Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks Football opens their season against Virginia Tech. I give my Crows to the game and also my six pack of picks from around college football this weekend. Okay, here we go.
Okay.
Welcome to episode 334 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And this is the moment we have been waiting for, y'.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: All.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: It's finally here. Game week is here. Game weekend is here. We are hours away from kickoff and boy, does it just feel amazing. My goodness. Just non stop football for the next couple of days. Just sitting down, glued to the TVs and it just feels so, so good. And I'm so excited. I'm nervous, I'm anxious, I'm happy. Just all of the feels that you get before a week one and you know, before a big game. And I'm going to get into it in a second here, of course, but it is a big game for Shane Beamer in the Gamecocks here. So let's jump right into it. Here it is, the last day, last episode of the year for Gamecock trivia. It served us well over the off season in the summer months. So here we go.
How tall were the two tallest players listed on the 2023 women's volleyball roster? That is a hell of a question.
Six, three? I don't know. Six, five. All right, there we go. Shout out to South Carolina women's Volleyball.
Yeah, shout out them. Six, five. How about that? But all right, now we can all turn our attention to the one thing that is uniting Gamecock Nation right now. And not only Gamecocks, but people nationwide are talking about. And that's week one football is here. I just absolutely am ecstatic to be back previewing this with y'.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: All.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: Before I get into it, there is a bit of football news to relay to y'.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: All.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Big news out of the recruiting world. Headline grabbing commitment for the Gamecocks as five star offensive lineman Darius Gray committed to the Gamecocks. Again, five star player, number one player in Virginia and number one interior offensive lineman according to 2, 4, 7 Sports. Just an amazing recruiting win here for Shane Beamer and his staff as they continue to impress on the recruiting trail and really on the offensive line in general. They're continuing to win battles, bring in talent, and you know, from the wider scope of things, bringing big out of state talent to South Carolina. And these last couple of cycles now, there's been either a five star, a la Dylan Stewart, Nick harbor are high four stars. And then you got a guy like Darius Gray. So he's the class of 2026. I'm already very excited to get him to Colombia. But, yes, massive win and really all over the place on this roster. You're starting to see these guys who were really highly recruited, and you're seeing that blue chip ratio that is so important to win in college football.
Go up and up and up for South Carolina Gamecocks. Really, really big win there on the recruiting trail.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: But.
[00:04:22] Speaker A: All right, jumping into a Virginia Tech preview here. That's it. The wait is over. Gamecock football is back.
And on any given Sunday, the Gamecocks will play whoever we have to to accomplish our goals. This is like one of the few times that a college football fanatic can use any given Sunday because it just has a better ring than any given Saturday. Let's be honest. I was connected with some folks on social media and had a very cool rendition of the any given Sunday movie poster be made, but only Gamecock versions. Just go check out my Twitter. You'll see what I'm talking about here. But the Gamecocks, of course, are taking on Virginia Tech in Atlanta to start the season this Sunday. And it is interesting to have to wait that extra day. On one hand, it is kind of nice that you get that Saturday to just fully enjoy this full slate of games, some good games. But on the other hand, it's just. I just want to get to it, you know, I just want to spot the ball. But really, really cool. But I've said it before, I'm going to say it again.
This is the most legitimate hope and excitement around Gamecock football that we've had in at least the last 10 years.
This program and our fan base have high hopes this year, and every game is important. But getting off to a good start, Week one, especially this year, is imperative.
The Gamecocks right now are sitting at seven and a half point favorites going into this game. There is a lot, of course, being made about Shane Beamer's connection and the Beamer family connection to Virginia Tech, but I. I can tell you all he really cares about is getting the Gamecocks off to a good start this year. Like, ESPN is gonna do their thing and they're gonna show Frank Beamer and, you know, all that jazz. Like, that's fantastic.
Frank Beamer had a fantastic hall of Fame career for Virginia Tech. Shane Beamer is where he wants to be, and he has the Gamecocks in a much better position than the Hokies, at least right now.
