Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Game Cox, the football team dominates Oklahoma on the road. And a weekend recap from around fall sports. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay. Welcome to episode 268 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And let me just say, how about them gamecocks, baby? Woo wee, y'all. My goodness, does it feel great to be a gamecock. Wow, what a Sunday it's been. What a Monday. What a Tuesday. Afterwards, what a Saturday afternoon. I hope y'all enjoyed it, because what a fantastic weekend to be a South Carolina gamecock. A moment where we just wanted it so bad, you know, and just being on the precipice of it a couple of times this season, to finally see one go through the hoop, to finally get that whomping, to just know that you can go and do this in a moment, and to have your team actually deliver against that and surpass expectations just feels so, so good. So I hope y'all enjoyed the weekend and celebrated accordingly, whatever that means. Because anyone who roots for this football team and anyone who is a South Carolina Gamecock deserves to bask in this a little bit more than a little bit.
[00:02:23] Nothing better than having a comfortable, fun win. And one that, on top of it, you. You get a little national praise for very, very, very cool to see. So. Wow, wow, wow, wow. I'm going to jump into the football recap in more detail in a second here, but before I get into that, let's do a weekend recap from around USC athletics. Starting on Friday, you had the women's volleyball team in action. Unfortunately, taking the l two, ole miss three nothing. That's all right, girls. Screw the rebels. Women's soccer, they had a big win. They beat Alabama three to one on Friday. That's a nice win there. Women's volleyball. Excuse me? Women's cross country. Here you go. Finished third in the Crimson Classic. We'll take that. And then on Saturday, men's soccer. Tough loss to West Virginia. Won nothing. And then on Sunday, women's volleyball. They got in on the action, and they also beat Oklahoma. They beat Oklahoma three to one. So just a nice coming together there, across sports, of dominating the Sooners. A bad weekend to be a sooner. Absolutely. I mean, I don't know what the hell a sooner is. I don't care.
[00:03:39] Sooner, more like the sooner we could get out of. Get the hell out of Oklahoma with a win. Am I right? It's a. It's a pun. It's a pun. But nonetheless, here the highlight, the headline grabber. The thing that everyone's talking about from this weekend is exactly that. It is the football team's performance as the Gamecocks beat nay, let me say, whomped Oklahoma 35 to nine. I mean, my goodness, you couldn't have dreamt a better start to this game. I mean, the start of all starts, the defensive efforts, of all defensive efforts, just.
[00:04:27] It feels cathartic to have this. And Shane Beamer was talking about it after the game, and he said that sort of the motto in the building this past week was enough is enough, where they've been on the edge of these big wins. They've been on the edge of the big road win, too, last week in Bama, and they said, enough is enough. We need to go out there, and we need to take what is ours. And that's certainly what they did. And I think you saw that because right out of the gate, this team had that intensity about them. The defense was playing lights out. Offense held up their side of the bargain, and this is just exactly what this team needed to do. You know, I mean, even with just going out on the road, to go out there and get the win is one thing, but to dominate and expose the opponent's weaknesses, that's what good teams do. You know what I mean?
[00:05:27] Like, I think most Gamecock fans felt pretty confident going into this game. Oklahoma is having a down year. They're beat up. They were still four and two going into this game. Mind you, they're still Oklahoma. They've recruited well for the last however many years. Brent Venables is a pretty good coach. I mean, maybe suspect, you know, as a head coach, but whatever, you're on the road, think it was a sellout for them. Right? This was tough. This would have been an easy game to play down to your opponent, you know, and even with confidence around Gamecock fans, I think you probably saw most people thinking it'd be, you know, a one score game, maybe ten points, whatever, right? I mean, Vegas had it as a close game. Gamecocks were ended up being favorites by kickoff. I think it was by one point. So to go out there and to expose greatly a team's weakness and to have it play directly into your hands, which is a strong defensive front, that's what good teams do. That's what good coach teams do. It's not just saying we're going to let the game come to us. We're going to do our thing, and we're going to see how the chips fall. It was, no, we need to let the defense lead the way here. We need to get after them, expose their young quarterback who started the game and his decision making ability. And then if they switch quarterbacks, he's a little bit less mobile and we're still going to take advantage of that. It was just exactly what you needed to do, and it's the perfect way to start the second half of the season on the best foot possible.
