Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, South Carolina has a new athletic director. Men's basketball has a good showing in Boston. And my reaction to the CFP rankings. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:56] Okay. Welcome to episode 280 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001 and hope you all had a great week out there. Gamecocks. Crazy to think that it's. We're already like well into December, you know, with Thanksgiving being so late this year. Just blinked my eyes and here we go, neck deep in Christmas. I mean, I love that, but my goodness, we are moving right along here and sort of an interesting week for us, I'm sure. Ups and downs, a lot of mix of emotions here, but we're in it together. We'll roll with it. And if you're feeling down, maybe have some Christmas cookies early, maybe watch a Christmas movie or something. That's what I'm trying to do at least here. But we're moving forward, trying to find the silver linings and things. I'm going to get into it all here in a minute. Got a lot to cover, some exciting things going on at the university. So let's jump right in here. The biggest news from the week is that we have a new athletic director. Y'all will remember that Ray Tanner announced basically that he is retiring, stepping down, still going to have some sort of advisory role at the university. But that kicked off a search that was pretty much under wraps from the university and everyone involved in that. He had a few names here and there trickle out, but pretty quickly it just came about that South Carolina had zeroed in on their candidate and went ahead and hired Jeremiah Donati. Hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, from tcu. So he's replacing Ray Tanner. I think he officially starts in January. I would assume it's a January 1st type of deal. But yeah, he was previously the athletic director at tcu, I believe for the last seven years or so. But before that was an assistant ad, more or less. So he had been at TCU for, I think, like 12 or 14 years, something like that. So has a lot of experience in this field. When you look at TCU under his watch, they had a lot of success under a variety of sports here. He oversaw the hiring of Sonny Dykes and Jamie Dixon. So big name hires at big sports. But I think his biggest quality, from what I can see, at least where his strength is and where he did a really good job, was Fundraising. And he did a really good job of fundraising a TCU to help upgrade and build facilities over there, which is a massive part of the job. And yes, we have really good facilities at usc, particularly for football, but that's not to say that things can't be improved elsewhere. And then also he talked about the exciting opportunity of the athletics village, right, where you can have like mixed use buildings of restaurants, retail, things like that all around. Williams, Bryce, where that project seems to be maybe stalled a little bit, maybe was a little prematurely announced. But I think he has a vision and does have some experience where he can lend his vision and voice and have a heavy hand in that development as well. And then, you know, he talked about being prepared for this new era of college athletics where sharing that they had plans at TCU where how are we going to handle revenue sharing model and he can bring some of that plan over to usc. But then talking about that, you have to be willing to adapt. And he wants South Carolina to be on the forefront of these changes and worry about the next five years and not look back on the last five years and do things that way. So he said really, really cool things at his press conference. Seems to be really excited to be at usc. I'm not going to sit here and act like I know a lot about that, right. Like I had never heard of him until it dropped that he was the candidate they were hiring. It's tough to say based off a press conference, but again, seems like a nice guy, seems really smart, seems that he's has that eye towards the future that I think you need in this era of college athletics. And he wants the job, he wants to be there. And so he has all the qualities that you want on paper at least. So let's see, it brings in a new era of South Carolina athletics. We'll see what the Donati athletic department looks like. And he's coming in and things are in pretty good shape. That's another thing he talked about where things at this university are on an upward trajectory. And we can look, of course, like on the football field, but when you look at some of the facilities and how we've succeeded in other sports, not just the major ones, he's coming in at a very good time. So very excited for that and it'll be fun to watch as he takes over things in a few weeks and to see what all that brings here. But all right, now on to actual athletics and not the admin side of things here. So still sticking with the week in review here. Going to Focus on football now and then I'll move over to the hardwood and then we'll wrap things up here.
[00:06:15] So, yeah, we will start with the good and then work our way down as it relates to football here. So got some news and notes to share from y'all. Shane Beamer was named SEC Coach of the Year by USA Today. And I just say bravo to that, I think. Absolutely. I mean, when you look at the preseason expectations and coming off a year where you missed a bowl game, you have a red shirt freshman quarterback, you got a few new faces, some youth at critical positions as well. The job that he did is just masterful. I think it's well earned, it's very well deserved. Hopefully it's not the last of these honors for Shane Beamer, but he just did a fantastic job. And at some point, maybe after the bowl game or maybe next week, I really do want to take a look back and think about this season and talk about just how good that was. But something hit me the other day that with the Gamecocks ending on a six game win streak, that's half the year. We didn't lose for an entire second half of the season.
[00:07:25] That is just phenomenal. Like we ran the table for the second half of the year. Really, really cool to see. And I think it's all about Shane Beamer. Right? Keeping that group together, keeping their belief, keeping their fight, and instilling a culture of guys saying, we're not going to quit, we face some adversity and we're not going to back down here.
