Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] This episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks is brought to you by the Mason Jar, New York City. The Mason jar is the official Gamecock bar for the New York City area. Fans and alumni of USC can come by the jar for some great barbecue, cold drinks, and, of course, to watch the Gamecocks in any sport, all while surrounded by South Carolina memorabilia. If you want to get a slice of game day in Columbia, all while in the Big Apple, head to the Mason jar on East 30th Street. All right, here we go.
[00:01:13] Welcome to Episode 195 of Cox Talking Gamecocks, brought to you by the Mason jar, New York City. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 18 one to 2001. And how about this? Gamecocks wins all around. You get a win. You get a win. You get a win. What a nice weekend. Really could put your feet up and enjoy it. Wins all the way around from start to finish. I'm talking Friday, Saturday, Sunday. All we needed. Who knew? All we needed was basketball season to kick off and the page to turn to November. And we would find ourselves with a couple of nice weeks. So far, so very exciting. Time to be a Gamecock. Vibes are high. Vibes are high in Gamecock Nation. I absolutely love it. What a weekend. Going to dive into all the results here, focusing mainly on the football game, of course. But let me go through a weekend recap here for y'all. Starting on Friday, the women's soccer team, they were in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and they won their matchup, beating JMU to nothing. So that's exciting. They get to move on to the next round there, which will be next week. So good luck, girls. Keep it up. We're rooting for you. And I will update y'all as those scores come in. Of course. And then on Friday night, the men's basketball team, they were in action. You remember this game was up in Charlote, part of a little special series they were doing for neutral site game there. But the men ended up on the right side of things here as they beat Virginia Tech 79 to 77. The cardiac court cocks making an early appearance. And I absolutely love it. And it may just be two games into this season, but I think it's fair to say that this team is different. I do. This team is a world different than last year's group. It just is. They're more experienced. They know how to handle themselves in late game situations. It's a deeper team. All this despite a couple of guys out even in this game. But this was a gritty win that came late. This team plays free, they shoot the ball well, and they have veterans all over the court, which really helps defensively and it helps in these tight games down the stretch. Miles Stute led all scorers with 21 points. BJ Mac also had himself a very nice night. And it's funny because you kind of got these two big games to kick the season off. Two big wins right there. And again, you're feeling good and you'd like to think that only as the next couple of weeks go on, guys'roles. Will be defined a little bit more. Lamont will figure out his rotations a little bit better, and you'd like to think that this group can come together even more, but that's a big win. Virginia Tech is a solid squad. Obviously, they're a Power Five team in a good basketball conference. So really exciting win for the Gamecocks. And what a fun start to the season. Absolutely. The men's next game is Monday night against VMI, so hopefully the guys can go for three in a row. How fun would that be? And then going to the end of the weekend here on Sunday, the women's volleyball team unfortunately lost to LSU three to two. It's all right, girls. Screw LSU. And then the women's basketball team, they had their home opener, defeating Maryland 114 to 76. Whoo. That is a lot of points. That is a butt whooping right there. Things were close here after the first quarter, but after that, the Gamecocks really were able to pull away and build a lead. And then come the fourth quarter, they were just pouring it on Maryland. It was really great to see. The Maryland coach was actually quoted as saying that this year's South Carolina team might be better than Last year's, which is very, very high praise, especially considering who was on that squad last year and how far that team went in the NCAA Tournament. So time will tell as far as that quote holds up. But I just think what you see with this team is just a little. It's just different looks. You kind of knew what South Carolina was going to try to do to you last year and the year before that, and we just executed better. This team, I think, can beat you in a couple of different ways, which I think could be the difference maker. And really what that coach is alluding to there. Chloe kits with a big day going 13 points and ten rebounds. That's exciting. Hopefully the first of many double doubles for Chloe. And it's a really solid pair of wins to start this season for Don Staley and company. The women's next game is Thursday night at home against Clemson. That's right. Rivalry game early in the season here. Hopefully we absolutely stomp them. Not really much reason to think that we won't at home. And it's just going to be a good time. Hopefully sending that team back up to the upstate with their tail between their legs. Very fun weekend. Now moving on here to the football team, which took up all of our Saturdays, of course, as the Gamecocks beat Vanderbilt 47 to six.
