Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: 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.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: All right, here we go.
It.
Welcome to Episode 191 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 I don't know, maybe we're really just living in a world of like Groundhog Day.
It's just the same thing week after week after week, where you go into the weekend excited, full of joy, happiness, enthusiasm. Then game goes sideways and we're here listening, recording, talking about the gamecocks, and we're all sad again. It has been a struggle bus for us gamecock fans for the last few weeks, but you know what? We're still in it together. We're still gamecocks. We still love.
You know, the only way out is through. That's what I got to believe here.
I got to believe that. But I hope you all had a lovely weekend out there. Aside from Saturday afternoon, I was out celebrating a wedding. So if I have a little raspy voice, it's because I was singing along with the band and stuff, keeping the party alive, keeping it going, but nevertheless, here, got a fun episode for y'all here. I will break down the A M game, but before I do, got a lot of sports to cover from around USC athletics. Starting on Friday here, we had men's soccer beating Coastal four to three. I think it was a last minute goal that got them the W, so that is very exciting. Women's volleyball on Friday unfortunately took the loss to Arkansas three to one.
Equestrian. That's right, we give everybody shout outs here. They unfortunately lost to Auburn 14 to four. And then on Sunday here, you had women's volleyball unfortunately take the loss to LSU to three. So sort of a mixed bag from around the athletic department there. But it was really exciting to see the men's soccer team get that W, especially against an in state foe.
And with that being said, let me turn my attention to our football program gamecocks going to College Station and getting a loss to A and M by the score of 30 to 17. And it's just again, like, here we are yet again talking about another in conference loss in a game where really, when you look at it, maybe when you take a step back here, it was when the gamecocks were like fully in.
This could have been a game and maybe even a small turning point for the season if the gamecocks were able to get this together and win one, steal one on the road. But nevertheless that is not the case as the gamecocks do end up on the wrong side of this and you end what was a very rough stretch, I mean a very rough October I should say. We're still sort of in the middle of this stretch here but you're in October you had your bye week earlier in the month. You went three for the month of October 2 tough road games thrown in the mix there and you dropped the one against Florida at home and now you're looking at a scenario where you're two and six and you have the whole month of November at home. So for the remaining four games left on the season we are at home where in college typically teams play better. When you look at the splits of the Shane Beamer era he is much much better at Williams Bryce not invincible but much much better. And I know a few weeks ago I said I wasn't going to know past this game. We're going to take each one at face value. Well now we're done with October and the reality is here where you're two and six and if you want to make a bowl game the path is as clear as day. You got to win all four games in November.
Can you sweep the month of November at home and go six and six and salvage a year which otherwise has gone very sideways.
So I don't know. So that's the task at hand for Shane Beamer and this team. Right know you were hoping that you could use this game as a springboard of sorts.
Now there are maybe bits and pieces of this game that you do like but there's one or two bits, maybe more than one or two bits that you don't really like. And so we're here again saying well the team did a couple of nice things but then the team did a couple of bad things and those couple of bad things yet again were bad enough to unfortunately hold down the rest of the team and you end up on the wrong side of this one.
So gamecocks are more than limping into the literal home stretch of the season here, and all we can do is just hope that coming home against a lesser level opponent in Jacksonville State this upcoming Saturday can get the bad taste out of everyone's mouth. And maybe this team can pick up a little bit of momentum in the first game of November. Then maybe you end up on the right side of one the next week and then who knows right?
But so let me look at this game a little bit closer here what I liked, what I didn't like starting with the defense here I liked for the most part the pass that was something that right away in the game, you saw that the team looked like they were getting after it. I mean, Max Johnson was on the ground multiple times this game, and he was hurried even more than that gamecocks, logging only three sacks, but you had seven tackles for loss. Like, they were being more physical than we've seen the last couple of weeks, really. And they were doing a good job of winning their battles at the line of scrimmage.
