Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, football sends the seniors out, right? Men's basketball prepares for a couple of big games, and women's basketball takes their first loss. All right, here we go.
[00:00:56] Okay. Welcome to episode 277 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope y'all had a great weekend out there. Gamecock nation. A lot of sports going on. Absolute chaos in college football. Wow. I mean, my goodness. For a lover of the sport, this is just why we love it. It is so, so cool.
[00:01:30] This season of college football has really been unlike any I feel like that we've had in Certainly the last five years, maybe even like 10 plus years, where it seems like every weekend there is just a big upset and there isn't that team that you just feel so incredibly sure about. Like, maybe that's Oregon, but, you know, they've had a close game or two here, but, like, whoo, sheesh. This was a weekend that I was glad to be able to kind of put my hands up and say, like, wow, like, y'all enjoy, because we certainly did. I'll talk about that in a little bit here. But yes, hope y'all had a great weekend out there and are gearing up for Thanksgiving.
[00:02:12] Absolutely fantastic time of year. Football, food, friends, family, fun, whatever it is, however you celebrate.
[00:02:20] Time to be thankful, but. All right, let's jump into things here. Quick weekend recap for y'all here. Starting on Friday, women's Volleyball beat Alabama 3 nothing. And then women's soccer, they lost to Minnesota 2 to 1 in the NCAA tournament, thus ending their season. It was a great season for the ladies. Unfortunately, we do have to see it come to an end. But great run in the SEC championship tournament. Nice little run here in the NCAA tournament to get to that next round there. And all told, just a really, really good season for them. So hats off to women's soccer. And then on Sunday, women's volleyball, they lost to Tennessee 3 nothing. So sort of a mixed bag on that front there.
[00:03:08] Now, looking at men's basketball here, a little preview as we look towards a big couple of games early on in this week here. The guys take on Xavier Monday night as part of the Fort Myers tip off. You know, there's always these, I guess, mini tournaments, if you want to call it that, but just like, tip off challenges and things like that. Pretty common this part of the year. So it's us, Xavier, and I believe it's Michigan And Virginia Tech. So guys will take on Xavier Monday night. Xavier right now is 5, 0 on the year. They are a well coached team. That's a basketball school. So another early season challenge for the Gamecocks. And you know, I was thinking about it and just it's early in the year, so you don't want to make too many assumptions or hard observations, I guess would be the word. But the Gamecocks in this matchup here and in whatever one they have after that, they need to dig deep defensively. I think so far this year that feels like the drop off from last year where the Gamecocks seem to be scoring with more ease. It seems to be, you know, having some higher score matchups, but they've also given up plenty of points and more than we would have liked to see. So got to tighten things up on the defensive front. Would love to see that start here. This event is a great resume booster. I mean, if you can get past Xavier, that's fantastic. Then depending on the results though, regardless with Xavier, you'll either play Virginia Tech or Michigan. So you certainly want to walk out of here with at least one win from the Fort Myers tip off. Very prestigious. So let's see how it goes. Great chance for the Gamecocks again to get a nice early season resume builder. And like, we need that. You know, it's been a rocky start to this season, so if you can go out there and get yourself a nice win or two in this, that could go a long, long way. But then sticking to the hardwood here, women's basketball, the ladies took on UCLA Sunday afternoon in la and they actually caught their first loss. I believe that brings the streak to an end of 43 wins in a row. Just a remarkable, incredible achievement that Don Staley and everyone involved in that time was able to do. Right? But all good things must come to an end. The ladies lost 77 to 62. And also, you know, kind of like the men here, like the ladies, despite this being their first loss in the year, it feels like they've had a little bit of a different start where maybe they're not dominating teams quite like they used to. They've gotten off to slow starts in games. They've had some, you know, some would say sloppy or maybe undisciplined, excuse me, play here. And I think this is a good reset. You know, it's not a brand new team, but UCLA is a good opponent that you can say, all right, well, this is a team that we're going to be, you know, going up against teams like this later in the year. And then, you know, obviously they're not in the sec. But when we get to conference play, it's going to be good, well recruited and well coached teams just like ucla. And so this kind of brings everybody back down to earth a little bit. Maybe there was a little bit of pressure with this streak and defending national champions. So I think this is an okay thing.
