Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Game, Cox. The football team wins the Mayor's Cup. Basketball has mixed results and the women's soccer team has a nice opening game in the tournament. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:55] Okay. Welcome to episode 275 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And gotta say, right off the bat, hope y'all don't mind a little raspy voice this episode. It is certainly the after effects of attending that incredible, crazy, unbelievable Mayor's cup that we had Saturday night at Williams. Bryce. We were really rocking. That place was shaking and we all did our part. I tried to help, right? You know, those false starts and things like that. You know, hey, we are the difference maker in the stands there, so bear with me here. But hey, I'll take a raspy voice, a lost voice for a W in that fashion any day of the week. I, of course will get more into that in a little bit here. But hope you all had a lovely weekend. Exciting, thrilling Sunday. You're able to rest, relax and recover to whatever degree that may be. But before I do jump into the football team here, got a couple of scores to review here from the weekend, starting with women's soccer. They were in the NCAA tournament on Friday night and they played ECU and handed them and quick and swift loss. Gamecocks winning handily, six nothing. So they are cruising to the second round though. You remember that the girls made it all the way to the SEC championship game in the league tournament. And so the seems that some of that momentum may have carried over. So going to be watching them very closely. It's very exciting to see them handle business in that opening round. And then Saturday you had men's basketball in action kind of sort of at the same time. They think they tipped off at around 3. So you were able to get a little bit of that game in. Before the football game kicked off, they were in Indiana playing the 16th ranked Hoosiers. Unfortunately did come up shy in this one. The guys fell 87 to 71. Tough draw with this one. You know, it's an exciting matchup and I talked about, you know, this would be sort of that measuring stick going into this game, right? Like really, where are you at? But our team is still gelling. You know, we're trying to figure out the best matchups and things of that nature. So to go on the road to a 16th ranked seed place and you know, they're well coached, they take basketball very Very seriously there. It's a tough one early in the year, but hey, hung in there. The guys fought, unfortunately, did take the L in that one. They are back at it on Thursday night, 7pm against Mercer. So hopefully guys are able to bounce back in that one. And then on Sunday, the women were in action. They were looking to continue to keep things rolling, and, boy, did they. They also played ECU funny enough and beat them to the tune of 95 to 44. So, yeah, things were cooking for the ladies in that one. And that was another one where, you know, when you're hearing Don Staley talk about this team, it's trying to find what I summarize as, I think the identity of this team. You know, you have some young playmakers as stars, budding stars in, like, Malaysia, Full Wiley. You do have some veteran leadership with like Tahina Pao Pau, and, you know, those types of players, but still trying to figure out, you know, how do we balance some of that. Right. John Staley talked about, you know, getting the most out of Malaysia but doing so controlled and, you know, all of that nature. But the results are still rolling. And so as they're figuring these things out, it certainly will be fun to watch, but a very fun weekend from that side of things from the Gamecocks. And then, of course, that brings us to Saturday afternoon, Saturday night when the Gamecocks took on Missouri. And my goodness, y'all, what do you even say? What do you even say, right? I mean, you go ahead and you're going into this matchup. 21 verse 23. The Gamecocks are looking to keep this thing rolling, looking to extend their winning streak. And you were looking at this Missouri game as a chance to really exercise some of the demons. Right? Like, it was. It was a team that had your number for however many years. I think it was five. And no matter what you seem to do, it seemed to always just be a wacky game, right? And so you knew that you had the team to do it. Missouri wasn't exactly 100%. You know, there was a little bit of gamesmanship with Brady Cook. Starting versus not starting. Ends up getting the nod. And you knew that you had to go and handle your business. So I don't even know how to begin recapping this one, to be honest. I think let's just start from the end and we'll take it from there. Carolina, of course, ending up on the right side of this one in the most Incredible fashion possible. 34 to 30. Rocket Sanders at the end, a game winning 70 yard drive for this, the unbelievable come from behind victory with a minute and change left to go. Getting into the end zone, 15 seconds to go. Just unbelievable heroics in this one. And this is one that you're going to remember for a long, long time just because of how this game went. But, you know, I was thinking about it and going into this game, right? Everyone, myself, anyone you talk to was saying, like, look, like we know what works. Like, we have the formula. I talked about how it's a repeatable formula. It's our team identity. Play good defense, run the ball well and get the ball into your playmaker's hands.