So what are the Gamecocks looking at in Virginia Tech last year, The Hokies went 6 and 6 in the regular season, but it felt like they underperformed at times. And you know, they had a couple of games that were decided by less than a touchdown. The one that I think a lot of college fans remember is the game against Miami with the very controversial replay decision that cost them to gain the game. So six and six last year very easily could have been seven or even more wins. They are a program of course, looking to recapture some former glory courtesy of Frank Beamer and trying to find some stability. There's been a lot of turnover in and around that football program, so trying to find that and part of that this year their head coach made some major shakeups, looking to avoid more of those misgivings as he brought in both a new offensive and defensive coordinator. This of course makes things tricky. It makes things more difficult to game plan against because there just simply isn't a lot of tape on what these guys will be running. They, you know, their defensive coordinator had a stint as a DC in the college level, but has been in the NFL as a linebackers coach the last few years. Their OC did have some time in college, I believe at Baylor, but he bopped around, I think was most recently in the usfl. So you gotta piece together the tape and the studying and the projections from a few different sources there.
But then looking more at Tech's roster here, their quarterback, Kyle Drones, he's legit, okay? He is a dynamic playmaker. He can run, he can pass, he's a legit scoring threat. I'm curious to see how Clayton White adjusts to him as the game goes on. If I'm not mistaken, I think his, you know, the knock on him last year was the turnovers, throwing interceptions and things of that nature. But nonetheless, he is a dynamic playmaker that you have to take seriously. Tech also brings back their top two linebackers who look to be the leaders on defense for them. But really outside of that, in my opinion at least the story is transfers.
Virginia Tech brought in a ton of transfers, help out with their depth and replace some starters as well. On offense they only returned five starters from last year. And on defense they lose a lot of big pieces, a lot of their top performers outside of those linebackers. So we can look at this at as a couple of ways, right? Like one, there's lots of new faces that will have to be adjusting to this level of play in a new system and that can cause communication issues, operation issues, et cetera.
Number two, on top of not having a lot of tape from their coordinators, there's not a lot of consistency, even from last year's Virginia Tech team itself to study within. So all that being said, it does provide some difficulties. Shane Beamer talked about that in his press conference. But you know, you look at tape from some of their biggest transfers, from their last stop, you look at some of the things they did well last year, assuming they're probably going to double down on those things and whatnot, and you have a couple game plans. You know, Shane Beamer talked about, you can't get too far down the rabbit hole of every little scenario, trying to prepare for it. If they have this front, that front, like you have a couple of plans, but ultimately I believe you have to do what you do well. And especially that's true on offense and on defense you have a couple of game plans. Clayton White has shown he has the ability to adjust mid game, and so we'll see how that goes.
But with that, let me get into my Crows to the game. For the first time of the year, it is the Crows to the game. Now for any new listeners, first off, welcome.
Second, everyone does keys to the game. That's tired. That's, you know, everyone does that. We have our rooster crow. So I do my crows to the game.
So crow to the game. Overarching theme here for the team. Just let the game come to you. And I think we as fans maybe could take a little bit of this. Like there's a lot of excitement and there's a lot of eyeballs on this game. So just settle in and let the game come to you. You know, sometimes in these openers or sometimes in these big games, guys get a little tense.
You know, they get a little jumpy, jump off sides, false start, you know, not doing the little things right. Just take a breath, settle down and let the game come to you.
Because that's when this team was really at their best last year on defense. My first pro to the game is don't let drones beat you with his legs. I'm not talking about the kind of drone that flies. I'm talking about drones their quarterback.
You know, anytime you have a running quarterback that you're facing, that's going to present some problems. But the Gamecocks need to make him as one dimensional as possible because if he is forced to sit in the pocket, I think he is bound to make a costly mistake or two.
Second crow, let the DBs cook, you know, outside of Dylan Stewart, this is the biggest known commodity in this defense. Clayton White puts a lot of trust in his defensive back, so I expect that to be the case. But, you know, just let them do their thing, but make the passing game difficult for Virginia Tech and just don't give them any anything easy, you know. And that's why this defense has been successful at creating takeaways as well under Clayton White. Just being disruptive, being in the right place at the right time, staying in phase with your receivers and your assignments. And I think if you just let them cook, it's going to make life difficult on drones.
And then my third crow, I put this in there for fun.
Let's do we get a sack?
We have a lot of talk about Dylan Stewart. I expect him to be bigger, faster, stronger. He's going to get some double teams, of course, but let him get a sack. Let him start this season on the right foot. What do we say now on offense? My first crow to the game here. Finish drives in the red zone.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: This was something that plagued this offense. I mean, really for a while now.
So when we're looking at this year's team and if the offense and everything can be as good as we hope, you need to be able to bury teams and you need to be able to put them away. You know how you do that? By getting the ball in the end zone when you have the opportunity to.
Don't let drives stall out. When you get deep into enemy territory.
Get it in the end zone, put up six, make it that much more difficult and demoralizing.