[00:07:44] Also this week the Gamecocks had a very successful signing day. Sort of lost in all the hoopla with the Clemson game and the cfp. It just got lost in the shuffle that it was signing day. So you had high school recruits and JUCO making their decisions here. So right now the Gamecocks are currently sitting at 20th in the country according to 247Sports. In this recruiting class, out of 25 signees, there are seven. Four stars highlighted. Here was a series of big time flips that this staff was able to put together. None bigger than the top JUCO d lineman in Zebion Hardy, who was originally committed to the Gamecocks out of high school, had to go to community college, then comes back here, but was committed to Mississippi State. Prior you have tight end Mike Tyler, who was committed to lsu, who flipped to South Carolina, he came out of Hammond. So it's a good class, It's a solid class and I think you really saw a late season push to get Some big time playmakers here. The Gamecocks are bringing in five receivers, eight defensive linemen as well. So you can see where a little bit of a point of emphasis was. Of course, there's other positions there as well. I believe two, zero linemen. One of the top kickers in the country as well. Beamerball, absolutely love that. But now that those guys are signed, figuring out when they're going to get to campus, this allows Shane Beamer and staff to focus on the transfer portal and where they're going to plug and play. And even with a big defensive line class, I think you'll see one or two portal guys there. I think you'll see linebacker as well, maybe running back, offensive line, you know, you can never have enough there. So really exciting.
[00:09:37] Recruiting is always neat where you can find a couple guys that you like and see how they develop over the years. It's a little different with the portal now, but who knows, Maybe a guy like Xavion Hardy can come in right away and be a contributor. Very, very cool there.
[00:09:53] But speaking of the portal, the Gamecocks did have a few players enter the portal. Most notable were Mo Caba and DJ Braswell. You know, Mo Caba absolutely loved that guy. Big fan of his. Was a big fan of his ever since he signed, really. But athletic guy, good football player. You just feel bad for him. Just could not stay healthy. It just really, really stinks. So I hope that Mo can go somewhere, get a fresh start and stay healthy, because there really isn't anyone who's been on this team that deserves it more than him from the standpoint of a guy that just couldn't stay on the field. So hopefully he finds some success there. And then DJ Braswell, young running back. I was excited for him as a recruit. Funny enough, we're talking about that here. I think just it was a deal where, you know, you bring in Rocket Sanders and Oscar Attaway and Jarn Howell and you're kind of buried in the depth chart a little bit. We have Matthew Fuller as well, and you kind of got the sense that the writing was on the wall on this one. He wasn't listed in some of the pre game notes and things like that that he previously was. So hopefully he can find some playing time as well. And then of course, as more guys enter the portal, I will update y'all as well.
[00:11:14] But okay, now, not to open up a wound, but I do have to talk about it. It feels like it's my responsibility too, as a voluntary podcast host. So we're going to talk about the cfp. This is your fair warning to skip ahead. I am going to be talking about men's basketball and giving my picks for the championship games. So skip ahead. Don't totally stop listening to the episode here. But yeah, we have to talk about the rankings because that was the biggest piece of news that we were all waiting for this week. The rankings came out Tuesday night and South Carolina was ranked 14th in the second to last college Football Playoff rankings and all but guaranteeing. In fact, it pretty much is a guarantee that South Carolina will miss out on the playoff and finish the year ranked right around there.
[00:12:10] It's disappointing. It's disappointing. I put this out on social media.
[00:12:15] I am not even the slightest bit disappointed in our team. I'm incredibly proud of our team and everything that they did. I am, however, disappointed in the system of which they operate in and the biases that are clearly coming through when we talk about the College Football committee.
[00:12:37] I'll be honest with y'all.
[00:12:39] I didn't, I didn't think there was this great chance that South Carolina was going to end up higher than 12, right? Because you really want to be 11 or higher to guarantee yourself or pretty much guarantee yourself a spot in this ranking.
[00:12:58] You know, I did not think it was a greater than 50% chance just because of having three losses. The teams that were ahead of you, you did lose the head to head, things like that. But I thought there was a chance, right? Like I'll be kidding myself, you know, like I'm, I was. And then you have every scenario go through your head, right? Well, what if, what if we really just make something happen and what if we're 10 and everything like that, right?
[00:13:26] But I think it's being 14th that is a total slap in the face.
[00:13:34] South Carolina went into the game against Clemson ranked 15th. Clemson was 12. You move up one spot for beating the 12th ranked team on the road.
[00:13:44] Meanwhile, just the week prior, Clemson moved up five spots after beating the Citadel.
[00:13:54] And then you had earlier in the year, an unranked Louisville beat Clemson. I don't know what they were ranked at the time. And Louisville moved up to 16th from unranked.
[00:14:08] So I think this was a deal where you had a preconceived notion about South Carolina.
