Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecock's NFL draft recap and review of the baseball series against Kentucky. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:53] Okay. Welcome to episode 316 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. Hope you all had a great weekend, Gamecocks. Certainly a lot going on in the sports world. I mean, this is not an NFL podcast, but the NFL draft and Sanders that took the sports world by storm, it feels like. I mean, I think for a few hours there, I was legitimately addicted to Shadur Sanders memes. And, you know, it's no knock against him and anything like that. They were just. They're just comical, you know, like, funny is funny, but I am happy that he found a home and, you know, that we can all sort of stop with all the narratives and things like that because there was so many other good things to take away from the draft and a lot to celebrate seeing these guys realize their dream and everything like that. But nonetheless, it was an eventful few days to have that storyline go into day three of the draft and then you have playoffs throughout. Buzzer beaters. Just a big, busy sports weekend and hope y'all are ready to attack this week here.
[00:02:11] But got a few things Gamecock related, of course, to focus in on. And before we jump into that, I have my handy dandy Gamecock calendar here. It is a fact for y'all, and they must know what time of year it is because the fact is related to the draft here. So Gamecock's kicker, Ryan Suckup, was the last pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. Mr. Irrelevant finished the 2022 NFL season his 14th in the league, ranked number 32 on the league's all time scoring list. Shout out, Ryan Suckup. Shout out, Ryan suckup. Mr. Irrelevant. I always forget that, like, no Ryan Suckup. You know, fantastic career in the NFL. A lot of support and love for the university, but that is a fun fact that you could. That's a good bar fact. You know, you're out, you're having a few drinks with your friends, you're at the bar and you're just like, hey, Ryan suckup. Ms. Irrelevant. And then, oh, you know ball. You know ball. Absolutely. But let's jump into this here, starting with a weekend recap from around USC athletics. On Friday, the men's golf team finished ninth in the SEC championship. Softball lost to Auburn 8 to 7. Beach volleyball lost to Texas 3 nothing and also lost to LSU 3 to 1. So tough Friday across Gamecock Nation there. Saturday, softball lost to Auburn 7 to nothing. And then on Sunday, softball beat Auburn 4 to 1. So that's a, that, that's a tough series there. You know, like, we are really like in the tail end of the SEC regular season here for softball there. And so it's big to get that last game to avoid the sweep. You know, you're on the road in the sec. It's going to be tough. This is a tough conference. Um, but yeah, that's a, that's a tough series there, but hopefully the girls can get some momentum back in their corner. I believe they're back at home this upcoming weekend. I actually think they might finish off the SEC regular season at home, so that is good. And hopefully they can roll into the conference tournament and anything potentially thereafter with a bit more of momentum than we saw here. But yeah, nonetheless, that is your weekend recap from athletics, but we're going to talk a few minutes here about Gamecocks who are now in the pros. Obviously, the aforementioned draft happened and we all were glued to see who would draft our guys and who are going to. Who we're going to be rooting for at the next level and where these guys will ultimately go. So just going to go in order. What I have here, give some thoughts and yeah, that'll be your. Your NFL draft recap there. The. The caveat here is that there's still some undrafted free agents that have at least I haven't seen. Have have news yet. Like, I think I haven't seen od Fortune yet. You know, couple other guys out there. So this is subject to a little bit of change, but nonetheless here, starting things off with Nick Eman Worre, he fell out of the first round. I was a little, you know, disappointed by that. I was, you know, really hoping for him that he would get that moment to be a first rounder. But Nick Saban said it. He said it's not when you get drafted, it's what you do with your opportunity. And we know Nick is going to take that opportunity by the horns. He ends up going to the Seahawks. They traded up to get him, so you know that they really want to invest in his development. With pick 35, TJ Sanders went off the board a few picks later at pick 41 to the Bills. That's a good pick. I mean, you look at what the Bills did, they. Are they drafted Walker, I believe it is, from Kentucky, and they got Sanders. They have Ed Oliver that you can kind of see what they're trying to do along their off their defensive line. Excuse me, but yeah, T.J.
