Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks Football under the lights. I preview the Towson game and men's soccer continues their hot streak. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:56] Welcome to episode four, 404 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And we're just so back. Like the. The vibes have been high in Gamecock country. You know, I was thinking about it that the temperature was hot. The vibes have stayed just as high since last Saturday. And it's just fantastic to see the excitement and energy around our fan base. Not just about football, too. There's a lot of other good things going on right now that I'm going to touch on in a second here. But I mean, it really is a great time to be a Gamecock. And we have some fantastic matchups this weekend outside of our own. And you got the NFL back. I mean, Australia game. Like a Wednesday game. Like what's going on here? It's like, oh, so back football overload. So, so great to be part of it. But. All right, let's jump into it here. Now, before I do, I have a fun announcement here. You'll have to excuse me if I brought this up already. My mind has just been mushed the last couple of days, but I mentioned it on social media. I am going to be a contributor for GarnetandCocky.com this football season.
[00:02:17] They are part of fan sided. So very excited to be doing that. Being able to express my thoughts and takes on Gamecock football in a different medium. Writing has always interested me. So check it out. It's garnet and cocky.com I'll be posting all of my articles, but it's not just me. There's a whole team doing Garnet and Cocky and there's a whole team at fan sided as well. Just bringing you fan driven content with unique takes and everything like that. So make sure to check it out.
[00:02:45] But. All right, talking about a week in review here from around Gamecock Athletics. Starting Monday, men's soccer beat high point in a ranked matchup to nothing. Men's soccer, I mean both soccer teams right now, but men's soccer. Like they are having a fantastic start to their season. Especially when we talk about that's a team that's been real up and down and they have really struggled to find their footing at times. So very, very exciting to see those guys start hot and stay hot.
[00:03:15] On Tuesday, women's volleyball lost to Cal 3 to 1.
[00:03:21] And Wednesday women's golf finished fifth in the Anika Intercollegiate. Sticking with the soccer train here, Women's soccer is playing Florida as I am recording this. So as we do whenever that happens, we're sending good vibes over the airwaves to the ladies.
[00:03:38] But all right, changing our focus to the gridiron to Willie B. Here. Carolina is back back in action at under the Lights for the first time this year as the team is taking on Tauzin. And I'm sure that anyone who was at that game last week is going to be very, very grateful that they'll be under the lights in the cooler temperature and setting for this one here. And it's just great to see all the excitement that's around the night game here. The school announced a sellout as well. Again, not a surprise when they announced these things. The fan base is just so awesome and so incredibly supportive. But again, like this energy around the program, like it doesn't matter that it's Towson like and the fans are not looking ahead to next weekend where it's a home game as well.
[00:04:28] It's first night game of Willy B. It doesn't matter who we're playing. We're going to go out there, we're going to be in full force. The light show is going to be incredible and it's just going to be a fantastic night. The Gamecocks are sitting currently at 43 point favorites as the team is looking to start the season two and oh and it's a crazy thought that we could be two and oh and be halfway to last year's win total. Isn't that crazy to think that we could get to that point and it's the second game and then further, I quickly saw it on social media. I wish I jotted it down here, but when was the last time we started two and oh, when? There was the caveat though, it was starting 2:0 with two shutouts because that is potentially on the table here. But Nonetheless, starting out 20 puts you in such a great position to do a lot of things that you want to do later in the year here. But it's just points to the potential and the excitement that I keep going back to where last year is officially in the rear view mirror. And as much as I don't want to talk about last year, I'll probably just reference these things throughout the first couple of games here. But it's a whole new ball game now. I mean, last week it felt like we were watching a different sport at times compared to what we had to Bear witness to last year. So again, to talk about getting to 2, 0, potentially halfway to your win total last year, it just speaks to that. Everything is still on the table for this group. And of course, you have to continue to get better. You have to grow into yourself. We can't put the cart before the horse after these first two games, right? Especially when you have the gauntlet still to come in your schedule. But nonetheless, it's a good feeling.