[00:14:20] And I think we were punished for not being in the preseason top 25.
[00:14:27] I truly think that there is, whether it's an unconscious bias or not, there is a notion that the committee puts out their initial rankings which are based on whatever, and they don't like to admit that maybe they're wrong and that they want to convince themselves that no, this team really is good, that this team is a top team.
[00:14:52] And unless you're undefeated and shock everybody like an Indiana did, they won't have a team come unranked in their eyes and then come into the top 12.
[00:15:07] And yes, I'm here saying, fully aware that you have three losses, you kind of thought that three was the limit. Right. We're really saying over the limit. Right. Two was probably the most they would allow in a playoff setting.
[00:15:22] So I hand up, you recognize three losses and yes, you lost the games to, to Alabama and Ole Miss.
[00:15:32] But I do think context matters.
[00:15:35] And when you look at two out of the three losses that South Carolina suffered, they were by a combined five points, not an average of five points, a combined.
[00:15:48] And then if you really want to go into the second and third layer of this, Lenora Sellers was hurt for second half of the LSU game where they were winning at the half.
[00:15:59] So what if, what if we had this where it was, or maybe it was tied at the half, Excuse me, but what if we effectively said, well, it's like nine and a half and two and a half, you know what I mean? But I think the most frustrating part of this all is there's no consistency year to year. There is no consistency of what this room of wizards might as well be the committee deems valuable to crown you a top team. And yeah, it makes things a little complicated. Now there's 12, but year to year there's no consistency. And then this year it really seemed that it was week to week where there's no consistency.
[00:16:48] A couple of weeks ago, South Carolina was ranked higher than lsu, who was still ranked at the time.
[00:16:57] And they cited, although there was a head to head win by lsu, South Carolina is playing better. Okay, then you had some instances where strength of schedule was cited, but now it's seemingly just recorded, which is fine. And like, I understand if you're 11 and one, like that's tough to say. Yeah, you don't belong in the playoff.
[00:17:23] Right. 10 and 2 is hard to say, but I think at a minimum there needs to be a stated public formula or something that the committee says this is what we're basing it on, not just for next year, but for the year after the year after that. Right. Because there's nothing you can do about next year's schedule. We're playing Virginia Tech Week 1 no matter what.
[00:17:54] But maybe you think about the schedule and what it needs to look like in Year, two, three after that.
[00:18:03] And I'm saying that because if the committee were to come out and say, okay, here's some objective things that we're going to look at and we're going to say 50% of what we're going to evaluate is your record period, 30% of that is going to be strength of schedule, 15% of that is head to head. And then the rest is the eye test. We need something like that because we need to be able to compare apples to apples. And you can't really do that in college football. You can't.
[00:18:36] And I know that we talk about the Big Ten and the SEC a lot. The SEC is just naturally harder. You're going to have a harder schedule. And I know that some years it works out harder or easier whether you're in one conference or the Next.
[00:18:52] But a 9 and 3 sec team in my opinion is just as good, if not better than a 10 and 2 ACC team or a Big 12 team or even maybe most Big 10 teams.
[00:19:11] You think South Carolina at 9 and 3 is worse than an 11 and 1 Indiana who got waxed by Ohio State?
[00:19:20] I certainly think South Carolina is better than them. My point is that record doesn't say it all, but you have to acknowledge that you have to win the games, right? You can't just say, well a 7 and 5, you know, SEC team is just going to get in because we think they're better. Like no, of course there has to be some level of you got to win the games.
[00:19:41] All I'm saying is that I think the committee needs to look at things like in totality and I think sometimes they get caught up in these minute things like a head to head that happened over a month ago.
[00:19:57] South Carolina is playing as good, if not better than anybody in the country right now.
[00:20:04] They have won six in a row, several of which were by double digits. They beat what was it, three ranked teams, four ranked teams in that six game win streak and then even before that performed quite well on the road in the SEC against Kentucky. You wax them. Granted that's they're not having a good year. But my point is I don't think the 14 ranking is fair to what South Carolina is. It's a ranking of what the committee is saying the playoff field has to look like.
[00:20:47] South Carolina is not the 14th best team in the country. We are above that.
[00:20:52] Miami is ranked ahead of us. You kidding me?
[00:20:56] Alabama is as hot and cold of a team as you'll find in the country and we almost beat them on the Road. And we're playing much better right now. Like, context matters. And, yes, Ole Miss handled us, so you take that one on the chin.
[00:21:14] But I think if these two teams play now, might be a different story. But you can't do hypotheticals, right? That opens up a can of worms. But my point is, it sucked to see that I had. I was a realist, and I was like, I don't know if a 9 and 3 South Carolina team makes the playoff, right? But I was like, wouldn't it be fun to be the 12th seed, right? And to, like, maybe you get lucky and you stay. You know what I mean?
