow. But this was a very fun night in Williams Bryce Stadium for the Gamecocks here, sitting at three and one heading into the bye week. Absolutely love it. But with that yall that wraps up this episode, please follow me on social media, 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.
