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.
Welcome to episode 190 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 hope you all had a lovely week out there. I hope our collective moods have elevated throughout the week, sort of as they tend to do with football season and things like that. I had a budy text me. He was like, man, you had a depressing ass podcast last episode. Like, yeah, my bad, y'all, my bad. I was depressed when I recorded it. What do you want from me? I'm going to be my genuine self here. I was depressed. It's been a sad couple of weeks, sad couple of weeks. But we're laughing through the pain. We're getting together with our friends, we're having fun, watching football. It doesn't matter because when it's over, yeah, maybe there'll be a little bit of like, okay, but give it a couple of weeks after the season ends, you're going to be begging for a Saturday college football day with a team to root for. It's just the nature of it. So let's enjoy it while we can. So I hope y'all have a fun weekend. Queued up here. I am going to preview this weekend's game for Carolina, but a couple of notes here from the week. I don't have any scores to report from the midweek. Not much going on in the middle of the week this week. Looks like there's a lot of action going on Friday. And whatnot that? I'll report on next episode scores and other teams in action. But the men's basketball team, they were in action. They held their garnet in Black madness. Sort of that preseason kickoff scrimmage where you can go and watch them in colonial life. Looked like a good time. Was really fun to see pretty much the whole team out there. You had a couple of guys who sat out for injury reasons, but everyone's good to go. It was fun to see some of the highlights. Looks like we got a good shooting team or a team that's going to be open to shooting the three, which should be fun. So I was excited to see them in action. I'm looking forward to basketball season for men's and women, I really am. The men have a upcoming exhibition game with Watford right around the corner. And then before you know it, the season tips off. So very excited for Lamont, Paris and all of those guys as they look to improve that program and grow from last year, for sure.
Moving over to football, I got some news for y'all before I jump into this game preview here. Freshman defensive lineman Xavier McLeod is no longer with the team. So you'll remember he was a big get in last recruiting cycle. I think he was a high four star, played in a couple of games this year. And no official reason really given, I mean, there's been rumors online and things like that. But he's no longer with the team. So I don't know if it was a situation where he himself has decided to step away from the game, step away from the program. I don't know if there was a violation of team rules or anything like that. I'm not going to speculate too much, but yeah, no longer with the team. Xavier McLeod. Talented guy. When it rains, it pours in Columbia, but nonetheless, speaking of Columbia, the next game in Williams Bryce kickoff time has been announced, that is against Jacksonville State. And I talked a lot about this in my season preview. That is the only other college football team that also our gamecocks goes by the gamecocks. So it is cockpocalypse, cock, NATO meeting of the cocks, whatever you want to call it. This Jacksonville State game should be a fun one. Set for noon at Willie B. It's going to be a fun one to come home to. And then also from the football team, the team received their first commitment of the 2025 class. That's right. And it came from three star wide receiver Jaden Sellers, who is brother to freshman quarterback Lenori Sellers. So that's fun. Little family connection, keeping it all in the family. And who knows, depending on things shake out, maybe we have a future. Sellers to sellers. Touchdown. That would be awesome. I am a buyer of the Sellers. I'll take those touchdowns all day. Love it. Would love the brother to brother. Touchdown. That rocks. But moving on, not talking 2025, we're talking 2023 gamecocks. And they are taking on the Texas A and M Aggies in College Station at noon eastern. That is 11:00 a.m central. Now, no pun intended here, but for better or worse, I will be at a wedding this weekend and I'm going to be in the wedding. So I have stuff to do earlier in the day and things like that. So it's my burden to bear, like I said, for better or worse here, but not sure if I'm going to get the full game in. I feel pretty confident in the first half, but I'm going to be getting updates and sneaking the stream in whenever I possibly can. So who knows, maybe that's what we needed, right? Maybe it's what my mental health needs, probably. But nonetheless, here the gamecocks. Are traveling to College Station. And I said it once before, I've never been to College Station. I'm sure it's a lovely town. I've heard the people are actually quite nice there. But I picture it like mean, it just, it feels and sounds just so foreign. College Station, Texas I imagine there's just flat nothing forever. And then there's Kyle Field just in the middle of nowhere, plop there's probably like a chevron or something, right? But I would imagine it's kind of trippy to fly out all that way to go to Texas to play in this place that just probably just literally revolves around Kyle Field. So good luck to the guys traveling out there and anyone else in gamecock country. The team is sitting at currently 14, maybe 15 point underdogs depending on where you look and look, there is no denying that the gamecocks are sitting in a tough spot right now. I mean, I don't need to pour salt in the wound here, but the team is two and five, feels like they are perpetually injured at key positions and they are on the second leg of a back to back road game stretch right now.
