Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks. The Gamecocks win the Palmetto bowl in fantastic fashion, and women's basketball bounces back nicely. Okay, here we.
[00:00:55] Okay. Welcome to episode 279 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And you may want to lower your volume for a second because. How about them Gamecocks? How about them Gamecocks?
[00:01:19] Wow. Absolutely. Wow.
[00:01:23] Cluck. Femson. I hate orange.
[00:01:27] We own this state.
[00:01:31] Oh, my goodness, y'all. Oh, my goodness.
[00:01:38] This means something. It means something.
[00:01:43] What a team.
[00:01:45] What a season.
[00:01:47] What a game, y'all. I mean, I'm sitting here Sunday evening having processed feelings somewhat, having talked it out to multiple people, friends, family, but this joy and this happiness and this relief is just overwhelming.
[00:02:13] And it was just. It's just one of those deals where I could stub my toe today. Didn't matter because the Gamecocks beat Clemson.
[00:02:22] I could spill something on my couch.
[00:02:27] Doesn't matter because the Gamecocks beat Clemson. And not just beating Clemson, which, of course, is the end goal, always owning the state.
[00:02:38] And again, it's. I'll get into a second here, a game where you felt like you probably should have won, but just that fashion and the way that it was done, to just be on the edge of despair and to turn things around in such a way, in such a moment that 3rd and 16 will live in Gamecock lore forever.
[00:03:09] And it's one of those deals where you can just shut a Clemson fan up, where maybe in past years, you could say he pushed off.
[00:03:19] Now you can say third and 16.
[00:03:23] And again, again, I'm going to get into in a second here. But who it is. Great.
[00:03:31] Great to be a Gamecock here. I'm going to dive into the football reaction and everything in just a hot second here. But I have to stay true to the show's format here and do a quick recap, as we did have some action go on since the last episode, or kind of like between the last recordings, I'll say. And you had South Carolina women's basketball. They were in action. It was their first game since losing their first one of the season. They took on Iowa State. This was actually on Thanksgiving. So it was a little bit of a question of what do we see from the Gamecocks in this game? How does Don rally the troops? What do we see reaction from the players? And they left, no doubt.
[00:04:22] They defeated Iowa State to the tune of 76 to 36. So yeah, I think they're just fine. And again, talked about it a little bit after that game where it's not necessarily bad that they took that early bump right. There was a lot of pressure in keeping that win streak going and it is a team with a lot of pieces from years past, but they still are finding their new identity this season and it's a learning experience. So very excited to see them bounce back. The ladies next game is Thursday night part of the SEC ACC Challenge. They will be taking on Duke. So again these early season battles against legitimate competition that has tended to happen the last few years. It feels like I think Don does like it when you know you have such a talented team and you're primed to have a good spot in a postseason tournament.
[00:05:29] Get these muscle memory going, you know what I mean? So we'll be excited to watch that Thursday night sports are kind of on a little bit of a pause because of the Thanksgiving break here. So wanted to recap that. But the main topic of conversation in Gamecock Nation, and now henceforth for the rest of the podcast, is of course what happened Saturday afternoon as the Gamecocks went up to Clemson for the annual rivalry matchup, Palmetto bowl against 12th ranked Clemson and in dramatic, fantastic, heart palpitating fashion defeated Clemson 17 to 14.
[00:06:15] And this is a moment that could be program changing.
[00:06:24] It's certainly a moment that everyone is going to remember who they were with and where they were.
[00:06:29] And it's a moment and a game that has thrust South Carolina onto the national stage. You know, there were of course these moments where college football pundits would talk about us. You'd see some of the accounts like the bar stools of the world, college football accounts, CFB alerts, like that type of deal, talking about South Carolina, like beating Missouri in that fashion or the 21 nothing start against Oklahoma, right?
[00:07:00] People are calling out Lenora Sellers as one of the best players in the country. People are calling out the Gamecocks as being one of the best teams in the country and having one of the best resumes of all college football.
[00:07:18] This is a moment we will not forget for a very, very, very long time.
[00:07:27] So this game here, you know, I think we can be honest with it. It was certainly not the prettiest from South Carolina early on in the game. You know, you have a quick first quarter, 00 north, no scores.