And they looked solid, I mean, especially right out of the gate, which has been a struggle for this team, where there wasn't this big first quarter where it was all of a sudden you're down multiple scores. It was a competitive, physical first quarter, which South Carolina ended up being on the winning side of having the only score in that quarter. And you liked what you saw out of the gate. And again, no exact rhyme or reason as to why. So I definitely liked that. I liked the second half performance from this defense, really clamping down when they needed to, and the guys just looked to be playing a little bit more crisp, for the most part. On that side of the ball. You can't give a total pass, right, because you gave up 30 points and you gave up some critical points down the stretch at the end. But compared to what we saw against Missouri, and compared to games like maybe Tennessee as well, overall, the unit eye test looked a little bit better. It did. They played a little bit more physical. Now, what I didn't like was the second quarter, particularly the back half of that quarter, like, coming down to close out the half. And this has been a I don't want to say it's a calling card, because that would be really bad, but it has been a pattern for this defense and the team this year where you just can't finish. Whether it's at the end of the game or at the end of the half, you can't finish. You can't close the door on a team, you're up seven nothing, going to the second quarter.
A and M gets the score, they tie the game, okay?
Then they get the second score. You didn't like giving that up. Long drive, extended third down conversions were a problem.
So then you're sitting there and you say, okay, well, we're down 14 to seven. We get the ball to start the half. This isn't the worst thing in the world gamecocks, unfortunately. You give the team, you give the A and M back the ball, and then in the blink of an eye, you give up the score. And all of a sudden, you gave up 21 points in the second quarter, 14 of them incredibly close together, and now you're down the two scores, which is just, again, this pattern that we've seen where it's just all of a sudden, this defense will just give up multiple scores incredibly quickly.
They showed on the replay, on the game sort of the play design that allowed that second score. And it did seem that maybe it was some of the youth that is forced to play on this defense this year. It was a tricky route with a tricky assignment and I think guys got crossed up. But nonetheless, you're sitting here looking at this box score and you see 21 points hung on us in the second quarter, that's it. In the third quarter, three points, in the fourth quarter, six points. So it's just this again scenario where you just haven't seen four complete quarters of good defense. Now, again, I'm not asking for a shutout, but clearly you had the recipe to slow down A and M. You give up 21 points in that quarter. I mean, that's kind of the difference, right? You look at this 30 to 17 score here.
If you didn't give up the 14, that's the game, right?
And even if you gave up 14 to seven, right, you don't give up that third touchdown. If you go down in the half 14 to seven, you're getting the ball back, you get the 314 to ten. Let's say you are in a much different ballgame, right? And guys can tense up, you can stay aggressive.
I don't know, I guess also I liked they generally kept the rushing attack, I mean, they gave up a couple long runs, but they didn't give up these 100 yard days type of deals. So, yeah, with the defense it was this scenario once again where they had these bright moments but the bad just weighed down. The team can't be given up that last score. You just can't, you know, you had what, it was about a minute to go, you get one stop, maybe you get Max Johnson on the ground and they just pack it every there's everything under the sun that you could have done except give up that score. It was a backbreaker, right? It was a backbreaker.
The team was able to hang with a M the rest of the way, right? I mean, you're able to bring it kind of close down the stretch and then you give know some points at the end, but was a tough look, right? Because again, when you step back and you look at it, you say maybe this was a game that you could have had if things go a little differently. And that's just kind of been the case with this team this year. Just a couple of moments that you can really circle and say, well, that's where the game got away from us.
It's unfortunate. It is, because you were hanging here, right? It wasn't the prettiest game, it was not the prettiest game from both sides of the ball. Both sides, both sidelines. But unfortunately you had a Blip that ultimately ended up being the difference, points wise did on the offensive side of the ball here.
What did I like?