My second crow to the game here. Keep Lenoris upright.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: I expect Virginia Tech to be aggressive with the blitz, and I also expect them to have a few funky formations with this new coordinator. Okay, this is an early test for what should be an improved offensive line to. To keep Lenoris upright as much as possible, to let him do his thing.
It is an early test, but everyone has been saying that the offensive line is more on the same page this, at this point this year than they were last year. You have a lot of experience along that line, a lot of SEC experience.
But if not, you look at a guy like Boaz, you know, who has just a lot of college experience.
So, early test for the offensive line.
My third crow for the game here on offense is protect the football.
This was something that was talked about a lot this offseason. It sounds obvious, of course, but we all know that at times turnovers were an issue. Lenore's put the ball on the ground a few times, and turnovers are drive killers.
So if this was such an emphasis to improve, let's see it. Because when you're starting against a team like this, in a game like this, you can't give them an inch.
My bonus crow here.
Execute on special teams.
This is probably the biggest question mark going into this year, and while it's a little funky with this game, with it being played in an NFL stadium, it is a dome, so conditions won't be a problem.
Let's have a good game from that unit.
So overall for this game, y', all, it really has all the potential in the world for South Carolina to start well. Standalone game with everyone watching against a Power 4 team. And it's an opportunity to let the country know that this offseason chatter about this team was warranted and that the hype is for real.
At the same time, this is no slouch of a game, okay?
Virginia Tech is going to come in prepared, and they are also going in determined to get off to a good start themselves. And they're gonna present a challenge.
Week one of college is notoriously unpredictable, so because of that, I do think this game starts off in a bit of a slog. I think both teams are going to take some punches as they figure out each other, and I think we could see a very close game going into the half.
But ultimately, I think South Carolina has better depth, and I think that shows later in the game.
I think South Carolina has better experience across the board, especially at the Power four level. I think that shows and I think that the continuity on both sides of the ball is a big factor in limiting mistakes. And I think we ultimately walk away from this game feeling good. And I think Lenores continues to show why he is being talked about as one of the best quarterbacks in the country.
I've seen a lot of talk about being nervous of opening games and the Gamecocks don't open seasons well. And just look at recent history and things like that.
That's not a South Carolina problem.
Like Week one is very tricky in college football. Just ask LSU that.
But when we look at the some of the recent teams and some of the recent struggles that those teams have had in Week one, you can kind of pinpoint a couple of things, and this year's team doesn't really have a lot of those.
Last year against Old Dominion, that was Lenora Sellers first start, a lot of pressure. ODU runs a wacky system, but we had new running back, you know, you had a new line Together you were, you know, new wide receivers, essentially breaking in a new offense.
The year before that against uncle, that team had a lot of flaws and we later came to find out those flaws.
Going into it, we thought we had a greater chance than we did. But again, you also had not really much of a wide receiver core. New oc the line was thin as paper, injuries across both sides, so there was a lot of issues there this year. Knock on wood. Shane Beamer has said, you know, they're pretty healthy minus some of those longer term guys.
The line is deeper and more experienced than we've had really ever.
Lenores has played in a good amount of SEC games. He has experience.
Shula, yes, it's a new oc, but there's some continuity there. There's familiarity, there's rapport. Same core group of wide receivers. You got Rasul, yes, new running back, but you still got the guys behind him who were there last year. And the defense, there's veterans returning at every major position basically.
So all told, any given Sunday, let's go be hype. Root the boys in Cox by 90.
Let's just get after it. Let's have a Sunday. We're so freaking back. I absolutely love it but all right, let me give y' all my first six pack of picks and then I will get y' all out of here. For any new listeners, I used to do six pack with the five power conferences and then a group of five, but with the pack two they don't really do that anymore. So it's each power four conference and a group of five and then a bonus game somewhere along the way.
So opening weekend Here we go. Big 12 Utah minus five and a half versus UCLA. Big 10 Nevada versus Penn State. I'm going over 55 and a half. I'm expecting Penn State to do a lot of the heavy lifting.
Acc, big game here. Notre Dame versus Miami. Give me Miami plus two and a half sec got two games here. I'm going with Texas plus one and a half verse Ohio State. It's a great game to start the season off and then I'm going Syracuse versus Tennessee. Over 50 and a half.
Couple new quarterbacks in that one but it'll be okay. And then group of five. I love this pick here. Give me Toledo plus 10 verse Kentucky.
Should be a fun weekend. I appreciate all y'.
[00:20:54] Speaker B: All.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: 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.