[00:07:43] South Carolina of course had that tough turnover deep in Clemson territory, but defense was able to lock things down and it just felt like, okay, these are two really Good teams that both have good defenses. It's going to be a low scoring slugfest. And then on top of it, it's a rivalry game where weird things happen. Just look across the country. Weird shit happens this weekend.
[00:08:13] Not just upsets, but fights. It's just a special weekend in college football. So I think both teams were just coming in, locked into this thing.
[00:08:24] And from a Gamecock perspective, you know, offensively, it just seemed like things were really for like 3/4, like just. Just not really cooking. Right. And I don't know if that's a credit we should give to Clemson for game planning things and taking away the things that South Carolina has done well, or if it was a deal where maybe there was just guys not on the same page and maybe some of the game planning was a little off because pretty much from the jump, it seemed like Lenoris was the guy that came to work that day and it seemed like his scrambles and getting out of sacks were the catalyst for any big play. You know, attaway, had a nice run, Rocket had a nice run. But it wasn't this game where it was just full ground and pound. It wasn't this game where we were able to fully air it out. It really was Lenorris keeping drives alive.
[00:09:26] And it just made it feel like, oh, this isn't the offense that we had seen these last few weeks. But again, it was that type of rock fight, drag out type of game, defensive struggle.
[00:09:39] But it certainly made you worry because you felt that going into this game, South Carolina's offense was humming, but there were mistakes, you know, and let's talk about it for a little bit here.
[00:09:54] Way too many silly penalties all day. It just felt like shooting ourselves in the foot. And. And Shane Beamer talked about it right in that immediate post game interview where he was just saying, like, we tried to give this game away more than once where you had silly penalties and then you lost the turnover battle as well. You know, if you want to look at an example of how these things can correlate sometimes it was late in the game, fourth quarter, I believe it was where I think it was Simpkins Torcelli had that unsportsmanlike conduct sort of late hit out of bounds after Lenorris had that big scramble. And then it's. It puts the guys behind the chains. The offense was moving. They were deep in Clemson territory. And then I. The next play was the pick that Lenore has kind of forced it to harbor where you could tell they weren't on the same page. But part of that was because the offense had to make up for the mistake that just happened and they felt like they needed to get a chunk play. And so human nature is, I got to force it into this window here. So that was just an example of mistakes that riddled this game. That in my opinion, if you clean those up, this is a much different score. And it's funny because we kind of sent some of those things last year, but had been the story a little bit for this team this year, where there were some penalties and there were some turnovers and a lot of those got corrected during this winning streak. And you saw it rear its head again, of course, in this matchup. But yet the Gamecocks were able to persevere.
[00:11:32] And I think that that's the testament. And the lesson of this game is that if you persevere and you keep plugging away and you do your job, and when you have a whole team in three phases working together towards that goal, you get the results.
[00:11:51] That is the story of this 2024 South Carolina Gamecocks team, that they have heart and they have grit and they never gave up.
[00:12:02] Look at the Missouri game, look at this game. You could even point to a game like the Vandy game where a lot of folks were saying, oh, this could be that classic South Carolina letdown game. But no, they bullied him.
[00:12:17] Every time this team has been counted out, they've responded and they've responded together and better. You had a penalty where South Carolina is going for it for fourth down late in that fourth quarter, maybe like mid fourth quarter or so, and it pushes you back to take the field goal. I was talking about it with the folks that I was watching the game with, you know, but even before the penalty, do you kick here and maybe try and take some points or do you go for it? And some folks were saying you got to go for it. I actually kind of leaned on the side of take the points, which maybe in that situation was not what the only analytics say, whatever, but you end up kicking. And that's another unsung moment of this game where, you know, Alex Herrera was a guy who talked about it before, has come under some criticism.
[00:13:11] It wasn't the furthest kick, but it certainly wasn't the closest 42 yard field goal drills. It puts you within striking distance.
[00:13:21] Defense is able to get you that stop and then you get the ball back and you're behind the chains deep in Clemson territory again. Offense was able to kind of take advantage of some good field position. You're able to move It a little bit, you get things cooking but then you're behind the chains. And then Lenora Sellers peels off a 20 yard run that we will never ever forget. Takes the lead with a little over a minute to go.