[00:07:07] You know, going into this game, it was the halfway point in the year.
[00:07:11] You knew that every game left on the schedule wasn't as daunting as some of these ones you had earlier in the year, which you actually could have ended up on the right side of. But that's beyond the point.
[00:07:24] To get to where you wanted to go, you needed to start on the right foot. Against Oklahoma. If things didn't go the Gamecocks way last Saturday, the path to six or better was murky. Now you see that this team is continuing to get better, continuing to elevate, sitting at four wins now with five left to play, three of them at home.
[00:07:51] And if the defense plays like that, you're going to be in every game. And a fantastic record is still very much on the table.
[00:08:02] This was just the perfect way to start things off right. And again, you get that monkey off your back with the big road win, which granted you did earlier in the year. I think it was two road SEC wins this year. And I think previous to that, Shane Beamer had only won two or three SEC games on the road in his tenure. Something along those lines. So you've already seen a marketable improvement in this year with the performances on the road and you have to just continue to build from that because the next thing, the next challenge you're going to have is can you actually get that ranked win right? Are you going to be in a position to unseat a ranked opponent? And the team is trending up. And I talked about it going into this game that these were the most important two weeks on South Carolina schedule. This was step one, get that win and then go into the bye week with confidence and with a different focus.
[00:09:01] The first bye week the focus was get healthy. Just get healthy and try to come out improved and hold your own against the team you're playing now you can go into the bye weekend. Yes, it's always try and get healthy. Playing in the SEC is a grind. Let these guys get healthy and there are some dudes who you really want to hopefully see down the stretch here. Deandre, Jules, Jared Brown. But now you can focus on fine tuning things like how do we get even better? You know, you're seeing Lenoris and this group, I think now, having played multiple games in its entirety in a row together, you're seeing it look better and better.
[00:09:43] And then you're seeing guys like Nicarbor, Vandrevius, Jacobs starting to improve more and more on the outside.
[00:09:50] So let's continue to bring those things along and then this will allow you to enter November, a long November with a more pointed, focused, healthy, and hopefully we can see that.
[00:10:04] That team that we've seen with Shane Beamer, with coming out of the bye week looking intense and improved and things like that.
[00:10:13] But this game was just phenomenal. Again, it was a historic defensive effort, the likes of which Oklahoma and the SEC just hasn't seen.
[00:10:25] So let's get into what I liked and what I didn't like here. We have to start with the defense. What did I like? It's simple. Everything. I mean, no notes. No notes.
[00:10:35] I mean, multiple scores. You generated multiple touchdowns.
[00:10:41] Putting your throat, putting your foot, excuse me, putting your foot on the throat of Oklahoma immediately. Putting them in a hole immediately. You caused multiple turnovers. Just fantastic effort all day.
[00:10:56] Never has Oklahoma given up nine sacks in a game that happened on Saturday. South Carolina literally made history. And the most insane thing of all, it was from nine different players.
[00:11:11] Nine different players had a sack. That is ridiculous. So of course you have Kyle Kennard, Dylan Stewart, Debo, the usual suspects.
[00:11:25] You saw Gere, you saw Edmund, Bryan, Thomas, junior, Bam Martin, Scott, TJ Tonka. It was exactly what you needed to do.
[00:11:35] Let the strength of your team lead the way. This entire defense was playing at such a high level, everyone doing their jobs, that it allowed everyone to feast. You know, defensive line, front seven being disruptive, causing errant passes, interceptions, pick six, you name it.
[00:11:57] The backfield doing a good enough job to not allow the quarterback to get the ball out early. Defensive line causes a fumble, scoop and score, sack, sack, sack. And this is no fluke either. This whole year it feels like it's been building up where we've seen good defensive effort after good defensive effort. And like, yes, there's moments here you wish you could have back.
[00:12:20] And Clayton White even going into this game, he said that we haven't played our best yet. We haven't played four great quarters. I think he's referencing, you know, a little bit of the LSU game, maybe the ending of the Alabama game. Well, they certainly made up for that, and they certainly did that this weekend. But you have to give credit to Clayton White and his staff. And you know what? You have to give credit to Shane Beamer, too.
[00:12:44] This past offseason, multiple people, many, many people and even writers, they wanted Clayton White gone. They said that his defensive just hasn't worked.