[00:07:18] And that's what this team tried to do going into it, but you ended up having to play really not your game. You know, this team had to win in an uncharacteristic fashion for what we've seen to this point in the year. And what I mean by that is the defense gave up 30 points. They gave up, I think it was 18 in the fourth quarter. So it was sort of that opposite where at least during this winning streak, but really for most of the year, the second half has been really, really good for this defense where the adjustments have come into play and you've given up minimal points in the second quarter. In this one it was the opposite where it was almost all of the points were scored in the second half. Excuse me. So you were uncharacteristic there. The pass rush on the front seven, like, was able to do a little bit of disruption, but maybe not quite to the degree that we saw this year. So you had to really try to buckle down late and yes, of course, incredible, you know, very late. You get that game ceiling interception. I'll get there in a minute. But so your offense had to really win you this game. And then on that offensive side of the ball, you had to do so differently. Lenorris had the most incredible stat line here where throwing for 353 yards, five touchdowns, right rocket on the ground only had 53 yards, you know, so it was just this moment where Lenoris had to put the team on his back and the offense and Dowel Loggins and said, you know, you're going to have to go do this for us. Like, yes, he scampered and still did some of that, but showed that escapability, kept his eyes downfield, distributed the ball incredibly well. That's the other thing too, where, you know, I talked about the formula was getting the ball to your playmakers.
[00:09:23] And this is kind of the game of the unsung heroes. I mean, Nick Harbour, he got himself a game ball. But, you know, I wouldn't necessarily say he's an unsung hero. We talk about him a lot just because of his athleticism and potential. But this was the game where he really looked the part, you know, getting that touchdown, getting some of those bigger plays and just being that steady hand. But you had Brady Hunt coming up with an incredibly clutch catch late in the game. When's the last time we've talked about him? I mean, I think I talked about Brady Hunt in the off season when he transferred here. I don't think we've talked about him since. So he got in on the action. And Dale Von Campbell, like two incredibly big catches from him. A guy who really, since the. Since the LSU game, we haven't called his number out a lot. Of course, Josh Simon still had a nice day. Mazio Bennett had a nice day. Gage Larva Dane, nice catch. Right. Michael Smith with the touchdown. So it was this type of game that you knew was there. And again, we talked about it a lot, like, you know, we need one or two wide receivers to step up and help the formula. And this was a game where credit to Missouri's defense, for the most part, they really shut down the running game. And we had to go out there and throw our way to a victory.
[00:11:01] And Lenoris was able to do so. I mean, five touchdowns, that's an exclusive club.
[00:11:08] And you're sitting now with this victory. And it was three straight wins against AP ranked opponents. That is the first time in school history that that has happened.
[00:11:21] I mean, just think about that for a minute.
[00:11:24] You literally accomplished history with this win. And on top of that, it's sort of getting that final monkey off your back if you're Shane Beamer. You know, we talked about writing the ship against Kentucky, keeping the streak going. Against Vanderbilt, he snapped the streak against Clemson. What was that? Two. Two seasons ago? He snapped the streak against A and M and has since won twice against them. This was sort of the last one where. I know we don't have the east west divisions anymore, but your east rival, who for whatever reason has had your number, has had the school's number. And this coach Drinkwitz in particular has had it for South Carolina. And so this was a big one for Shane Beamer in that regard. Here. I want to read a stat for you all here. This is from Brad Crawford at 247Sports.
[00:12:23] Since the start of the 2022 season, Shane Beamer has six wins over top 25 teams at South Carolina, that's more than Ryan Day, Lane Kiffin, Brian Kelly, Lincoln Riley, James, Franklin and Mike Norvell. Six wins over top 25 teams at South Carolina. That is incredible. That is a guy and a coach and a program who is very much on the right track. And it's a team and a group and a program now that is rising to the moment and not shuttering away from it. This game against Missouri where you give up the touchdown with a minute and so to go, minute 30 to go, whatever it was on the fourth down play, when you're trying to win the game, that is a game where past South Carolina teams lose that game 100% of the time.
[00:13:25] I mean, this was a game that it just felt like it's just different, right? Like this team is different.
[00:13:37] And this game is really, in my mind, a summary of that. Where they refused to quit.
[00:13:46] You had heroics and look that you. That. That play call at the end from Dow Loggins, that shovel pass was a beautiful call. And when you got down to that red zone, right, and you're close to it, I was thinking, all right, at a minimum here we can, we can kick the ball and we can try to tie it, right? So you're sitting there and you're like, I don't really know, like, what are we, what are we going to do here? And you punch it in the end zone and you absolutely just come away victorious. I just, I'm looking at the box score now and it is just incredible. You know, South Carolina did what we needed to do and that was start fast. So you take that 21 to 6 lead into, into the half and you're feeling good. Nick harbor was in the action. Josh Simon, you know, you were starting to see that we're going to need to throw the ball a little bit. That play that Jared Brown made, that long touchdown catch and run on the bubble screen, that was a fantastic play. You know, he's someone that was banged up. Came back last game, didn't really do a whole lot, but in this one you saw he probably felt more like himself there and then. Yeah, it was this uncharacteristic second half where the defense was letting up some points, stopping them on the two point, that was big. And just having that adversity and that having that grit to face the adversity and come out on the other side of it. And look, there are things we can certainly talk about. You know, Shane Beamer was staying aggressive very late in that game.