[00:06:30] So what are the Gamecocks looking at in Towson here? The Tigers are currently 0 and 2, losing to Maine in their opener and then getting absolutely stomped by Navy last week. Navy threw the ball, no surprise here, just six times and they beat Towson considerably, 42 to 15. So this is a team that is maybe reeling early in this season here, and hopefully the Gamecocks can take advantage of that. But when you listen to the press conferences from our coaching staff, they have a. A lot of respect for this Towson staff. I mean, you're never going to have our coaches go up there and say, yeah, we got this, no problem. Like, you're always going to show respect. But their head coach at Towson has been a head coach for quite some time. I think he's been in this game a couple decades at this point and has been touted as a program builder. So a guy that is good at instilling a culture and getting guys to buy in all that jazz. So again, it's still a situation where you know you have to take your opponent seriously. But like, when you look at the schedule for the South Carolina, like, we can call this game what it is. It's the second of two Cupgate games to start the year to get all the momentum on your side before you enter SEC play.
[00:07:52] Again, just like the first game, you have to take it seriously. But this game offers a chance to continue to get quality reps and develop some of those depth pieces that will pay dividends later this year.
[00:08:06] So with that being said, what are my crows to the game here again, for any new listeners here, everyone does keys to the game. We have our rooster Crow. So I do Crows to the game overall for the team. Settle in right away.
[00:08:20] Nolan Hay, in his press conference this week, attributed the wonky start on offense where you had that penalty and they gave up the sack. He attributed to being a little juiced up early. And I think you may have seen that on both sides of the ball. There's going to be a lot of excitement in this game at night. There's going to be a lot of Adrenaline in the crowd, on the sidelines and everything like that. But let me tell you all something. This won't be the last night game at Williams Bryce this year and in terms of like magnitude, I guess would be the word of games.
[00:08:57] This is like towards the bottom of what South Carolina is going to face this year. So use this game as a litmus test for controlling that adrenaline throughout the day and being able to settle into the game early because you don't want to be putting yourself behind the sticks or making any silly mistakes when we're talking about the big later games against big time SEC opponents.
[00:09:23] Defense, my first crow to the game, continued to find production and development off the edge.
[00:09:31] This is another great opportunity for the likes of Anthony Addison, Julian Walker, maybe a George Wilson to get good reps. While we are still waiting, the return of Dylan Stewart, who by the way, maybe seems to be progressing very well when you see Clayton White's press conference. But it was great to see that last week and I want to see more of that. So if you can get home and disrupt the quarterback again, we're talking about quality reps, building development, building confidence, especially in a group that when you look at it on paper could be a little thin. So if you get an Anthony Addison to continue to progress. Julian Walker played great in his first game.
[00:10:16] If he could find a sack in this one, that's a huge confidence boost for him.
[00:10:21] And that way when Stewie does come back and the rotations are a little different, these guys have that confidence to be able to step in and get after it.
[00:10:31] My second crow on defense here is generate a turnover in the first half.
[00:10:36] So this was interesting because you loved seeing getting that turnover last week shout out Kosi Barnes.
[00:10:44] But it felt like we could have gotten some more, right? Like it felt like there was some meat on the bone, you know, And Clayton White kind of alluded to this, that Kent State did a really good job of getting the ball out early and you know, we weren't able to disrupt them as much as we would have liked, etc.
[00:10:59] I'd love to see this first unit really feast because this is going to be a game in all likelihood where the starters are pulled at some point in the game, right? We are going to see the reserves playing the fourth quarter, maybe even into that third, right?
[00:11:20] If that first unit, if the ones and twos can generate a turnover in the first half early and put our offense in a really strong position or even create some points themselves. It goes back to this theme of creating momentum boosted Development and everything like that.
[00:11:40] I'd love to see, you know, Kilgore Judge, you know, Peyton Williams, one of these guys in the backfield, get a pick.
[00:11:49] I'd love to see a linebacker create a fumble, right? Doing these things that have been a calling card for Clayton White's defense and doing them early and often in the year to build that habit and to really get that momentum on your side.
[00:12:06] Moving over to the offense here. My first crow to the game is continue to play disciplined.
[00:12:12] It was three penalties total in the whole game last. I almost said last year last week and it. But it was just two offensive penalties and one of them was that first drive. Guys are a little juiced up and things like that.
[00:12:27] That shows you that this group on the offense, I mean both sides really, but we're talking offense, can play sound, disciplined football. It didn't matter who we were playing last year. That group was making mistakes left and right. So the fact that these guys can come out there and have just two penalties, I believe both were false starts. That one by Mazio, he was all out of sorts because he just dropped the touchdown pass, etc.