[00:21:40] But then when they put Alabama at 11 and you're like, what?
[00:21:45] Like, we have as good a resume. I saw someone put this out there.
[00:21:51] If Alabama came to Columbia at the same time of year and lost by single digits and then rattled off six straight wins, it wouldn't be a question. You'd say, oh, yeah, Alabama get good team. They should be in the playoff. But because it's South Carolina and you didn't expect that of us, you say, Whoa, whoa, whoa, 14.
[00:22:20] I don't know. I think the inconsistencies and the lack of. The lack of an objective metric or two is what drives me crazy.
[00:22:30] And again, it does not take away in any way, shape or form a fantastic season that the Gamecocks had. I'm not trying to sound like a spoiled brat here. This is a shocking conversation that we're able to have. Shockingly great.
[00:22:42] It's just a slap in the face at 14.
[00:22:46] It is what it is. I think it should tell you that the future is bright. It should tell you that we are on the right trajectory and that we have the right coaches in place.
[00:22:56] And you should be excited for the future. And if this thing opens up to 16, man, you can. You can feel pretty good about that, right? You still have to play well. You have to win your games, you have to recruit well. You have to do all the things that led to this season.
[00:23:13] But it should get you excited for South Carolina football. Process this.
[00:23:19] It is what it is, right?
[00:23:22] Going into the season, none of us were thinking playoff.
[00:23:26] I just think that this is a larger commentary on the committee because now that we've been scorned by it. It used to be this foreign thing. Like, oh, yeah, like, man, they screwed Florida State or they screwed this. This team yet, whatever. Committee stinks. But now that you know that, you feel it, I'm in. I've been reading up on it too much, and I'm like, slowly Being radicalized about this, like, let's. You can just do away with all the rankings, just wait until the final week. What's it matter?
[00:23:53] There's just too many biases, and I think we need to find a way to make things a little bit more objective, like we do maybe in college basketball, let's say, I don't know. But again, end of rant. End of rant. Let's look at the positives here. Again, South Carolina sitting at nine wins right now with a very good bowl game that we will find out on Sunday what it is. It's going to be a good bowl game against a good opponent with a chance to win 10 games. I mean, my goodness, that would feel so, so good. And I think that this team is ready to respond in the right way and try and get 10 wins, but. All right, shake it off.
[00:24:36] Shake it off. Let's talk basketball here. Okay, let's talk basketball. The men were in action Tuesday night. It was a lot going on Tuesday night with the rankings, but they brought us some joy and I thank Lamont Paris for that. As the QZIPS went up to Boston as part of the ACC SEC Challenge and they beat Boston College 73 to 51. This was tight for a few minutes here, but the Gamecocks went on a big run leading into halftime and never looked back. CMB had himself a beast game and the defense looked really, really sharp, especially in that first half. And that looks at two games now. The Virginia Tech game, last one, and now BC where you have really good defensive efforts from the Gamecocks against Power 5, Power 4, excuse me, competition. That is a good sign for this team. Another good sign for this team is you had contributions off the bench in this one. And then also this win was huge for Carolina in the net rankings. So their job this month is to handle business in the remaining non conference games. I believe you got 5 non conference games left. If you can go 4 out of 5 or 5 out of 5. Clemson is mixed in there as well. That can set them up really well for SEC play. And you want to be building in the net rankings an objective ranking that a lot of people look at for postseason seating.
[00:26:13] Some player highlights from this game here. CMB 16 and 14. Monster double double. Nick Pringle with 11 points. Morris Yugosuk with nine points off the bench. The men's next game is Saturday at 2pm against ECU in Colonial Life.
[00:26:30] Now, looking at the women's side of things here, the women tip off really late on Thursday night. So I am recording right around that. So sending good vibes to them. 9:00pm Tip off. A little too late for me to watch that and record. You know, I gotta get my beauty sleep here, but I will be watching nonetheless, so hopefully they can handle their business against Duke. Again, sending good vibes to them. But the ladies do take on TCU 7pm on Sunday in Fort Worth, so that'll be exciting. And then let me give you all my four pack of picks and then I'll get y'all out of here. Championship Edition we're just doing power four teams here, so we're going to start off in the Big 12. We have Iowa State and Arizona State. Give me the over. Over 49 and a half just feels like one. That's right. Big ten. Interesting matchup here. This is this one just shaked up after the rivalry games here, but Penn State versus Oregon, I'm going with the Ducks minus three and a half. I do think this is going to be a really close game here. I just think Oregon is a buzz saw in the ACC. Clemson vs. SMU. Give me SMU -2 at this point just through the Tigers. It's not changing our rankings. The committee said. So go Ponies. And then in the sec, great game here. Give me UGA plus three versus Texas Again, I think it's going to be close, but I'd rather have the the Dogs plus three there. 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 co.