[00:15:25] I mean, if we want to talk about when you Went for it on 4th. And you didn't get it first off.
[00:15:31] Maybe it was just me from the vantage point that I had in the stadium. I thought that it was clear as day that Lenorris got that first down on the scramble.
[00:15:41] Obviously they, you know, talked about it, right, But I thought that was clear as day. I thought that was an opportunity where you didn't necessarily have to go for it there. But he was aggressive all game. And I think that when we go back and look at some of these stats, winning three in a row against AP ranked opponents, the six wins against ranked opponents since 22, like, part of that is being an aggressive coach. Part of that is taking the fight to your opponent and not resting back.
[00:16:16] I mean, our defense was really struggling in that second half. So I think that was also part of it where he said, look like our offense is moving the ball.
[00:16:25] We have to be aggressive here. Unfortunately, you know, it didn't work out, but it worked out in the end. But to come up with those two clutch drives in the fourth quarter, I mean, you're looking at it and the offense and Lenoris, you basically had two game winning drives in the fourth quarter, right? When you went down by one score, sort of midway or so, you know, through the fourth quarter, drive down the field, you get that, you get that pass to Michael Smith and then you're defending. And again, tough, tough play there. To give up the touchdown on the fourth down, just brutal. Would have been a backbreaker any other day, but then for Lenorris and company to march down the field and calmly, like, you know, I was talking about that with the people I was at the game with, like afterwards, just the team just looked like they knew what they had to do. They looked well coached. And you're talking about a red shirt freshman who seemed so poised in that moment, really throughout the whole fourth quarter. And even, you know, in that scramble drill when he threw to Brady Hunt, like keeping his eyes down field, like, he is so big and so strong, it just seems impossible to sack him. It's incredible.
[00:17:45] And then, you know, we have to give a shout out to Kilgore there. You know, he got burned on that touchdown, but then turns around and gets the game ceiling interception. You know, there wasn't a whole lot of time on the clock, but I don't care because Mizzou could have done a couple of crazy things and you got the interception and just, my goodness.
[00:18:10] Incredible. Just an unbelievable game here. We have to enjoy this one. You're sitting now at seven and three with two games to go, I believe we were ranked. It was 19th in the AP poll. We'll see what happens with the CFP rankings.
[00:18:28] There was some chaos from the teams ahead of us, but this is one, y'all that it's just. You're going to remember where you were. And I had been blessed to be a part of some really, really good games at Williams. Bryce. And this was right up there. Then this. This was something. It was like.
[00:18:50] It was out of a novel. It was just like you. You were seemingly, like, doing well at the first half. You're up. What was it, 21 to 6?
[00:19:00] You know, you. You're kind of that hero in the moment, and then you have that pit of despair, the adversity, the hero arc where you're down and out, and then you come rising up to the moment in the final minutes, final seconds.
[00:19:18] I mean, I got chills thinking about it. I had to physically catch my breath after that play. It was unbelievable. Rocket would not be denied.
[00:19:31] And it's just a beautiful thing to watch because, again, you're seeing this was the plan, right? You know, you saw this quarterback that you knew had all the stuff, and he's growing and developing before our very eyes, but you knew he needed a little bit of help. So you bring in a veteran running back who now is looking the best he's ever played in. Rocket, the offensive line did a fine job, but in that last play, in that last drive, too, they were very, very solid. You can even see it when you watch that play I've watched about a thousand times. So, you know, the hole that was opened up for Rocket in that moment was fantastic.
[00:20:13] And it was just really cool to see. I mean, and we talk about complimentary football a lot. We talked about, you know, the defense playing complimentary football, helping to bail out some mistakes. Well, now was the offense's turn. And it's great to see, you know, where Missouri has playmakers. You know, this is a good team. Like, they're having a little bit of an off year compared to what many people thought they would be. But, you know, they were ranked in the top 25. They have playmakers on the outside. Cook is a good quarterback. They have a good defense. You went toe to toe with them, and you beat them, you know, and it was not going to be easy. And this was a team that I just think was not going to be denied. We were not going to have Mizzou beat us again. So you end up with winning the Mayor's cup, and you have Senior Night this upcoming Saturday. So many seniors to give their flowers to. I will talk about that next episode. And it's all on the table, y'all. It's all on the table. We're doing our job. Fantastic one. But this wraps up that episode. Please follow me on social media. Twitter 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.