[00:12:58] The ship has sailed. Find a different guy, et cetera, et cetera. But Shane Beamer stuck with his guy. He saw something at the end of the year and he said, we're going to run it back. But Beamer, Clayton white, coach Robertson, coach Lucas, coach Gray, all these guys collectively, they scouted well, they recruited well. They finally got the roster as it should be. They got the roster right this season. Improved linebacker playdead, athleticism and depth across the board in the defensive backfield.
[00:13:38] Defensive line is the deepest it's been in a long time.
[00:13:43] True edge rushers.
[00:13:46] So it's a credit to them for putting this team together and putting that side of the ball together and coaching it up, developing it and getting everybody to believe this is no fluke. But that defensive staff, they all deserve their flowers. And again, this defense will be the reason South Carolina will be competitive in every game left this year. You had 13 tackles for a loss in this game.
[00:14:16] In fact, South Carolina now has more sacks at 28 and tackles for loss 57 than it had all of last season. So that's what I'm talking about here. You just didn't have the depth, the athleticism, the playmaking ability last year to be competitive week in and week out. Now you do. You have smart, veteran players who understand what to do. And yes, you got a fantastic spark. The thing, the catalyst, if you will, with the dynamic duo, the bash brothers of Kyle Kennard and Dylan Stewart.
[00:14:56] But outside of that, you have Nicki Minwari playing like a beast. Kilgore, judge, Collier, O'Donnell, Fortune, Debo Bam, d Knight. That is a snipe and a half to bring D Knight in from the portal as an older guy, but he brings that athleticism, that physicality, high football iq, that's exactly what you needed. TJ Sanders is playing credit well, Tonka. You know, everything is starting to click. And with many games left and the bye week as well, it's crazy to think that this defense might still be able to even get better. You just cannot say good enough things. You cannot say enough good things about this defensive effort. And again, just the thought that they might get better is scary.
[00:15:52] You're going to go into this bye week, guys get refreshed, they get healed. Maybe you throw in another wrinkle or two there because there's going to be challenges. You know, you're playing some good, some good offenses down the stretch here, but wow, that defense, you just. You can't say enough. I mean, really, for a second there, I legitimately thought we might pitch a shutout on the road against Oklahoma. Just crazy thoughts. Absolutely, absolutely crazy.
[00:16:20] But let's look at the offense here, starting with what I liked. Huge. No turnovers. How about that? Give it. Give yourselves a pat on the back on that one offense. Give yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back. That was very, very nice to see. It was something that they talked about. It was brought up a lot the course of the last week or so, point of emphasis.
[00:16:42] And they were able to. To correct some of these wrongs. That's not always going to be the case, right? Turnovers do happen, but silly mistakes of, you know, bad exchanges and things like that.
[00:16:56] You didn't see that this game, and I really, really was glad to see that. I liked Lenoris scrambling ability. You know, he seemed to do a really good job in this game at sensing the pressure, and he did a good job of tucking and running effectively. There were a few times where I think other quarterbacks would have simply been sacked, but he is big and strong enough to escape. Like, even with the pocket collapsing, he stays on his feet. I liked the game that Josh Simon had that play design to get him that touchdown was really nice. You got the defenders to bite in thinking it was a run. You got their eyes focused on this sort of pseudo mesh point that Lenoris had, was able to set his feet, find a wide open Josh Simon, I loved that. I liked that right away. They were able to take advantage of being in the short field and find the end zone. You know, if you don't get six points there and you settle for three after that opening interception, that's a big win for Oklahoma and signals that it's going to be that kind of day. So to be able to pound the rock, give it to rocket, find the end zone, that set the tone for the day. And it also said like, hey, defense, we see you. We're going to hold up our end of the bargain, too.
[00:18:09] Going two for three on red zone trips. That's effective.
[00:18:13] And, you know, call me crazy on this one, but I actually think the offensive line did a pretty decent job in pass protection. And yes, there were breakdowns and yes, there were sacks given up, but if you go back and look at some of the big plays, Lenoris had a pretty good pocket on a lot of them. And I think there were times where maybe he held onto it for a little long, but before that, the pocket was decent, so it wasn't perfect. But I think for the most part, they did a pretty good job, and I think they should be called out for that credit as well.