[00:06:55] All right. Hell yeah. Not the Gamecocks, the Raincocks. You need a Gamecock victory. Just add water. I can do this all day. Carolina defied the elements on a chilly and rainy day to put together really the most complete team victory that we have seen this entire season. So it was a really refreshing watch. It just was. And the old adage continues, death, taxes and beating Vanderbilt. I mean, really, no matter how up or down this program seems to be, we simply do seem to have Vandy's number and it just has been this all reliable that you can sort of hang your hat on. And they really did come to Williams Bryce at the best time you really could ask for. Right? But make no mistake about it, I mean, there definitely were some sloppy moments here. There were Some bad drops, other things like that that maybe were associated with the weather, but there were also some silly pre snap penalties and things from that that you really would like to clean up. But really from start to finish, you really did feel good about the Gamecocks in this one, especially as the game progressed a little bit into the second quarter. And then, of course into the second half, it was decently close at halftime, 13 nothing. But again, in that second half, the Gamecocks really hit their stride and pulled away from the Commodores big time. I mean, we saw special teams make a play, we saw the defense getting off the field on third downs. We saw the offense really roll with some creative play calling and then got to the point where you could put some of the younger guys in. And we saw Lenore Sellers. So you really got everything. If you had your Gamecock football bingo card, you really ticked off a lot of these boxes here. Was really exciting to see. And it's exactly what you hoped for going into this game, where the team is able to continue this momentum to get that second win in a row, but also did so very convincingly. Right, talked about that before the game, like, all right, you got that first win in November, you sort of got that monkey off your back. Now can you do it again? But do it with room to spare and boy, did they. So right now, this team is riding really as high as you kind of could be given the circumstances as you go into these next two opponents in November, which of course are, let's just be honest here, they are higher caliber opponents than Vanderbilt and Jacksonville State. So to have all the momentum and to have that confidence going into those two is exactly what you needed. You didn't want to be limping into this next two games.
[00:09:50] So let me dive into what I liked and didn't like from around this game here. Overall for the team, I really liked seeing this full game of complementary football. I mean, all three phases had big contributions and the team put together a full game of doing so.
[00:10:10] And when you, you know, it's, you don't want to look back, right? But last year that was a calling card for this team multiple times last season where you played complementary football for long stretches of period. We just haven't seen that this season. And it definitely showed on the scoreboard Saturday as the team was able to do so. Also, just a special shout out for Boogie Huntley. My man absolutely loved that. He had a hell of a day catching the touchdown. Nice tackle for loss, recovered the bad snap. Great day for Boogie. He's been working hard. He has developed into a very solid player and was absolutely so happy to see him have that big day and showing out for the Gamecock faithful there. Now what I didn't like from sort of an overall standpoint was once again being the most penalized team.
[00:11:08] You got to clean that up. That's just not going to get it done right. You need to play disciplined football. You're not going to be able to just simply be more athletic than Kentucky or Clemson. Kind of like you were able to get away with against Vanderbilt. Jacksonville State now on the defensive side of the ball here, what I liked was only given up six points.
[00:11:33] I mean, how refreshing is know we still can talk all day about defensive staff and things like that, right? But the point remains like, that is a nice showing and it was much needed for the fans, for that staff, for the players. It took Vanderbilt four quarters to put points on the board. Prior to that, the defense was looking sharp. I felt the tackling looked better than it was two games ago. Was it perfect? No, but it was better. Bam. Martin Scott had a huge sack and a creative play call too. Early downs, sending the blitz and it worked out. I felt like the guys in the secondary were very active and really Vandy was just not able to get into a rhythm and I really liked also how the defense adjusted to the quarterback changes that Vanderbilt threw out there. I mean, that's a wrinkle that Vandy sort of has to do based off of personnel and things like that. That can screw with a lot of teams. That can be tricky. But they made that change. And the Gamecocks were well coached and well versed into what they like to do with that specific quarterback. And they were able really to not let that hurt us all too much.
[00:12:49] I also liked the third down defense, much improved compared to what we saw the game prior. Vandy went six for 16 on third down. But also South Carolina was able to hold Vandy to zero for two on fourth downs, which was huge. I mean, when Vandy had the ball with great field position after the rattler interception, that was a big moment for the Gamecocks to stand tall on fourth down. And they did so to keep Vanderbilt from threatening to score. That was a big moment in the game. And that's complementary football. Offense makes a mistake, defense stands up and bails you out from it. That's what we're talking about here. You don't have to be perfect, right? But when you need it, when you're called upon, do you answer the call?
[00:13:42] Really, for the most part, like 95% of the time I felt like this defense did this game.
[00:13:48] Now, what I didn't like from the defense, I touched on this already, but there were a couple of bad pre snap penalties on this side of the ball that stand out. That needs to be worked on going into the Kentucky game. Because again, you can't be the most penalized team, especially at home. And when it's these offsides, penalties, guys on the interior line that really shouldn't happen, you are playing very close to the ball. That needs to get worked on. But I mean, overall from the defense, it was a very solid day. I mean, really, how can you be upset? There's not much to be upset about when you only give up six points. I thought the guys looked well. They did. Their job was the best showing we've seen this year. It was now on the offensive side of the ball here, what I liked, I loved Xavier Leguette putting himself into the record books. Shout out Xavier LeGuette. I mean, wow. With his performance Saturday, he becomes only the fifth receiver in the history of University of South Carolina football to have a 1000 yard reception season. Absolutely. Hats off to X. He is now forever in the record books at South Carolina. I'm so happy for him. He went nine catches for 120 yards. And he looked like he barely broke a sweat. Absolute workhorse, absolute special season for him, and it's really, really cool to see.
