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. All right, here we go.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: It.
Welcome to episode 182 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 just going to get it out of the way. Little apologies for a little raspy voice here. It was a football filled weekend for your boy, where not just was I cheering for many games, including ours on Saturday, actually went to an NFL game on Sunday, sitting in the pouring rain the entire time. So, yeah, not the best thing for one's voice, but hey, it was a good time. Football is amazing and NFL games are an absolute blast. But just the pageantry and the excitement and the entrances and everything that college brings to the stadium and brings to the experience as a whole, like the gamecock walk and things like that, it just nothing matches it really. I mean, I love football at all levels, but being in person at a college game is just really next level. And I'm thankful that we root for a school that takes so much pride in that. So, yeah, sorry for my voice. Long winded answer to say sorry, this might be a little raspy.
So, got a full episode for y'all here. Of course, going to recap the game from Saturday night from the football team. But before I do, let me do a quick weekend in review from around USC athletics. Starting on Friday. Tough Friday here. You had men's soccer lose to Georgia State one to nothing, and women's volleyball loss to Arkansas, three nothing. That's all right, we'll get them next time. But the equestrian team, they actually beat UC Davis eleven to eight. And if you haven't seen it, the equestrian team put out a great video doing the soldier boy video that Shane Beamer made so famous they sort of recreated that. So definitely go check it out. Fantastic video.
On Sunday, women's soccer tied Tennessee one to one. Women's volleyball lost to Mizzou three to one. And then women's golf had a nice finish. They finished third in the Mason Rudolph championship. So, yeah, kind of a mixed bag from around the sports this weekend. But all in all, still doing a good job there. Which brings me to Saturday night, recapping the big game as the gamecocks got a huge win at Williams Bryce beating Mississippi State 37 to 30. And I said it a lot in the last episode and then on social media that I had this game really as a must win, and I was not alone in that sentiment. I called it a linchpin for the season just as far as keeping it all together with having a solid win total at the end of the year in mind and just understanding the moment that the gamecocks were not sitting at a record that you would have liked. You can kind of understand why they were sitting at one and two going into this game, but you couldn't afford to go one and three and then having to go on the road against an SEC east opponent and then just still with the meat of your SEC. Schedule ahead of you. So you had to absolutely get right, get back in the win column against a team that you're favored against at home, and now you're exactly that. You're sitting at two and two in a game that I felt it was closer than it needed to be. Kind of felt like the gamecocks played with their food a little, but so you got to feel pretty good coming out of this game, you're two and two, you're undefeated at home this year. And really, you can look at the rest of your schedule and say, you know, there's still some strong possibilities here. And you look at the east teams that we play remaining, and you're like, none of them have looked particularly fantastic. They're good, and you, of course, play some on the road, which are tricky places to play knoxville, Missoul. But even so, you have to be feeling decent about how you match up against most of these teams. And beating an SEC team know, yes, they're struggling, but their defense is legit in mississippi state, and will Rogers is legit, as he showed Saturday night. So you went and beat a pretty good team, and you should have probably beaten them.
You know, the game plan didn't really lend itself to that, and that's okay. So you can know that in the back of your mind, well, we could do some things differently that maybe could open these things up a little bit. You know, credit to Mississippi state. They did change up their game plan a bit, and they played more to their strengths by really putting the ball more in will Rogers hands. I think that caught our defense by surprise a little.
You know, credit to them, but also credit South Carolina for playing its most complete game of the season and one where multiple units stepped up where you really had to. So I think you can look at both teams, know they did some decent things, but I think from a south Carolina perspective, you really have to like what you saw. And let me get into that right what I liked and didn't like from the team. So from everybody's perspective, the whole team.
I liked doing their jobs, defending your house in really what ended up being this back and forth, SEC, hard fought type of know. You had to dig deep, and I liked that we were the least penalized team in the game. And then you have to love that you won the fourth quarter. Shane Beamer talks about that all the time. That that is a mantra in this program, that you want to win the fourth quarter. And frankly, if the team didn't win the fourth quarter in this game, I don't know if they win the game right. Just based off of the score, obviously, but you needed to buckle down when it mattered most, and the team did. So you really like that. Everyone did their jobs at home in a huge spot in the season and got the W now moving over to the defense. I liked the turnovers. How can you not? Turnovers are great. The food, too, is pretty good, but you have spalding and strawn creating those turnovers in two very big spots. And it was great to know these are two guys who need to not just be productive because they're veteran guys, guys who play in key positions, but they need to be leaders on that side of the ball as well. So it's great to see that production and great seeing them delivering in those big moments to continue to solidify themselves as the incredible role players and leaders that they are on this team. I also felt like the defense was really swarming the line of scrimmage for most of the game, and it showed. I mean, I liked what we saw out of the run defense. Mississippi State was held to just 32 yards on the ground, so they did a really good job of making the Bulldogs one dimensional. I talked about that in my Crow to the game.