Now, of course, there is that little bit of light on the horizon, which is being home for the whole month of November. But getting out of this month, October is still a huge, you know, Shane Beamer, he has had teams face adversity and rise up to the occasion in the past, but this just feels like a whole different type of task that he has yet to face, really, in his young tenure as a head coach. And I mean, all of what we've heard from the players, quotes, press conferences, things like that, it has mostly really sounded positive and sharing a belief that this is a good group of talented players in the locker room and they are in it together.
But you do have to naturally wonder about how the psyche of a bunch of college kids is in that locker room going through this tough spot and this rough patch that the team is currently in.
And so that's on Shane Beamer, really, to go in there, keep the vibes up or address it head on, whatever you have to do here to get the most out of his players. Because right now, they're in a tough spot. And while we as fans can say, okay, well, at least we have the four home games coming up, jacksonville State is around the know. Maybe you can sort of, I don't know, whatever. A m, right? Like these players and coaches, they can't look at things like that, you just can't, right? Because if you do and you don't play hard, then you're probably going to get hurt. But you also need to continue to execute well because if things kind of go your way in this game, maybe you do find yourself in a fight, but you also need to stay sharp for that home stretch coming up. I know we're going to be coming home with not the best record any way you slice it, but if you gave it your all against A and M and you feel like you executed well, you feel better about coming home, right? Instead of Man, I got to work on X, Y and Z.
It's tough. Right. So what are the gamecocks looking at in Texas A M? The Aggies are four and three, two and two in conference. They've had kind of a weird year themselves. Yet again. Their quarterback is out for significant amount of time. I think he's out for the year. Maybe there's a chance he comes back, but their backup, excuse me, Max Johnson, he is more than capable. Before Rattler came to South Carolina, Johnson was in the transfer portal and I wanted him to come to South Carolina. He's highly recruited guy. He has the tools, he's more than capable. And when he had to go in, he performed quite well. Now they are coming off two losses, but both were close games against highly ranked teams, tennessee and Alabama. But they had their signature f up, did A M right. Earlier in the year against Miami, they just looked bad.
And that kind of has been a weird calling card of the A M Aggies since Jimbo Fisher has gone there. And it's just still this scenario where Jimbo Fisher has an incredibly talented and athletic team, but for one reason or another, the wins just are not there like they would like. And there's a couple of games that got away from them and maybe when they probably should not have, but the point still remains that this is a team loaded with four and five star recruits. Kyle Field is a very tough place to play and on top of it, they're coming off their bye week, so in theory, they are a more rested and prepared opponent.
So let's get into my crows to the game here for any new listeners. I don't do keys to the game. Everyone does a key to the game. That's tired. I have my Crow to the game. I was trying to think of one for like an overall for the team, right. And I talked about last week like, don't let Florida beat you twice. And to talk, know, being on the right side of penalties and things like that, I had a hard time putting my finger on one because the team is just in a tough position and it's not really one thing that I can point to and say, the whole entire team does this. Maybe we'll be okay. So overall for the team, it's just be mentally sharp. That's off the top of my head. Be mentally sharp, be ready for a fight. Be prepared for the disadvantage you're going to be at being in Kyle Field. Right. Don't come out gun shy. Come out ready for a fight. That's all you can ask for on the defensive side of the ball. Here my first crow. Pick your poison. So let me explain that it's really become evident that this defensive group is incomplete.
They are young at key positions and they are thin at depth across the board.
So as such, trying to play a complete game seems to be out of the question.
So what Clayton White has to decide, basically is what type of attack does he want to sell out for? Does he want to try and slow down the most against an opponent?
Because trying to adequately defend both the pass and rush seems like it just simply cannot happen for four quarters, maybe for one or two, but not for four. So to me, the solution is to sell out to stop the run.
A M has two guys they feature, but their lead back doesn't have the scariest numbers in the world. But nothing is more demoralizing than having a team run up and down on you, moving the change chains.
Also, if A M can easily run on us, the time of possession will very likely tip their way. So basically, I think Clayton White needs to set out to stop the run probably for the rest of the year and then let your guys on the back end of the defense do their thing, trust in the coaching and hope that they can make a couple of plays to hold them just enough. So you'll basically say we'll live with giving up yards and chunk plays through the air.
Hopefully they can make a couple of plays here and there. Hopefully we can hurry the quarterback here and there, do just enough.