Nick harbor. I absolutely loved seeing him. He's your leading receiver with six receptions and was really neat to see him bounce back from that bad drop earlier in the game. Saw him go to the sideline, looked a little down on himself. Shane Beamer picked him up. Spencer rattler encouraged him and what did he do? He responded by having a very fine game. So his emergence and his arrival seems to be upon. Know, we haven't seen this explosive blazing speed just burning a guy quite yet. We've seen the long athletic grabs and things like that. But I think he has really emerged and it's nice to see because Leguette, I don't care really, which way you slice it. I know he played. He was not 100% right. I don't know if it was shaking off effects from maybe getting hit in the head last week or if it was something else nagging him.
He was struggling. Right. So it was nice to see harbor and maybe down the stretch here. Harbor and Leguette can really make for this big, physical, tall, athletic duo to give defenses some fits here. Assuming can get healthy.
Liked, you know, some some consistency from. Know it was a struggle going up against that front seven, but he still put himself together a nice little day and he's RB one. This is well established. Those were a couple of bright spots there. And it was nice to see Josh Simon find the end zone as well. I believe before the game, talked about wanting to see him and Trey Knox in there a bit together. Hope Trey Knox is all right. I hope he can heal up quickly. That hamstring injury looked a little tough there. What I didn't know, for as great as he has been all year, spencer did not have his best game. And I'm not calling out his performance specifically. He hung tough. He was running for his life a lot.
But taking those multiple intentional grounding penalties in the spots that they happened, that was just a tough look. Multiple times. Right. You do once, okay, maybe one little down the line later in the game, okay, maybe it was three pretty close together and it put the team in a really tough spot where multiple times you had to punt it away deep in your own territory and you give a m decent field position. And had you not taken those penalties, you might still punt it away, but maybe you're able to flip the field a little bit more. So the decision making there on Spencer's part I didn't love. Of course he's trying to avoid the sack. Right. That's what he's trying to do. But situational awareness, I understand you're running for your life, but from a experienced guy like him, you would hope to see a little bit better decision making. But again, he was doing what he could. Right. Because something you didn't like else was Spencer running for his life seemingly all day. I know there was yet again, more injuries on the offensive line. Again, I hope everyone is okay and can rest up and heal up quickly.
He sacked four times.
You got ten tackles for loss.
He was running for his life a lot more than four times, though, right? And I think anyone who watched the game could tell you that. So that is just not going to get it done. I understand that. A and M, they really do have one of the best front sevens in the SEC. They are right at the top of sacks, if not the top. So I don't want to say you give it a pass, but it's a tough challenge for an offensive line that has had struggles and a lot of moving pieces and some youth, all of it just check all the boxes with this offensive line that they're struggling with. So it's just definitely what you didn't want to see. So all that combined, you end up again on the wrong side of this thing. And I said it 2 seconds ago, but now the task is clear. The mission is as clear as day. Can you go home in November and rattle off four straight wins to go to a bowl game? We're going to take it one game at a time here. But that's a task, right? That's what this team has to do. And look, I know Shane Beamer, he always talks about taking it one game at a time. He doesn't want to get caught up in what you have to do the next game, the game after that, which that's what coaches and teams are supposed to do, right? But I think at a certain point he might have to sit down the team and say, look, we got to get it together. We got four games left in the season. We got four games at home. Let's defend Williams Bryce, williams Bryce and let's get ourselves into a bowl game. You got two games that you feel okay about, right? I don't think we can say we can feel super great about anything sitting at two and six, but you got two games back to back that you should feel okay about. So come home, get healthy, rest up. Let's continue to progress. Some of these guys, nick harbor, let's get Xavier Leguette healthy. Let's get the line as healthy as we can and let's get ready for Jacksonville State. That's all we can do. Go Cox. Man go gamecocks. South Carolina gamecocks. Because Jacksonville state is also gamecocks. But with that, y'all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, twitter or is cox gamecocks. Instagram is just the name of the show. Cox talking gamecocks. And please, like subscribe or review the podcast. I appreciate all y'all. Go Cox.