Hold. I said hold. Their top running back marks to under 100 yards. They held the whole team to 32. And I just loved what you saw with the gang, tackling swarming of the ball being aggressive. And the front seven really did their job in that respect of this game, which, again, I think, was a point of emphasis going into this game where you said, okay, Mississippi State, through however many games this year, looks to be like they're trying to be more balanced, but more so. They're trying to run the ball a lot. So, okay, how are we going to prepare for that? The run defense. Run defense has been a struggle for South Carolina over the last year or so. Again, I think statistically, maybe a little bit better this year. Of course, you gave up a couple scores on the ground, but they're short yardage situations. But overall, I like what we saw from those guys.
What I didn't like was everything you gave up through the air, so you sort of traded one vice for the other. Again, credit to state for changing things up and letting Will Rogers throw more. But even so, there were some huge, chunk plays and scores given up by our defensive backfield. And in those, Rogers typically had way too much time to make his reads, let those routes develop. And Shane Beamer talked about that. He expressed some frustration about that in the in game interview going to halftime. He was just saying, like, Rogers had way too much time. Like, we're giving up way too much through the air. And really, all of that, it allowed State to hang around in the game.
Got a couple of quick strikes through the air, a couple of big, chunk plays to move the chains. And it was definitely frustrating to see because you look at a guy like O'Donnell. Fortune, DQ, nick, like, you look at these guys and you say, we should have a pretty solid backfield there. But for whatever reason, it was too much time. Guys being left on islands and getting know it's an experienced quarterback, he's one of the better ones in the SEC. And so he really let it loose this game. And unfortunately, we just didn't have the preparation for Know, at least early on, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Once again, you loved Spencer rattler. I mean, really, there goes my voice. Really try and take a moment to appreciate how good he is right now in this season. Like, talents like that, they don't come around every day. They don't come around every day in college football. They don't come around every day to any given program. Right? And he really has taken his game to a new level. And it's a new level for Spencer. A new level for Spencer rattler. Right. Like, he's always had this hype and this aura about him. And last year we saw more than glimpses, really, at the end of the year, but building up to that, you saw these flashes of the arm talent and the accuracy, but he's put it all together in such a way where he's just in command.
In this game, he went 18 of 2288 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and on top of that, he sprinkled 43 yards on the ground rushing.
He is making smart decisions, playing with confidence, and is standing in the pocket and standing tough and making tough throws.
I mean, he looks NFL ready, and he is sort of the Spencer Rattler that was promised for his entire recruitment and career. And I'm just happy for him. I mean, he has embraced life as a gamecock. He seems to really be this guy that people gravitate towards. He is that leader. But now he's backing it up with his play and doing so really in fantastic fashion.
I mean, if Dowel Loggins wanted, he could have had Spencer throw it, I don't know, 7810 more times and probably could have put the game away sooner. But again, he was determined to sort of run the ball, which I do feel was necessary. But you look at those numbers, spencer Ratler was as locked in as you possibly could have been.
And he is a reason, big reason, why this gamecocks team could find itself in every game.
I mean, he's the reason we were in the game against Georgia.
He's a huge reason why we won this game, because anytime he sees a throw, he can make it happen. He's just in that type of mode so far this season.
But going back to what else I liked from the team here, mentioned it 2 seconds ago, but the running game, I liked what we saw out of Mario Anderson finally. I mean, we finally saw a rushing attack that was respectable and complemented the pass game well. Wasn't knocking anybody's socks off right, but it complemented the pass game well. Just what you needed to do. Mario and DK Joyner, they combined for 112 yards on the ground and two touchdowns. Mario specifically went for 88 yards and one touchdown. And that touchdown run exemplifies why he needs to continue to be the featured back.
He got hit. He kept his feet moving. He didn't get up, didn't give up either, and he found the end zone. Of course, he had some lovely help from the offensive line, but that's what you do in those situations. He simply looks the part. He runs well.