[00:18:47] Now, what I didn't like only scoring three points in the second half, you know, I mean, I kind of realized that during the time. Right, like in the moment. But the third quarter, Oklahoma, they came out to play. Their defense looked sharper, everything like that, crisper.
[00:19:06] But to come away with just three in the whole second half, you know, that is certainly interesting. Right.
[00:19:13] I understand with the score being what it was, it might change some things. But even so, like, again, Oklahoma woke up. They're a defensive minded team, defensive minded coach. They're playing more aggressive because of the score, right. They have to take some more chances, things like that. That leads to that. But I felt that the play calls in some big spots in the second half didn't really do us any favors.
[00:19:40] Going six for 18 on third down. That's about average or so for South Carolina, I think, but would certainly like to see that be a little better. And I didn't really like the play calling, but I want to call it more. So the clock management late in the game. And it's funny because it's a testament to being a Gamecock fan that being up over 20 points in the fourth quarter, it just. It didn't feel real, and it didn't feel like it was out of reach. You could just see, like, all, like, the doomsday scenarios on all of our minds of just like, oh, my God, like, we have to protect this lead. But because of that, I would have liked to see more high percentage plays, and I would have liked to see them run the ball more and more effectively as that fourth quarter went on to eat clock. And I wanted them to see go deeper into the play clock more and just slowly squeeze the life out of the game. It felt like late in the game they were very committed to passing the ball. And I don't know if that was because of the score and the defense was playing so well that you said, okay, maybe we can try and continue to get. Lenoris looks in the passing game and try to get some of these guys to connect on some of these plays, like, just getting those reps. But, you know, you did have to think about your defense. Like, I think when you saw them give up the score, I think that was because they were tired and, you know, the offense went three and out. I want to say right before that. So I would have liked to see a little bit more balance in the play, calling down the stretch because you can bleed clock more, you know, of course, you're in the driver's seat in that game, but I would have liked to see us sort of take more ownership in that moment. And then, side note, special teams here. I didn't like that fake field goal. In the moment. It felt fun in the moment. It was like, yeah, we're stomping them. Let's just go for it. Like, that's a practice rep. You might need that later in the year, practice it.
[00:21:50] But the more I thought about it, I actually would have liked to see Shane Beamer put trust in Alex Herrera in that moment and just tell him, hey, look. Yeah, it's kind of a far field goal. Like, what was it, 44 yards, 47 yards, something like that.
[00:22:07] He's struggled from around that distance, from 45 and up, but I would have liked Shane Beamer to put his arm around him and say, look, go out there and hit this kick. It's low pressure. I trust you to make this go out there and hit this kick.
[00:22:21] I would have liked to see that. But instead you go for the fake, which it's an all or nothing play at that point with the clock and things like that. If you connected on, it might have been a touchdown. That would have been crazy. But I would have liked to see the trust and build the confidence in Herrera there because, you know, if there's a meaningful kick and it's 46 yards, 45 yards, like we've seen in the past, like he should feel that the coach has confidence in him, you know what I mean?
[00:22:49] But nonetheless, here, this was a good old fashioned butt whooping, a whopping, I think Garcia on social media called it just a passionate ass kicking, something like that. You know, I just. I think both sides of the ball can take away a lot of things from this game. I think you take away some positives, obviously, on the defensive side, I think offensively you can take away some positives, but you can also take away some moments that you can build off of and improve. So you can go into this bye week again and just continue to improve and get ready for a critical, critical stretch in November there. But there is a lot to be excited for still for this season. But this is a highlight. One, we've had two really fun, good games, comfortable wins in the SEC, and that doesn't always happen as a gamecock, so enjoy it. So this was a really fun one. If the offense could continue to improve, and it seems like as they're getting more reps, that Lenoris is getting better. He just needs to see it more. As a young quarterback, it makes sense if he can really put it together and this offense really can put it together and get into a rhythm more early and more often. That's really the final piece of the puzzle here. But this game, with no turnovers and amazing defensive effort, it was just really what you wanted to see. You know, you're seeing different guys make plays. And if that can continue to happen and everyone can continue to get better together, this Gamecocks team can do a lot of damage in November. But for the time being, enjoy this feeling, enjoy all the reporting that comes from this game and just enjoy it. We deserve all this.
[00:24:32] Enjoy your week. So much fun. It's great to be a Gamecock, but with that 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.