[00:06:20] i kind of was the thinking he'd go two or three, you know, those rounds, if you'll remember correctly, when the season ended and he said he was going to go into the draft, he was on some mock drafts at the end of the first, so people really thought of him highly initially. He played in the Senior bowl, he had went to the combine, pro day, all that jazz, and earned himself a high second round pick. And then also in the second round, it was a big round for the Gamecocks. And don't think that this doesn't matter, right? Like, this is why these guys put so much time and energy and sacrifice into to try and get to that next level and make life changing money and continue playing a sport, right? But when recruits see this, they know that you can go to South Carolina and be developed. And of course you want your recruits to come to your program to play for the name on the front of the jersey and you want them to stay and you want them to have that bond with the university, right? That's what creates a culture, right? That's a winning culture. And that's what Coach Beamer has instilled. But it is a selling point to be able to talk to these recruits and say, hey, look, we have the coaches and the pieces and the facilities and everything in place for you to come to South Carolina, stay, develop, get an education and then you can take your talents to the next level if you put that work in. So really, really cool to see Demetrius Knight to the Bengals with pick 49. Just so inspiring his story. And you saw the emotion when he got picked and he said it on the phone to whoever he was speaking to, whether it was their head coach or gm. But he said, you got a good one. And I think we all know that they did. He was only at South Carolina for a brief period of time, but he made a big, big impact that honestly will last for years to come. And so we're all going to be rooting for D. Knight, Cincinnati there and then moving on here. Kyle Kennard, he went to the chargers with pick 125. Shout out to my guy, Kyle Kennard, beast of a player, nice guy. And I think that's a steal right there. You know, I got a buddy that's a Chargers fan, not the biggest college football fan. He texted me, he said, what's there to know about Kyle Kennard? And I said, you're getting a monster. You know, someone who can continue to Develop. He has all the physical tools that you want. He has the motor defense. Player of the year. You really can't ask for much more. Fantastic pick there. And then sticking on the D line just a few picks later, Tonka Hemingway going out to Vegas for the raiders with pick 135. Love seeing that for him. Really, really cool to see. And yeah, it was just a successful draft for South Carolina. That's five guys picked in the first five rounds. Four or five rounds, whatever that the exact one was. But it's an incredible thing and you can see why we had a damn good defense. I mean, look at these guys, you know, and it's part of the reason why I'm a little nervous about our defense this upcoming season. But that's a different conversation. But just really, really cool to see these guys get their names called and all the content that came out from it, seeing them celebrate with their families, it just. That stuff just never gets old. And now we have a lot more guys to root for in the pros and it's. It makes Sundays that much more fun in the fall. But then we did have some undrafted free agent signings. Bam. Martin Scott, he's staying in the Carolinas and went to the Panthers. Rocket Sanders was pretty surprised he did not get scooped up in the sixth or seventh round even. But he signed with the Charger, so maybe he can carpool with Kyle Kennard to la. That's pretty nice. Torricelli Simpkins to the Saints. Josh Simon, another guy I was a little surprised to not see get drafted with his physical ability and all the production he had, especially last year. But he signed with the Falcons. Gage Larva, Dane to the Browns and Alex Huntley I believe to the Dolphins. So really cool to see those guys. And we know the talent of the guys I just listed. Like, especially when we talk about a Josh Simon or a Rocket Sanders. There are guys who sign as undrafted free agents and make impacts at the next level. You got to grind, you know, but even as a fourth rounder, you got to grind. Nothing is guaranteed, especially in the NFL. So these guys can grind. And I would not be surprised. I mean, look at Rocket Sanders, you know who Rocket Sanders. The path could be is just following that model. You get to camp, you do what you're told, and you can almost look at like a Rico Dowdle, you know, I believe he did that same thing right. Undrafted free agent, had to work, but got his opportunity and took it and then made it, made an impact and now is doing well for himself. So that should Be, you know, your path, really, for any of these guys. And there's a million examples of guys who went undrafted, ended up having an impact in the league, so really amazing to see. Best of luck to all these guys. And then Kai Kroger, friend of the program, repeat guest, recurring guest. He has received multiple invites to minicamp, so pretty unique situation for him. He's going to have kind of his pick of the litter where he can find a team with a situation that he feels could benefit him, go to camp, show off his skills, and hopefully earn some sort of a spot. Right. It's. It's got to be tough being a punter. There's only one active on the team, so go somewhere where maybe they're having an open competition for a punter. You know, they're there, they got a guy maybe who's not the best on the last last year of the deal, that type of situation. But it'll be really interesting to see where that goes. And so, yeah, it was just a fun few days in the draft for South Carolina. It's really, really cool to track this stuff. I love the draft in general. I mean, it's just something I always enjoy sitting down and watching. It's great to put on the background, just clean, be on your phone, just you're watching the future of the league. So really, really cool weekend. And yeah, it was a captivating draft even outside of South Carolina, so best of luck to those guys there. But all right, now we're talking games that have been played, not the future, anything like that. We're talking baseball. And the Yardcocks were in action this weekend as they were on the road in Lexington taking on Kentucky. Talked about it before the series here, where it has been a tough go at it on the road for South Carolina in the SEC.