[00:13:52] I was in disbelief, I was in shock, like silently jumping up and down. I think when he was running I just kept saying Lenoris, Lenores Linares. This guy's unbelievable. He is a budding star. He's already a star. I think we need to stop saying like a rising star. He's a star. He's one of the most electric players in the country. He's a red shirt freshman. He's only going to get better. And he single handedly won this game. Like the defense of course did a really good job holding Clemson to 14 points. And I'm going to get to the D Knight pick in a second.
[00:14:26] But he was the guy that kept the drives alive. He was the guy that scored the touchdowns. He's what you have to game plan for. And he was able to demoralize the Clemson defense.
[00:14:41] It was just a fantastic showing. He's your leading rusher with 166 yards, two touchdowns.
[00:14:49] It was just an unbelievable showing from a guy who going into this season, South Carolina fans were incredibly excited and hopeful for. And this game is why.
[00:15:02] Because he can put the team on his back. We knew it was there.
[00:15:08] You know, the Missouri game late with running and throwing, Oklahoma. These are the games that we knew Lenoris had. He had to grow into it, he had to develop and boy has he.
[00:15:25] And the good news for Gamecock fans is that it's only going to get better. He is only going to get better. He's going to get bigger, he's going to get faster, he's going to get stronger, he's going to get more football smart, he's going to have more reps. There's going to be times where in future games he can say well wait a second. This kind of reminds me of late in the game against Mizzou. What did we do here?
[00:15:47] That's what makes the quarterback so important and so successful is when they are able to do that.
[00:15:55] And then late in the game you score and of course Clemson is able to get a couple of chunk plays and they're moving and grooving and I'm thinking oh shit, like are we headed for an overtime game? Night before you had watched Georgia, Georgia Tech go to what was it, eight overtimes and then they get even closer and you're thinking oh my God, like are we about to surrender this, like, here we go, Carolina football.
[00:16:22] But I kept saying to myself, like muttering under my breath, the defense is a big reason why we're sitting here. The defense is a huge reason why you're sitting at 15.
[00:16:34] They've been one of the more consistent parts of this team, if not the most consistent part. And they had a good day. Stopping them on fourth deep in territory, getting a couple of timely sacks.
[00:16:46] But there wasn't this dominant, ferocious force of, you know, consistency. Right. Like the credit record credits do. Clemson game planned well. They were able to get the ball out quickly and I think we were playing softer coverage, just trying to keep the play in front of us. Playing some of that Ben, don't break style, which worked because late in the game you get that turnover that you so desperately needed.
[00:17:14] And it's from a player in D night who sort of embodies this transfer class that we saw with guys like Rocket Canard, D. Knight, guys that came here with one year left to prove it.
[00:17:33] And they went above and beyond and they embodied everything that coach Beamer talks about. They bought into the culture. You look at a guy like Kennard, he's doing fantastic things in the community. Rocket is having a career year, D. Knight, exactly. Living up to the billing and then some. Being a leader in the locker room and he comes up with the pick. And turnovers had been a staple of this defense under Clayton White for a while.
[00:18:03] This year they were a big part of the story. And it just feels so fitting that you have a game ceiling interception that you're all able to celebrate for and you end up two out of three years winning this game, winning back to back games at Clemson.
[00:18:23] I think it was the first time, I think it might have been 2011, 2013, if I'm not mistaken. You know that era where you were able to go up to Clemson and beat them at their place twice in a row now, it's just fantastic. It takes guts. This team has guts.
[00:18:43] Would they win four ranked matchups? I know that.
[00:18:48] Four road wins, something like that.
[00:18:52] It doesn't matter where this team plays or when this team plays. They could play on the freaking moon and they're going to dominate.
[00:19:01] And it's just that complimentary football. And you saw it in that fourth quarter where maybe there were some mistakes on the offense. The defense says, hey, we'll get you that ball back with good field position. Offense says, thank you very much, we're going to go score and put this game on ice.
[00:19:19] Then the defense says, okay, we'll close the door here. Special teams chips in.
[00:19:25] You get that kick.
[00:19:27] It's an unbelievable showing. An unbelievable showing. Credit to everybody in that building and in that entire locker room.
[00:19:39] It took. It took a village.
[00:19:42] And this is an incredible team. It's a special, special group. The 2024 Gamecocks. Six game winning streak. Shane Beamer now having more wins through four seasons than anyone ever to coach at South Carolina in their first four seasons. That's including Steve Spurrier.