And because Dabel Loggins was stubborn in trying to run the ball, it fell into place nicely.
So I think the two of them could complement each other well. You throw in juju there, you mix that in. But Mario Anderson. This was the game. You needed to see this from him in general. You knew it was in there. You knew it was possible. And it's exactly why you bring him onto your team against a team that has a good defense. I think it was both. Their linebackers are top in tackles in the SEC, and then they think they have another guy who's top ten.
Their head coach is a defensive minded coach. He's run that system for years there. And even so, you were able to stick to it and grind out a respectable run game. So absolutely love to see it. You also have to like what Xavier Leguette did. I mean, he just continues to shine. And his connection with Spencer, it's special. Five receptions, 189 yards, and two touchdowns, and he put on the freaking jets. I mean, you kind of always know that these guys are fast, but that slant route that he took to the house was just a, holy cow, this guy is freaking fast. You think of X specifically as this big, strong guy, big bodied receiver, but to see him really put on the jets was just so cool to see. Was also nice to see Trey Knox have a nice game, get a big touchdown. That probably felt great for him after, frankly, a slow start to the year, there was just really a lot to like on the offensive side of the ball. I thought the offensive line looked pretty good for the most part. I know you gave up a couple of sacks, but generally I felt it was pretty solid again against an SEC defense, right, a solid SEC defense, and you looked pretty good.
What I didn't like on the offensive side of the ball, that fumble from Joyr, that really stunk. And then in the end of the third kind, know you're fighting back, mississippi state a little bit. It felt like the offense was being a little conservative, didn't allow for them to answer the, you know, in the moment there, but again, just kind of felt like you kept the game closer than it needed to be. I understand, of course, that takes two to tango, offense and defense there, but kind of played with your food a little bit. But again, I think you wanted to be stubborn in establishing the run and doing that. You might not convert every third down or you might not get as many yards as you want, but also shout out the 98 99 yard touchdown drives, scoring drives, like, just unbelievable, like two years ago last year. That just doesn't happen. You know what I mean? This offense is gelled, and this offense is moving, and you felt confident in it. And again, this team gets one first down, two first downs, and they're off to the races, and they can pick up yards and bunches. And when you have a threat like Xavier leguette, defense has to respect that. But then, oh, you got Eddie Lewis, Omega Blake, trey Knox, who can catch balls for you. Now, if you're saying you can get Mario Anderson cooking a little bit, you saw really, this offense realizing its full potential a little bit in this game, and you did so without asking Spencer to throw it for more than 30 times.
So it's really, really encouraging to see. Those long touchdown drives were a thing of beauty. You won the time of possession in this game also. I think you needed to do that. So it was really impressive from the offensive side. There were many, many things to like, and it was just a good night overall for the game, right? It was a good night. It was not perfect, but you saw what this Carolina team can do, and you kind of saw the identity, really relying on your star quarterback to do some great things, play complementary football, running the ground. You finally saw the rushing attack be complementary, created a couple of turnovers on defense. That's been a calling card for us. Under Clayton White, you got two, and then you got stops when you needed to, despite giving up some big plays and giving up more points than you'd like. Got a couple of big stops.
But look around, y'all. South Carolina is one, and o. In the SEC, and that's more than a lot of programs can say.
I think this team can find a lot of good from this game. I think they can fix some things, especially on the back end of the defense ahead of a pass happy opponent this Saturday. But you can see the improvements coming through across multiple units.
And it's really nice to see Gamecocks have another big game this Saturday in Knoxville at night. And then they have the bye week, which I think comes at a good time, in my opinion. I think you'll continue to see this team take steps forward, which is a testament to the staff and the buy in of the players that week over week. We're going to continue to do little things better this past Saturday against State.
We're going to improve the run game. All right, so now that we've proven we can do that, what's next? Can we maybe get after the quarterback a little bit more? Can we maybe not give up as many chunk plays in the air?
Can we do a couple other things differently? And it's little by little coming together, and it's exciting to see.
For those of you who keeping track, my six pack of picks did terrible this weekend. But you know who didn't do terrible is FSU. Shout out. FSU down. Go. The Tigers. Two losses in September. Unbelievable. Feels so good. It's great to see with that y'all. That wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is coxgamecocks. Instagram is just the name of the show, cox Talking Gamecocks. And please, like, subscribe and review the podcast. I appreciate all y'all gococks.
