Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecock's reaction and thoughts following the tough loss to Alabama. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:52] Okay.
[00:00:53] Welcome to episode 350 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, and if you want to laugh, if you want to cry, I don't blame you. I'm sitting here today on a Sunday, still quite devastated.
[00:01:12] Just quite devastated. I didn't even say I'm going to keep this episode to 1801 because, y', all. I just don't know if I have it in me, but I owe it to y' all and maybe myself to at least get some thoughts out here. Of course, the thing that is top of mind for everyone here is South Carolina dropping an absolute heartbreaker at home to Alabama with a chance at a top five upset. Losing ultimately 29 to 22, dropping the Gamecocks to three and five.
[00:01:47] I was talking, you know, to friends and, you know, everyone after the game, and, you know, someone was like, man, that's just a gut punch loss. And I said, no, we've had gut punch losses. Maybe the Missouri game this year, LSU last year. You know, you go back, you know, a little bit that. That Florida game where you. You choked it away late. Those are. Those are gut punches, right?
[00:02:14] This was a gut retrieval.
[00:02:18] This was a. A. A crusher because it had everything right, like a team and a fan base desperate for a win.
[00:02:30] And to finally have that game at home, nonetheless, where you're. You're seeing things come together, at least not perfectly, but more so than they had all year. A defense that was playing lights out, you got the number four team on the ropes at home. The sun's gone down to Williams, Bryce for that second half, and you're starting to let it creep into your mind that maybe we can do this.
[00:03:00] And you start that second half and you capture the lead, and yes, the fourth quarter, Alabama rallies, ties the game. And, you know, you're sitting there and thinking, this is it. Like, this is. This is it right here. Like, this is. This is the moment we've been waiting for. We saw it at times last year where clutch time on the ropes, got to make a couple of big plays offensively. Let's go down the field and walk this thing off.
[00:03:35] Only for in the blink of an eye to have it go away and to have that turnover, which, you know that. That costly turnover, which, you know, you're really had avoided to happen in that moment.
[00:03:53] And it's your guy, your star quarterback, fumbling it on top of it in, you know, what was kind of a routine play, just trying to keep it going. A keeper, the thing that everyone wants him to do more of, to have it snatched away.
[00:04:09] And then Alabama has the ball right on the edge of a field goal range for them. And in my mind, it wasn't a question they were, you know, gonna do what they did.
[00:04:21] It's. It's a heartbreaker. It is, you know, and I, when the fumble happened, I just kind of sat there numb because I. You kind of knew what was going to happen. And there's all this discourse online about, well, you know, should they have let them score like they did? You know, you'd rather force the field goal, albeit short. Look like there's different schools of thought, but I think a general football consensus is in that instance, once they got as close as they did, you let them score and you give yourself at least a crack at it. Where, you know, they could have.
[00:05:02] They could have, you know, run one or two BS runs and then kicked an absolute chip shot. And like, it was like, then that way, you know, it's gonna do it as time expires, but it's, it's just, it's tough. So, yeah, let's go through this thing here. Defensively, what a freaking effort. What a freaking effort. I mean, they were balling. They were ballin pretty much all night. I mean, you go. You go into the half, right? You go into the half. It was. What was it, 14 to 6.
[00:05:35] And it really shouldn't have been that because of the, because of the pick six, bad communication mistakes with, with, with that to phase on. But, you know, they really only gave up the one touchdown in, in the first half. They pitched a shutout in the third quarter and then, yes, in the fourth, you give up the scores. And that two point conversion, like, really, really tough. But the reason why we were able to have Bama on the ropes, it was not because we were putting up 50 points. It was because the defense didn't give them an inch for the vast majority of the game. And it allowed the offense to breathe a little bit, right? And so shout out to Clayton White. Shout out to that entire group. Stewie played great. Nick Barrett. Shout out to Nick Barrett, a guy who took that red shirt year, wanted this year to be, you know, the leader of that unit. He showed up in a massive, massive way. Kilgore, with that incredible pass breakup, you know, Pikes with the, with the fumble recovery. Like the defense was getting after it all night, you know, and it was the type of like, drop your nuts effort that I was, I was reminiscing on with that Tennessee game a few years back where I was just like, man, these guys are just ballin', you know, and I didn't think they were doing anything crazy.