[00:06:39] You're allowed to lose a couple in basketball. Don will use this as a teaching and coaching moment. And I think the team just has to continue to gel. They have to find their new identity even with still having a ton of people and players from last year. But, you know, I think we'll be okay. You know, we got it, we got to grow, we got to, we got to play a little smarter, we got to play a little more disciplined. And yeah, so unfortunately took the L there, but a team that did not take the L was our football team. Guys were in action Saturday afternoon into the evening. It was senior day at Willie B. Again, just huge, huge ups to that senior class. The guys ended up rolling in this one, beating Wofford 56 to 12. That's a 50 burger. A 50 burger to send out the seniors. That is the way to do it, right? I was commenting and tweeting all day Saturday like let's send these seniors out the right way. And boy did they. This game ended the way that you wanted to, but I don't think it started the way that you would have wanted to. Certainly not. It was a tough start with the game with Wofford having that explosive play right out the gate, getting some points and then creating that turnover right away. So a little bit of a rocky start, just seven to three after that first quarter. But then it really did look like after that Carolina settled in, went up in the half 21 to nine and that was a really, really good two minute style drive to end the half there. And then really from there the Gamecocks just did not look back.
[00:08:21] Definitely came away with some coachable moments from this one. You know, there were some silly penalties, self inflicted wounds like things that need to continue to be worked on. We've seen that be improved during this winning streak that the Gamecocks are on. But I think this serves as a reminder, like look, you still have to have that edge and have that discipline in all facets of the game. Like whether it's a roughing the passer call that negates a pick six again or it's an ineligible man downfield, like we need to be on the same page with these things. And especially as we talk about going into a massive game next week. And I don't know, I think maybe with this game, you know, these guys are human beings, college student athletes. There was a lot of emotions. It's Senior Day. You are playing Wofford. Like maybe subconsciously there was maybe not as locked in as you were against say an A and M or a Mizzou. Right?
[00:09:28] You don't want to see that. And I certainly think Shane Beamer will use that as again, a coachable moment. And it says, hey, look, we have to be our best version of ourselves going into next week. And once we did settle down, the results were there. We rolled, right? We put up 50, 56. So just don't let teams catch a napping in that first few minutes there in that first quarter because once we do settle in, it can be really dangerous here. But this game was a great showing from the team. Like, all things considered, when it was all said and done and I thought it was really cool, like whether it was by design or just fate, I felt like you had a lot of seniors having moments in that game. Boogie Huntley had a sack. Luke Doty got in on the action, had a couple of receptions. Juju had a nice return. You know, you just saw those guys have those moments and that's what you want in Senior Day. Debo, with that breakup of the two point conversion, great snag with the ball there, but my goodness. But nonetheless, here, all told, was a good showing from the team, having those seniors go out right way. Lenorris was able to shrug off a slow start, Ended up with a masterful performance. 23 of 27. Only four incompletes. Granted, there was the pick, right? But 23 to 27, 307 yards and three touchdowns. I think it almost felt like they wanted him to get 300 yards because as soon as he had that play, boom, that they took him out. 68 yards on the ground as well. I love the seeing harbor and Campbell continue to have big games like, you look at these guys and maybe they are peaking at the right time, right? Two massive targets for the Gamecocks. Like, I mean, literally and figuratively. Two of the taller receivers that we have coming on late. They had nice performances in the Missouri game, nice performance against Wofford. And that's something that it's kind of been by committee, you know, at this point for the wide receivers for this year's team. Like, you've had Mazio have his moments. He's kind of settled down a little bit, though. Jared Brown has been battling some injuries. Gage Larva Dane has had a couple of nice grabs. Maybe not consistent. So when you look at a guy like harbor, who we all know had the physical ability, but maybe now that football IQ and knowing how to play the position, it's all starting to come to him. And he scored a couple of touchdowns in the last few games. So it's something that you really love to see and something that us fans have been wanting to see for so long. So that was great. And then Dale Von Campbell, you know, he was a guy that came in and I was excited about. He brought some size. He's a senior, I want to say, so. Played a lot of college football, and he has that size and he has those skills, but he was quiet. You know, it was maybe a little buried in the depth chart. Maybe a product of this team relying a little bit more on the run than maybe they anticipated earlier in the year. But you look at what he did when his number was called against Missouri, and then you saw it again here, a couple of massive plays, like he provided those explosive plays that you look for. And it was great to see. So something to keep an eye out on and something to really be excited for, like, going forward for not just next week, but when we talk