But if you do this and you eliminate the extended drives because a team is able to run and convert and run and convert, hopefully the idea is actually you're going to get the ball back to Spencer Rattler, right? So if you're going to give up a chunk play, let's just do it through the air, let's get it over with, but let's make sure that they have a hard time running on us and that if it's second and four, it's going to be tough to get those four yards through the ground. Third and four would have made sense for that example, but you get the point. And again, I kind of think that's what the team needs to do for the rest of the year, because trying to drop guys back and then getting gassed through the ground, they're still able to get the yards through the air. So you got to pick your poison. My second Crow for the defense here is start. Well, last week, despite a good first drive from the defense, they gave up a couple of quick scores after that and before you knew it, Carolina was down multiple possessions. And if you want to find yourself in this game, it needs to be a strong start for the first two, three drives. No touchdowns allowed on the offensive side of the ball here. My first Crow is get the ball out of Spencer's hands quickly.
Now any way you slice it, the offensive line is going to be banged up. Even if guys like Tree and Trovan are able to play, they're clearly not at 100% going into the game.
Plus the front seven for A and M is the strength of their defense. They're very physical, they're very good at getting after the quarterback. So if you put all that together, it means that Rattler is not going to have time to sit back in the pocket. Not like he really has anyway this year, but maybe even more so going into this game. So I would love to see Spencer live in the short to medium pass range for most of the day. Of course there's a time to dial up deep shots, but he can't be asked to do that, nor should the team have to rely on that.
Now hopefully Xavier leguette is good to go. The rumor mill on social media is that he will be okay for Saturday, but I'll believe it when I see it. Now if he's good to know, you feel okay with that, right? And you feel a little bit better maybe about those occasional deep shots that you need to take.
My second crow here is be stubborn with Mario Anderson. Last week against Mizzou, he averaged almost six yards a carry, wasn't the most eye popping stat line, but he was averaging pretty well.
And although A M has that strong front and they're gonna be stout, you have to make them respect the run game because otherwise it'll just make Spencer's life more difficult if they know they can drop back a little bit. So be stubborn in the run. We have seen this line open up some holes for Mario in the past couple of games. We just simply need to see more of it.
My third Crow to the game. Use the tight ends know I'd like to see more sets with both Josh Simon and Trey Knox on the field at the same time. Eddie Lewis, Amarion Brown, they have not been super effective for whatever reason. So let's bring in two guys who are veterans and are tough matchups for opponents and who can help in the run game and pass pro while we're at it, right, if they're called upon.
So overall for this game, y'all, it's a big challenge. You're on the road against a rested team at a place where you haven't won before and you know, I get it. There is plenty of evidence and reason to think that this one could go sideways for the gamecocks. And depending on who is healthy and what we hear through the end of the week, that feeling might persist through Saturday morning.
And we have that feeling because we care, we care about this team and we have that feeling because we're knowledgeable fans, right? We know the state of the team. We know the state of the injuries, we know the schedule, and we see how important each remaining game is. So it's okay to have those feelings. It means you care. It means you're knowledgeable.
The team simply has to rally. Shane Beamer, Dava Loggins, Clayton White, and Pete Lembo have to develop a very strong and comprehensive game plan that the team buys into and executes well.
Now, up until this point in the season, the ball really hasn't bounced the gamecocks away a lot. It just hasn't. That's not an excuse for the record. It's not, but it's true.
The little breaks and the little details and whatever you want to call it, the minutiae of the game, a lot of those things Carolina got a year or two ago, and that generally hasn't happened this year.
Maybe it does saturday, A and M is pretty good. They're not top 20 good. They're not ranked right now even.
They're not competing for a west title good. They have their own problems as well.
So if the gamecocks can come out in this game and execute a clean game plan, maybe make a play on special teams, maybe make a turnover or two, maybe they can find themselves in a fight, which at this point in the year, all things considered, on the road especially, that's really all you're asking for. Can we make it a fight? Let's go, Cox.
All right, let me give you my six pack of picks, and then I'll get y'all out of here, starting with the ACC.
Virginia has screwed me twice this year I've been against them. They're a bad team, and both times they have screwed me. We're sticking with it. Virginia versus Miami. Give me Miami. -19 there's no way. Virginia comes off that game last week and performs well. Big twelve. Oklahoma minus nine versus Kansas. This is a big game in the Big Twelve. Big Ten Indiana at Penn State over 46.
Pac Twelve. Colorado plus 17 versus UCLA. Call me crazy, I think prime and the Buffs can cover that. SEC. Mississippi State versus Auburn. This game kind of feels like a stinker, so I'm going under 41. And then group of five UNLV cover machines plus eight versus Fresno State.
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.