[00:06:56] And yes, there was a. There's a couple of plays that of course, you want back, big chunk plays, third down conversions and things like that. But for the vast majority of the game, that defense, bald, you have to give Clayton White in that group absolute credit there. And then offensively, I think we saw, you know, while it wasn't perfect, I think we saw probably the best offensive game from start to finish that we have this year. That opening drive, you know, you get down there, it's very reminiscent of that Oklahoma game. You get deep into enemy territory. And I was proud that Shane Beamer took the three points there because it would have been easy to try to go for it and stay aggressive. But, you know, you got down there, you took the points. That was impressive.
[00:07:42] Of course you wish that Joyce could have made that kick, but, you know, you were able to make up for it. I mean, the, the deep shot to harbor was a thing of beauty. I just think you saw, I still think you saw at times Shula being.
[00:08:01] I don't know what the right word is here, like he would turtle up, right? Like, this whole season it's been nothing, but, you know, why are you constantly running it between the tackles and, you know, when there's other options available to you? And I feel like they kind of did that well, where they ran stretch plays, they rolled the north, south, you saw some screens and things like that, like the pop passes to Fuller, tried to get, you know, Jaden Saylor's involved a little bit more, but there were a couple of times late in the game where you would have liked to see a couple of those more conservative runs. You know, late in the game, we were backed up in our own end. And you're hoping that Alabama's going to need to kill a couple timeouts. You know, you want to choose some clock. Instead, you did a couple quick passes that didn't work.
[00:08:49] You would have liked to maybe force Alabama's hand there to call that time out there, but I thought we saw a lot of good. You know, I think Lenores looked more like himself where he was being more aggressive with the scrambling. And you saw him a couple of times take that first read, maybe that quick set, look at the second, tuck it and run. You know, he had more of a vision for the field, got a couple of first downs with his legs. The time when he had that huge run earlier in the game and the field just opened up to him, he took that. He was aggressive. There was the touchdown run, of course, that you love to see from him. That was a. That was a great play call deep in enemy territory and a fantastic read by Lenores to do that. There was the touchdown run that got wiped off by a pretty ticky tack hold, which is just freaking brutal. That looked good. The. The throw to harbor. Freaking dime. 54 yard dot. You like to see it. There were several throws that were off, though. You know, the one to Faison, you know, that was the pick. Faison's got to do something with that, right? The two point conversion.
[00:10:03] Didn't love the play call there. I think he had Hunt, though, in the flat open, you know, could have had a little bit more touch on that pass, but I still think you got to make that catch there. The. There was a. Out a little bit of a wide receiver screen, excuse me, to Mazio, at one point that, that was just off. So still at times he wasn't crisp, but you saw more of that vintage Lenoris and I think you saw Shula and the offensive staff simplify things and Beamer pretty much confirmed it as such. But you didn't see a lot of Lenores standing there forever trying to read the defense because that's when he gets into trouble. That's when he's gotten into trouble this whole year. And you saw it at times that pick six was a play where guys were going deep and all of a sudden the pressure's in Lenora's face. He stepped back a little bit, but he had to throw, you know, and he had to just put it towards Faison. So there was a reason why it wasn't the best throw. But that play was kind of fudged from the.
[00:11:05] Where the pressure was on him. And I think it was because there weren't a lot of quick reads, you know, and there were a couple of other times where the Norris, you know, had to escape pressure and things like that. So you, you try to have those moments where you want to take the shot and it works with harbor and he had a great pocket there, but I still think there were times where you just can't have him sit in there all day. And I think they did do a pretty good job of trying to move the pocket quicker. Simplified reads. And I mean, you saw it like, you know, the offense, they put up points every quarter.
[00:11:45] They put up multiple touchdowns, which. That was a. That was a Crow to the game going into this.
[00:11:52] And it's just a shame because, you know, it sets up at the end for a two minute drive where I'm thinking to myself like, wouldn't this be the ultimate redemption where it's in the offense's hands and they go down there and they set up this kick and Joyce would have had the recept. He would have had the redemption for a game winner.
[00:12:19] Shula, Lenoris, everyone, it, it set up so well, but in the blink of an eye it was gone.
[00:12:26] And you know, there's some people out there who are like, well, what do you expect? You know, it's Gamecock football this season, you know, is going that way. And like you were in this game, you know, we, we outplayed Alabama, you know, maybe with the exception of a few minutes there in the fourth, but we outplayed Alabama. You know, we, we were moving the ball more consistently than they were defensively. We bottled them up right, like, of course they're going to get a couple of their big plays. They have, they have a really good offense, they have a good quarterback, but we had him all sorts of messed up for a lot of the game. We got him on the ground, we caused a turnover. These things that they weren't doing a lot of, we forced it.