about a guy like Nick harbor, like, we're in that time of year where it's like you're kind of starting to think, like, what's the off season look like? What does next year's team look like? It's crazy to think of, but harbor is a guy that has been slowly but surely developing. And so shout out to every coach. Shout out Coach Mike Furry, like they have done some fantastic things. And shout out to Nick harbor, like, putting in the work. You're hearing all the great things about him that he puts in the time and everything needed to improve at that position. Defensively, the guys took a couple of early bumps in this game, but locked things down. I think it was huge that they kept Wofford to three points in their opening possession after that explosive play, was able to lock things down there. Kyle Kennard, man, beast, just marching toward Clowney's sack record with just two to go. Putting up two fingers in the air after he got that sack. He knows what's on. He knows what's on the table. He knows what's at stake. It's funny. And that's motivation for a guy like that, you know, like at Georgia Tech, his numbers were good. He's having a fantastic senior season and has gotten so much done in his short time here at South Carolina and has developed so well. Shout out coach Sterling Lucas, Coach Robertson, everybody on that defensive staff has done a fantastic job with Kyle Kennard. And again, you know, I'm talking about these senior moments in the game. Kyle Canard has been here, you know, for a cup of coffee compared to a guy like Kai Kroger or Debo Williams, right. But he's made an impact. And that's what this is so special about this senior class, is that it's a really cool mix where a lot of the guys have been here for three or four years, but they've made such impacts. But you have these couple of other playmakers who decided to join up at South Carolina and are now part of this senior class that is bringing the best season by a landslide of the Shane Beamer era, but the best season we've had in seven years, the most enjoyable one since Spurrier, I'd say. So it's a fantastic group. You loved seeing that. And again, a guy like Boogie Huntley, too, getting a sack on Senior Day, just all the things you like to see. And that's just really the story for this game, right? It went about as well as you'd like. The team got out of the game pretty healthy as well. I think it was just Vandravious, who was a little banged up, but I haven't seen anything too, too damning of a report yet. But there are guys who were banged up and didn't play in this game that hopefully you can get back to 100% for next week. And I talked about it going into this game where, you know, all due respect to Wofford, you know, they played hard. They have a. They had a good year, right? But this was a game that if you didn't feel 100% about someone, you didn't need to push it. You know, like. And Beamer talked about it where that was a reason why I think we saw Luke Doty a little bit more involved was because we were pretty thin at the tight end position. So you have a guy like Michael Smith and Josh Simon who didn't play, right? So Luke Doty is able to fit in that role, and I think he did so fine. You know, like, would have liked maybe a little bit more of explosive player two from him, but that's a guy that you trust. He's played a lot of football. He knows the playbook, he knows his job and how to do it. So it was really cool to see that as well. And yeah, I mean, despite a slow start and some self inflicted mistakes, the team ended up getting into a groove, settling in and really just imposing their will at the end of it. And that's doing what you're supposed to do against an opponent like that in this week. You know, when you play the lesser team before Clemson, like I had a professor who joked about it at usc, but it's like, it's like the sacrificial lamb of the season. It's just like, get in there, bully ball, get your backups in pretty much for the whole fourth. That was the case. Was great seeing Robbie Ashford get out there. Loved seeing Bradley Dunn get some action in the fantastic score. You saw the whole team celebrating with him. A guy like Jarn Howell getting some couple of big runs there. So that was nice. And you did exactly what you're supposed to do. GameCocks are now 16th in the AP poll again, thanks to that absolute chaos that happened this past weekend around college football. And you would think it would stand to reason that the Gamecocks should rise in the College Football Playoff rankings. And now I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's like the narrow path that South Carolina had to the playoff going into this past weekend, it has gotten noticeably wider.
[00:18:01] And there is a realm of possibility that with a win over Clemson, we are very much in that conversation. Like, it's not just this magical scenario now you have to go and win and you have to put on a good display and maybe get a little help. But that win against Oklahoma looks fantastic.
[00:18:25] That win against Kentucky because of what they did to Ole Miss is important. The win against Mizzou is important because they played well, you know, despite playing, you know, Mississippi State. But we just got to await the rankings and see where we are. But the Gamecocks are in a very, very cool position, thanks in part to the effort that they put on last Saturday. So, yeah, overall was a great night to be a Gamecock, and we sent the seniors out in a fantastic way. So shout out to the whole team.
[00:18:55] Rivalry week is officially here. Clemson Hate Week is officially here. No orange. No orange juice. Nothing. Absolutely nothing orange around me. I hope you guys are doing the same here. 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.
