Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, a football coach is let go. National signing day updates and recaps from men's and women's basketball. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Okay.
Welcome to episode three, 360 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope y' all had a nice week out there. Gamecocks. It was like a week of, like, shaking off the sleep and the dust from a food coma from Thanksgiving and pretending to do work for the first few days and then finally getting into a groove. And yeah, here we are now. Conference championship weekend. Big weekend, football wise. College and pros going to get our final rankings of the College Football Playoff. There's lots of discourse going on and it's.
It's fun. I'm not going to get into the depression that I have that we're not involved in any of that, but nonetheless, it's exciting discourse. It's why we watch the games. And it's a lot of fun here. And throughout it, there's still Gamecock sports going on. We got basketball going on, and we have a lot of football news as well that we are tracking. So really never a dull moment here. So gonna jump right into it here. There's no other outside of the major sports no scores news to report here. So diving into football news, really running the gamut here of stuff to report. So starting off with a couple departures, offensive lineman Nick Sharp has entered the transfer portal. Sharp played kind of here and there throughout the season.
Going to find another opportunity was here for one year.
Okay.
And then defensive lineman Xavian Hardy entering the transfer portal as well. This one was interesting to me because Hardy, if you'll remember years ago, was originally recruited by South Carolina. Didn't work out, went the juco route, came back to South Carolina, and I was pretty excited when he made his way back to Carolina, but he didn't play at all.
And I was expecting to have him play a role this season. I think he was battling an injury, but maybe just buried in the depth chart. I know he didn't have the prototypical size for a defensive lineman, so kind of an interesting what if scenario there, but best of luck to these guys as they find their next venture. And then another departure, this time from the staff as running back coach Markell Blackwell has been released from Gamecock Football. Shane Beamer pulling the trigger, firing Coach Blackwell. And, you know, it's interesting, like, in a way, it feels like we're finally Making when I say we, Beamer is making the tough decisions like finally holding people accountable and finally making the tough but necessary calls to move the program in the right direction. Coach Blackwell came and he had a good resume. I believe, if memory serves, he came from, by the way of Texas A and M after Jimbo Fisher was fired. He had a good resume in two years of work. I didn't see any crazy development from the running backs like, yeah, Rocket Sanders had a good year last year, but he was already in all SEC caliber back when he was healthy.
Coach Blackwell also did not sign or land a high school recruit in the two years he was here.
What are we doing having a guy on staff that doesn't recruit, just cash and checks? I mean, where is the development from some of these younger guys? So I think this is a good decision and it also clears up a spot on staff for a potential offensive coordinator to say, hey, I like this guy at running back. As a running backs coach, do you have an opening? Hey, guess what? We happen to do so. But it does beg the question with these changes of is it going to be too little too late for Beamer? Like, I commend him for making these decisions, but I think he, for so long when he was hired and throughout his tenure so far has just wanted continuity and consistency with his staff. He did not want to be a revolving door like you see at some programs where you're constantly firing position coaches left and right. In his mind, I believe he thought continuity was key and I agree with that on a high level.
But I think he was so stubborn in it that he was letting job performance go by the wayside. And I think you saw that evident with the offensive line. Like, yes, you fired Lonnie Teasley mid year, but for years the offensive line has been behind the eight ball and you had two years of Coach Blackwell not up to snuff.
You go back and you look at Marcus Satterfield, that was pretty evident that that was not going to work. Held onto him for a little longer than he probably should have.
Shula wanted to keep the continuity in house. Relationships, rapport, all that Jazz. It hurt the offense this year.
So hopefully this serves as a wake up call. And again, like, hopefully it's not too little too late. But nonetheless, I think you look at losing coaches in Blackwell, Shula and Teasley, you effectively had three lame duck coaches on staff. You remove them and hopefully upgraded every single one of those positions.
Maybe, just maybe that is necessary to make a pretty noticeable step forward on the offensive side of the ball. So nonetheless, we have a, another coaching vacancy on this staff that is looking to be filled.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: But on the flip side of these things, there's a lot of additions to the football team coming this week. National signing day is upon us. It's a sort of a window of time. Right. But of course there's the big first day, second day where you get all the guys signing their letters of intent. It's very exciting. And I have to give credit to Shane Beamer here. Right. I know I was just being very critical of him.