[00:13:07] Williams, Bryce was rocking. Of course, for those of y' all who were at the game, if you're listening to this, that's all they were talking about on, on, on, on the broadcast was just how, how much it was rocking, but, you know, yeah, just come up empty and, you know, I don't really know. There's not much else to say. It's just, it's, it felt like a moment where you had a team that was desperate for a win in South Carolina and it was a moment where we could have done it and you, you come up empty and there's, there's, there's not much more you can say.
[00:13:44] So, yeah, if you want to, if you want to cry, if you want to just throw your hands up and laugh. Whatever you need to do to get over this one, I don't blame you. You know, like, this isn't, this wasn't a one, this is a, you know, and I, I, I, I signed up for this, right? Like, going into this game, I was like, I just want this to be a good game into the second half. And boy was it, it was a great game. Entertaining back and forth. Like, that was a great football game.
[00:14:12] And you know, compared to the Oklahoma game or the Vandy game, Like where those were, that was just over and done with. Like, this was a fight. And you, you saw that. Like, you saw, you know, you needed a couple of third down conversions. There was that, that fourth and short, you know, kind of in no man's land. You gave it to Fuller and he got it. Like you saw some grit and resolve from this offense that you hadn't really seen this year.
[00:14:39] And it just, it felt like it was a, it was our moment to do something and not just to come up short that would have sucked, but to have that fumble.
[00:14:50] It was like a very anticlimactic fumble. He was just falling to the ground. It comes out, thought maybe he was down. Clearly wasn't, you know, and I'm sure Lenores is, is kicking himself. It's, it's not his fault, you know, like the team was in the position to do it. It happens. You know, it's. You're, you're in that pile. It just, it happens.
[00:15:12] I'll tell you one thing, I'll tell you one thing.
[00:15:15] I blame anybody who got out of their seats and was getting close to the field to storm. If you're doing that, like, what kind of lack of karma or sports luck do you just not believe in?
[00:15:31] If we win the game, yeah, we're gonna storm the field. But you'll get there. When you get there, seeing the students come down and, you know, pack the rail, seeing people going down the spirals, like, what are we doing?
[00:15:45] Like, if you're in a position to have this, when you don't move, like, that's like what. That's Sports Fandom 101. You stay exactly where you are. You don't change what you're drinking, don't change what you're eating, don't change.
[00:16:01] If we're gonna point the blame squarely on someone, I think it's any fan who was in that stadium and put themselves in a position to try and storm the field while the game was still very much up in the air.
[00:16:14] My goodness gracious.
[00:16:17] So it's a heartbreaker. You know, it's this one, you know, to lose to this team the second year in a row when you really were right there to do it.
[00:16:31] My goodness gracious.
[00:16:33] Brutal.
[00:16:35] It's absolutely brutal. You know, like, you can look, you can look back and you can try and get mad at a couple of things.
[00:16:42] You can look at the missed kick, you can look at the two point conversion. I saw some folks saying, like, why would you even go for two? Like, you know, we can have that Discussion. The point is, you had the ball two minutes with a chance to drive down and walk it off, or at the very least, hold on to it, go to overtime, and just hang tight and see what you could do.
[00:17:08] That's the bottom line, right? This isn't a deal where you're like, oh, if this one thing went, you know, we had the ball, we turned it over in a terrible position with way too much time on the clock against a good team that just needed an inch and they took a mile.
[00:17:25] It sucks. It just sucks. Like.
[00:17:28] And then you're looking ahead, right? Ole Miss, massive win on the road against Oklahoma. A and M just decimated LSU on the road. Like, yeah, there's some signs of life for this offense now, but my goodness, like, shoot, this.
[00:17:46] This would have changed a lot of vibes around Columbia. You know, it wouldn't save the season, per se, but it makes the path to a bowl right there. And, I mean, we'll see. We'll see if this. This offense found something this week, and they just double down and triple down on the. You know, those simplified playbook.
[00:18:06] But for now, process this as best you can.
[00:18:11] Me, personally, this. This one. This one's gonna sting for a little bit.
[00:18:16] Take, take, take care. Rest, take care of each other, check on each other. Be a good person today. It's okay to not be okay with that, y'. All. 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.