[00:12:55] So it proves that you can have that standard.
[00:13:00] Now the key is making sure that that's not a fluke because for this offense to operate at their best, they need to stay ahead of the chains. For this team to operate at their best, they can't be penalized as much as they were last year by a long shot.
[00:13:16] So make it a habit to have strong communication and to play disciplined.
[00:13:23] One game great, two games even better. Now we're talking about this maybe being the true standard and again bringing that into the teeth of your schedule.
[00:13:36] Second crow, keep up the running back rotation. I mean, if last week was any indication, Matt Fuller is a stud at running back. He's your RB1, but the depth of this room is no joke.
[00:13:51] And so I would love to see guys continuing to get touches distributed right, like Matt Fuller is going to get the lion's share in that first half. Do we see Christian Clark backing him up? Is it August? Dave? Did Coleman earn himself more reps? Right, you got four or five guys in that group who can perform well and I think it's imperative for this coaching staff to continue to mix up the looks and get these guys touches as much as they can again, because A, you want to instill that confidence and you want to get those live reps for all those guys because you never know when someone's going to be needed later in the year. But also I I like to think that seeing how they perform, quite literally under the lights against competition that, you know, players you haven't seen and everything like that, I think it would give these coaches a better idea, maybe a clearer understanding of how best to utilize some of these guys. Right. I mean, we've seen the explosiveness from Coleman.
[00:15:00] Maybe something like that earns him more reps. You know, we've seen how hard Howell can run.
[00:15:06] Has he taken that next step? Is his ball security there?
[00:15:10] So these are the games where you want to be able to see that. So let's keep up the rotation in the running back room and then third crow to the game, get Nitro Tuggle involved. I think he only had one catch in the game. Lenores tried to get him in that end zone. It was a contested catch. He went for him. This was the big pickup in the portal. And he can be a solid contributor. He can be a legitimate wide receiver too, for this team.
[00:15:38] It's fantastic that we have the likes of Adonov and Murph maybe emerging. We have Mazio, of course. You got harbor, you got to have someone else. Nitro Toggle was built to be that guy. This is the perfect game to see some chemistry building between Lenores and him.
[00:15:55] So overall, for the game, it is exactly what I said earlier. It's the second of two cupcake games and the Gamecocks have to take advantage.
[00:16:05] I'd love to see what we could do from the kicking game. I almost put that in the Crows to the game. But if it's another scenario where the offense is finding the end zone more times than not, that's absolutely fine by me. One, because that is momentum and confidence for this unit heading into next week.
[00:16:22] And two, it's funny because as great as the team looked last week, this is still a brand new system that these guys are getting used to. So if we see things clicking a second week in a row, that's good signs.
[00:16:40] So let's continue to harp on strong communication and discipline on both sides of the ball. Let's play a good, clean game and put the game in a place where we can bring in reserves to get much needed reps in that second half. So sit back, try to relax, lock in. Let's go, Cox.
[00:16:58] Absolutely. Should be a fun one, but. All right, let me give you all my six pack of picks and then I will get y' all out of here. Interesting slate this week. Definitely a little better than last couple. Really nice, nice games. Kind of peppered throughout the day. Still got a few wonky matchups before we get into conference play across the board here in the ACC.
[00:17:18] Give me Illinois minus five and a half versus Duke. Big 12. I have two picks here.
[00:17:25] UT, Martin at West Virginia give me over 55 and a half. And then Utah minus 12 and a half versus Arkansas. Arkansas is going out to Utah for this game. Very interesting. Just feels like one where that's going to be a tough, tough adjustment there in the Big Ten. Give me Mississippi State plus one and a half versus Minnesota. That is a sneaky game to watch for us South Carolina fans. We got Mississippi State next week.
[00:17:51] They are going on the road to Minnesota. I don't think Minnesota is necessarily a playoff team, but that's a power four team.
[00:17:59] You're on the road. How do they handle that?
[00:18:02] That's going to give us a lot of, a lot of, you know, some indication of what we can expect next week in the SEC.
[00:18:10] Oklahoma -5 and a half versus Michigan. Michigan quickly jumping to maybe 1B on the villain boards in college football currently. I think they're bad. Oklahoma, they're rolling. And in the G5, Fordham versus Coastal over 52 and a half because why not with that, y'? All. That wraps up this episode. 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.