Credit to him and I guess the guys left on staff. But really Shane here, he kept together a very good class despite having an abysmal year, not having one of his coordinators having fired another coach. You know, this was being Teasley and then Blackwell came out on Thursday.
So the program is in flux and you know, from the outside you could say trending in the wrong way. Shane Beamer was able to keep a really good class with players that can make impacts very early in their careers at key positions. It is a smaller class, 15 players as of now, but it is ranked 20th overall. So that means that you're getting kind of a small but fierce type of class where guys are highly rated, high average. Here this class is highlighted by five star offensive lineman Darius Gray. Number one player out of Virginia is Gray and the number one player at his position. This was a major get at a major position of need. And that's what I'm saying. Like credit to Beamer and this staff for keeping Gray because like him or not, Teasley was the guy recruiting this guy. Right. And he was a decent recruiter.
So to fire him in the middle of the season and still hold on to Gray's commitment is very commendable.
Also, four out of the five top ranked players in South Carolina signed with the Gamecocks. That's something that Shane Beamer has done really well in his tenure. Keeping the best in state talent home. That is incredibly incred. Excuse me. Incredibly impressive. Cornerback Zavian Currence, the top ranked player in the state with four stars leads the group. But the big news came Thursday afternoon with Edge Julian Walker, the second ranked player in the state, flipping from Michigan to the Gamecocks. And I know we're a little bit early, but it merry flip miss. It might as well be Christmas, but merry flip miss, that is a massive, massive get. Walker has all the physical tools to be a big time player on that defensive line. Apparently has a really great relationship with Dylan Stewart and hopefully he can get in and develop Quickly because he has everything it takes to be a big time player. Like, that's a big win right there. You know, this signing day was, it was, you know, kind of precarious because of the state the program is in right now. So not only did Beamer hold on to his commits, right? Like I think maybe one guy flipped, but you held onto a guy. Also quarterback Landon Duckworth, who was getting a late big push by Lane Kiffin and LSU to flip their way. You hold on to them, you hold on to this great in state talent. But then there was a flip target from right in your backyard who was threatening to go to the Big Ten, who was who you were able to keep home. So you improved the class.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: As it stood a week ago. You improved it this week despite having all this nonsense and extra stuff floating around the program.
So really, really, really cool to see. And it's exciting. I mean, it's like, you know, once I thought I was out, they pull me back in. It's like, it's just nuts. You get a good recruiting class, you see some smart decisions from your head coach and you start to think, well, maybe there, you know, and now we have to wait freaking, what's it, eight months or so to see if there is legitimate hope on this. I don't know.
I have no idea here. But on a different note, as I am recording this right now, I don't have an update. There is no official word on offensive coordinator, nor have I really seen any strong rumors. Like you see names being thrown out there, like this guy would be a good fit.
But I don't see anything of substance. And time is ticking. But I understand that you probably wanted to get through signing day, get these guys locked in and then you get your coordinator in place.
If I'm not mistaken, I actually think that that's how Beamer handled the Dawa Loggins hiring, where it was after signing day. And I think the thinking is like, hey, just get your playmakers in the building. Like, we don't need to be re pitching these guys with a new coordinator. Like, get them in the building, then you bring in the coach who has the system and you, you know, kind of go from there. So I'm hoping that we get an answer hopefully by Monday, because time is ticking and Beamer has taken his time in the past with these types of decisions and there's a lot of openings out there with new head coaches, etc. So we got to get our guy and we got to start to get to work quickly.
But all right, shifting Gears here to actual games that were being played, scores that are being reported on talking men's basketball here. The guys were in action at home Tuesday night against Virginia Tech. So another big time early season matchup here. And this was a Cardiac Cox game if I've ever seen one, going against Virginia Tech. While Tech grabbed an early lead, but bringing it into halftime, Carolina stormed back late in the second half to force overtime. So we've had some close late games to start the Q Zips season here. Now unfortunately, the guys could not capitalize from there and ended up dropping this game 86 to 63. Just absolutely brutal. Not being able to convert, get a good shot up lately or late in the game there.