[00:15:20] I also liked the short and medium crossing routes this game. Yeah, we're getting a little technical here. Dabel Loggins called a few of these and he knew just when to do it because most of the time they went for big gains. Josh Simon had a huge clutch catch and run for one of these routes. He also had a very nice day himself. DJ Braswell had a nice great, rather catch and run from a short out route as well. It seemed like Loggins knew he would get more favorable matchups going across the field, and he took advantage of that. And I think he knew that he had to sort of mix up the play calling and get the ball out of Spencer's hands quickly at times. And he called them really in the medium to long distances where maybe you'd think Spencer would want to drop back and throw it deep to Leguette or harbor or someone do a crossing route six yards over the middle to Josh Simon. Let him do the rest. He'll get you 1012 plus. And that was really nice to see Josh Simon, these last two games really emerging. And with Trey Knox waiting on the wings to come back, this duo could really be dangerous in these last two games because now he has more chemistry with Spencer. Davalogen sees what Josh brings in those game situations. I think it's coming just at the perfect time.
[00:16:52] Also, you gotta love Mario Anderson. I mean, that huge touchdown run like that is just a highlight play for this entire season for the Gamecocks, just exemplified his style, right? Always moving, refusing to go down, tough nose breaks, the big run for a huge touchdown.
[00:17:13] I mean, outside of that big run, his numbers really weren't eye popping. Like, I'm not going to be a Debbie Downer and subtract that big run from the total because you don't know what he would have done on that drive and things like that. But the thing is, he's had a tendency to do this where he'll break a big run. So if that trend continues, we absolutely need him to show up next weekend, right? Like, be a grinder, get the hard yards, convert for us, average at three, four yards a run. Right? Gritty. But then being able to pop one for 40 plus, that can be a difference maker in this run game here.
[00:17:57] Now, what I didn't like from the offensive side here was there were a number of drops from the wide receivers. Yes, I understand that the elements were at play. You could see it affecting both teams. But even so, you don't like to see that, especially when some of these really should have been routine catches, like hitting guys right in the hands, right where you want it. Got to find a way to bring those in.
[00:18:25] But kind of like the defense. There's really not too much to complain about from the offensive side because this was definitely a feel good game. I mean, you loved seeing Lenore Sellers get in, bring the electricity once again with that huge run. And really, again, not too much to say bad about the side of the ball here. There was a sad piece of news coming out of this game in that Juju McDowell is done for the year. He broke his collarbone. I feel awful for him. Like, that just stinks. It was super early in the game. Looked like a routine play, got up. That was. It really, really sucks. So, hopefully, it's a speedy recovery for Juju.
[00:19:08] He works hard. He deserves nothing but the best. So well wishes to him.
[00:19:14] But, yeah, I mean, overall, for this game, this is really just what the doctor ordered, y'all. I mean, the Gamecocks are able to keep the momentum going with their second win in a row. They looked much better doing so. And you kind of feel like this is just what you needed, right?
[00:19:30] There was every reason in the world for South Carolina to play down to Vanderbilt this week, right?
[00:19:39] Tough season. Vandy's played some opponents. Tough, crappy weather. I mean, there were a good amount of fans in the stadium, but far from a sellout, right? There was every reason in the world to just kind of come out sluggish and let Vandy play it close and maybe see what happens, right? This team did the opposite. South Carolina was the better team, and they proved it and then some. And that's exactly what you have to do, especially when you're trying to rally the troops and instill confidence in the locker room.
[00:20:14] Now, there is definitely more of a belief going on than there was a month ago. So very excited to see. And now you sit here and step two of the November to remember is complete.
[00:20:27] The gamecocks are now four and six. Next game is Kentucky at home at night. Kentucky just coming off a pretty tough game. They didn't look great against Alabama. So now we wait and see if Williams Bryce can once again prove to be a huge advantage and can this team continue the confidence and can they continue some of these strides they're making these last two games at home, right? Showing us that they can win when it's close, when they can make plays when they have to, but then also that they can improve week over week, third down defense, tackling that they have other weapons. Josh Simon, Amarian Brown, Mario Anderson, DJ Braswell. Seeing a couple of these other guys emerge right, hopefully the offensive line continues to gel. Hopefully it's not raining buckets against Kentucky. That's going to be a tough, hard fought, physical game. But now you're looking at a team that has a little bit of momentum, has a little bit of confidence, more belief in itself.
[00:21:38] This is just what you were hoping for when you looked at the schedule and you saw the two games that were before Kentucky and Clemson. You said, well, I certainly hope that we can get it done against those two. You did. And then you probably said, well, I certainly hope that we can beat the crap out of them so we can feel good going into that. Wasn't really the case against Jacksonville State, but I think that was a little bit of a wake up for this group. Now look at what they did. They have to stay home.
[00:22:07] Hopefully on the injury front, hopefully maybe you get a couple guys back right? Need to carry on Joyner, big time. But if not, who's going to step up?
[00:22:18] It's going to be very exciting to see. I cannot wait for next Saturday. This team needs to keep it up and hopefully they are hitting their stride at the right time. But with that, y'all, 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.