[00:20:02] It's just fantastic. It is just fantastic. I'm so happy for those guys. I'm so happy for all of us. Anyone who's associated Roots for anything for this program. I think it's just an incredible, incredible moment. Six game win streak to end the year.
[00:20:21] Wow. Wow.
[00:20:24] And you know, so now you sit here and you're thinking about, well, what's next? You know, it's the last game of the regular season. It's sad. The good news is that no matter what, we will have a postseason game, at least one, right? So it's not the last time we're going to see this group this year.
[00:20:44] Either way you slice it, there's going to be an exciting game coming up. And I think that that's great. It's crazy to think that when we started the year, it was a discussion about a path to six, maybe seven wins.
[00:21:00] And here we are at nine.
[00:21:04] Nine.
[00:21:05] And it's just a testament to Beamer and all of these coaches for gelling so well, getting the most out of their guys and having this team play as a unit and to rally, you know, after that Alabama game or even after that LSU game, a lot of teams would have folded, a lot of teams would have quit and said, you know what, maybe we're just not up to stuff here. But this team rallied and they said, no, we are better than that. And we do deserve to hang with teams like that. And we can and we will. And they ripped off six wins and did so in incredible fashion.
[00:21:49] So now we wait. We wait until the committee drops their rankings on Tuesday.
[00:21:57] And I've talked at length with people. There's just, it's an inexact science where it's kind of funny where you want to be in like 11 or higher because you're going to have a team like the Big 12 champion who's not ranked in the 12 right now. They're going to get an auto bid when they win. So then they'll probably take the 12th seed. So you're hoping for South Carolina to be 11 or higher.
[00:22:25] But the committee has Kind of been wishy washy on what do they hold higher? Like Alabama won on Saturday.
[00:22:35] They're ranked slightly ahead of South Carolina.
[00:22:39] Their last game of the year was unranked. Auburn that they won. They hold that head to head matchup where they barely beat South Carolina. South Carolina has more ranked wins than I believe anyone in the country. They've done so on the road a few times.
[00:22:58] I think we're the best, most deserving team right now. You know, like most deserving I think is a phrase that applies to us incredibly well. Like does one game, one head to head game, keep Alabama ahead of us? The committee might say so, but I think you got to look at the body of work and the committee has to take into account a few things here because what they do in this ranking on Tuesday and then in their final one after the championship games, like it's going to set a big precedent for how teams will set up future schedules and how they approach conference championship games. Like do you get punished if you lose a championship game?
[00:23:48] You know, do you weigh the end of the year differently than the beginning of the year? Will you take into effect or into matter injuries? Like when you don't have your starting quarterback for an entire half of football and when a game where you were winning early in the year?
[00:24:07] Because in past years, last year the committee said that that does in fact matter. Look at Florida State.
[00:24:15] So I'll talk more about that when the final rankings drop.
[00:24:20] I'll probably talk about it on social media and things like that before the next episode. But that's the big question mark, is that has South Carolina done enough to earn a playoff berth? And yes, I'm a South Carolina Gamecocks fan. I certainly think that we have though. And I think when you look around you see enough national people who say so and it's just frustrating because logically I think we do. We just went on the road to beat the 12th ranked team in the country. So you would say, okay, well if you beat 12, you should be at least 12. But let's take into consideration you've won six in a row.
[00:25:06] You've done so against good competition. You're not just beating nobodies, you're beating Missouri. Vandy, who was ranked at the time, who still had a fine season. That's a good team there. Oklahoma at Oklahoma. Oklahoma has a nice, you know, put together a fine season when it's all said and done. So I think when you put the whole picture together, I think you're probably better than 12. But the committee just has their own logic and I think they big brain it and I think that they have biases and preconceived notions that they stick to. And I think brand name matters to them more than resume. I do and it's sad. I hope that I eat my words come Tuesday night, but it's just something that we have to consider. And when it's all said and done, just remember and try to keep in mind that this has just been a fantastic moment to season for South Carolina.
[00:26:04] We get another game regardless. Hopefully it has a little extra meaning to it in a playoff format. No team wants to see us in the playoff, I can promise you that.
[00:26:15] But regardless, enjoy this one. You can think about the playoff scenarios a little bit, sure. But this has been an incredible moment for South Carolina. I am so, so happy for all of us. It is great to be a Gamecock. And 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 co.