[00:13:15] And Game 1, it was a doubleheader on Saturday. Game 1, South Carolina lost 7 to 3. Kentucky scored two in the first inning. Carolina did tie things up, though, in the second, but Kentucky plated runs really, throughout the middle innings. It was like five, six, seven. It was like one run here, two runs there. And South Carolina just couldn't find any offense really much after that second inning and too much to overcome. Brandon Stone, he got the start and a loss, but he did go seven innings. So another game where you got some pretty good length out of him. He did give up five runs, but the story out of this game is that Ethan Petrie got banged up making a defensive play, hurt his shoulder. No firm diagnosis yet from Palm, and, you know, it was it only happened on Saturday. He basically said he's going to be out tomorrow, meaning Sunday, and he didn't play in the remaining two games of the series.
[00:14:16] Definitely concerned. Definitely makes you nervous. And I mean, look, this season is far from perfect. This season has not gone the way we would have hoped. I've said that a bajillion times already. But you still want your team to be as competitive as possible. And Ethan Petrie makes you that much more competitive. And he's a nice guy and we like him. He's fun to watch. And you just don't want any one of your players, let alone a star player, to have to miss some time, even if it is insignificant. But hopefully he's okay. But yes, the Gamecocks were without their biggest offensive weapon for the rest of this series. But player highlights from game one, Henry Kazmar went 2 for 4, Gavin Barlard went 2 for 3 with one RBI.
[00:15:08] Game two, SC was able to even the series 5 to 4, winning the game thanks to some late inning heroics from none other than Will Tippett. That's right, Tippett. Tribe, stand up. My man came through in the clutch. It was a back and forth game early. Kentucky had a 4 to 3 lead late. It was really after the fifth inning. They took that 4 to 3 lead into the eighth inning. And then Tippett comes up at the plate and hits a two run blast to be the difference maker in the game. Jake McCoy got the start and a no decision. It was Will Crowther who got the win in relief.
[00:15:52] Player highlights for y'all here. Will Tippett, man of the hour, one for three with two ribbies, two very important ribbies. Nathan hall, two for four, continues to rake. And then game three, Gamecocks unfortunately dropped the series finale and the rubber match. 11:5. So tough. 1:5 runs in the fourth and four in the eighth. It was just too much for Carolina. You can't give up those big innings, let alone two of them. So yeah, Carolina, you know, battled. You know, you scored five runs. It was, you know, kind of earlier on, but just not able to close the door in those big spots. Couldn't, couldn't really stop the bleeding. Dylan Eskew was back on the bump. He was. Nice to see him back return from the various injuries and freak accidents that plagued him these last few weeks. He got the start and the loss though, going three and a third. Player highlights, Nathan hall, he went one for five with one rbi. Dalton Meshore went two for four with one rbi. So another disappointing series on the road, but when you can steal one on the road in the sec, it does mean something. Kentucky, you know, probably in that it's in the. They're in the bottom half of the SEC like us, but maybe more like that bottom third, if you will. But was kind of hoping maybe there'd be a little momentum you can, you can keep going from, from that last series prior to this one, unfortunately, that was not the case. And, you know, you dropped two out of three, but you had fun. That's kind of where we are at this, at this point, the baseball season, I guess. We'll tip it. Shout out. We'll tip it up next. South Carolina has a midweek game Tuesday against Charleston Southern that would be nice to hopefully be able to cruise on that one. But the midweeks also have not necessarily been the most kind to South Carolina, but nonetheless, it'll be exciting to watch. But with that, y'all, that wraps up this episode. Please follow me on social media, Twitter or X is Cox Gamecox. 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 Cops.