Really, really hurt the Gamecocks there. The positive, if you want to find one from this game, is yet again showing grit, standing tall, holding tough against a power four out of conference game.
The negatives though are that The Gamecocks are now. 02 against Power Conference Power 4 competition and 03 against teams that have a pulse on their basketball program. Right. No disrespect to the teams that we've beaten, but you talk about Butler, Northwestern and now Virginia Tech, you're owing three against them. And this is the type of game that you could look back on as really one that got away. I mean really, as is the Northwestern one. And you know, it's tough, you know, like I, I appreciate the fight for sure. You have to love that. You know, last year this is a game that probably gets away from the Gamecocks and you lose by 15 plus. Right? Not this team. Right. They battled back, guys are battling, they go on runs late, force it to overtime, it's another high scoring affair. But on the other side, like there were just bad possessions in this game where you're getting locked down by post play. That's just not at the level that you're going to see in the sec. So you're, you're getting beat on that front and you had, you were just atrocious from 3 point range, 8 for 29 from 3, Elijah Strong went 1 for 9 and still managed to score a bunch of points. But like that's not going to get it done. Like when you're ice cold from three, if you're trying to get that to spark your run, to spark your offense, you're going to live and die with it.
And so that's something that is certainly concerning. And it's a game that again, I feel like you could look back on as one that really could hurt you down the road. And it's tough because early in the season, you know, before we played Butler and Northwestern, you know, the team, the team is playing with energy, right? Like throughout, right. They're playing with energy. But I really liked what you're seeing. Scoring in bunches, distributing the ball, getting guys, you know, into good scoring off the bench. Miles Studi, I will say, is dealing with some injuries early this season. So, you know, that's been a factor.
But it's easy to beat up on the inferior competition.
It is.
And even if Carolina had won one of these games, talking these three against decent, decent squads here, that would give you some reason to believe that these guys, you know, are for real and can continue to come together and can continue to learn how to win. And I think that's really what it comes down to. Like, can the guys quickly come together and learn how to win some of these close games?
Because once conference play gets here, it's only going to get harder and you might find yourself in some of these late, close game situations. Now, I do like the roster a lot more than last year. And that was a real Achilles heel of the team not being able to close late last year. So I believe that there are some guys on this squad that can hit the big shot, but we just haven't seen it yet. And you've had opportunities to, you know, you've had opportunities to have a good late possession to try and win the ballgame, and you haven't. So still trying to improve. It is basketball. You're going to lose some games. I just hope that these guys are able to get it together and can make a little bit of noise in conference play. Right. Again, went into this year low expectations. Let's see what we can do. I've seen some folks not. Not being pleased with Lamont, if you're asking me. I think that's a little premature at this point in the year. But the guys really do got to get it together. So next game for them will be Saturday afternoon at home against Stetson. And then women's basketball. We're back to kind of the cadence where as I'm recording, the Ladies are playing. They're currently playing Louisville in Louisville. So hopefully they can get a nice road w there. But then after that, the ladies will host the NC Central almost at NC State, NC Central, Sunday afternoon. So that's a nice easy cruise in one. You kind of come down from your sports weekend there. But as I mentioned earlier at the show, it is conference championship weekend, one of my favorite weekends of the year. Like High stakes games. Best competition you can lock in for each one. You don't got to do a quad box and your brain is split in half.
No, we're going to lock in here and there's a few matchups that if they go the right way or wrong way, depending on how you look at it, there could be some serious chaos in the cfp. So I am doing a conference championship pick them. Not quite a six pack but here we go in the acc. I'm doing this for the chaos. Putting my brain aside. Duke plus four versus Virginia in the Big 12. BYU going against Texas Tech. Give me tech minus 12 and a half. I've been very high on them this year. Big Ten, this is going to be a good game.
We are we going to see what Indiana really like. This is going to be fantastic. Indiana versus Ohio State. I'm going with the Buckeyes minus four.
They've been the best team in the country this year in my opinion and I'm not going to bet against them. And then in the sec this is going to be a good game as well. Let's see what I'm talking about.
And I'm not sure who's going to win this game, but I think it's going to be close. And so I am going to go Alabama plus two and a half versus uga. Although I could see UGA pulling this out. But 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 Cocks.
