Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Game Cox, a fun interview announcement and a look ahead for the opportunities for South Carolina athletics. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:53] Okay. Welcome to episode 251 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 lovely 4 July weekend gamecocks. I had hot dogs, cheeseburgers, some beach time, some golf. Just a real all american type of weekend there. And also threw in some college football discussions. We were comparing schedules to South Carolinas versus other friends and other conferences. Talking realignment, talking nil. It was just really well rounded weekend. Hope y'all had a fantastic time here. Really excited to be out here. And we are full in on offseason mode. We're talking recruiting, we got portal. It's just everyone is really just. You're itching. You're itching for some sports here and so really excited to sit down with y'all and just go over what lies ahead for South Carolina here. So that's what we're going to do this episode, gearing up towards football discussions and things like that. Really. August, end of July, going to be ramping up previews, position battles, underclassmen that I'm excited for and things like that. But today, going to take this episode and just sort of look at some of the major sports and some of the opportunities that a lot that lie, excuse me, ahead for the university, for some programs here. And when thinking about this episode, there really is a lot to be excited about. But before I get into that, we'll do a piece of Gamecock trivia. And then I also have a fun announcement where we will have the first student athlete reoccurring guest. And I am sitting down with Kai Kroger for an interview next week. So be on the lookout in the next week or two for Ky Kroger. Second time on the podcast. We're going to be talking bounce back seasons, the mood and the, you know, vibe of the team and the resiliency that they showed last year. How has the new special teams coach, Joe D. Camillus, how has he come in? What is he teaching? And just see some of the hopes and goals that Kai has not just for himself, but for the team as well. So that's really exciting. Be on the lookout for that Kaiseman reoccurring guest. Absolutely love it. But here we go. Piece of Gamecock trivia before we jump into everything else here. And here we go. On this day in 2008, what English Premier League team agreed to transfer fee of around $1 million to acquire former Gamecock soccer goalkeeper Brad Guzan from Chivas USA. What?
[00:03:57] I have no idea. This is a complex question. You got to know Premier League teams. You got to know early two thousands Gamecock soccer rosters. Wow. I is Aston Villa, is that one? Oh, hell yeah. Oh, I swear to God that is the answer. Aston Villa. Wow. That was a absolute shot in the dark. And I also thought there was a chance that they were in the italian league. So that's talking soccer for you. Shout out PMT. But yeah, shout out to that guy. Shout out Gamecock soccer. We love all of our sports here. Shout out Gamecock soccer. Shout out Stone Stadium here. But speaking of Gamecock sports, speaking of Gamecock athletics, this is all we do on the podcast here. I wanted to take a step, and since we are in the offseason for everything here and there's really not much else going on, I thought it'd be good to take a few minutes and look at the major sports and where they sit today. And basically what we have to look forward to for the next academic year, if you will. So 2024 into 2025. And the sports I'm going to be talking about today, we're going to go with the four major sports, as far as I see it. So football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and baseball softball. Not going to dive into a ton, but I do think there's a lot of reason for optimism with the new coach that we hired, Gamecock alum. I think she's going to bring in a lot of energy and a new perspective that the team, frankly, needed. But you also look at the changing landscape of the SEC. You're adding Texas and Oklahoma, especially Oklahoma, big time powerhouse in softball. So while I think we're going to get that shot of energy that the program needed by new leadership, the challenge is within itself. Right. But I do think that there is certainly reason for optimism and excitement with Gamecock softball. But let's look ahead to the sport that is top of mind for everybody because it's the closest one here, and that's Gamecock football. So not going to get too into the weeds here because there's going to be plenty of football talk here.
[00:06:21] You have South Carolina and Shane Beamer coming off a very disappointing five, seven season. Shane Beamer overachieved in his first two years, underachieved in year three. And look, there's plenty of reasons that we can say this team underachieved, the offensive line being so hurt and thin for the entire year, certainly did not help.
[00:06:47] Roster mismanagement of the running backs certainly did not help. You were kind of left with your behind in the breeze when Marshawn Lloyd left, right? So that was an issue. You kind of got that going a little bit with Mario Anderson, but look, you were so thin with very few proven running backs in that room. You were kind of fighting with one arm behind your tiger back there.
[00:07:15] Wide receivers, you know, I'm not going to get into he who shall not be named, but that whole saga, that certainly didn't help. The defense was very porous for the first half of the year, really for the first two thirds of the year. They seemed to get their act together in the later, the later half of the of the season there and you end up just shy of a bowl game. If this team won six games last year, you say that was probably the still a bit of a disappointment, especially after year two of Shane Beamer. But when you make a bowl game, you can kind of look over some of that. But that's not the situation here. So what are we looking at in Gamecock football going into year four of the Shane Beemer era? A lot of changes. You got Lenore Sellers under center, you have a completely revamped running back room, you have a deeper offensive line. And when you look at the defense, I think there's a lot of reason to be excited.
[00:08:14] You look at the roster and there is just simply more depth and more experience than there has been in quite some time, especially under Shane Beamer. So I think you're going to see a defense that's just overall better. Are they going to be all sec?
[00:08:33] No, but I certainly think that there is a lot of reason for hope there. If 2022 taught us anything, it's that you really shouldn't put too much stock into what happens at the end of a given year and think that that's going to translate into the following. Right.
[00:08:54] So I don't want to say that the defense is going to be amazing because of three or four really good games to end the year, but I do think that something clicked and I think Clayton White realized that he has to simplify his scheme a little bit, but also maybe be a little different. You got to think outside the box and agree where you saw the four two five, but also the three three five being more flexible. And I think that wrinkle helped a lot. It got athletes like Bam Martin Scott more involved. Even a guy like Jaron Willis came on strong at the end of last year. So you're looking at better linebacker play this year. Defensive line is deeper, more experienced. Dylan Stewart, Kyle Kennard, boogie Huntley, Tonka Hemingway. Like, there's just a lot of talent on that line.
[00:09:46] So my point being is that looking ahead to this season for football, you have legitimate reason to be excited on the defensive side of the ball. If you want to be cautiously excited because Clayton White has had a real up and down tenure at South Carolina, I wouldn't blame you.
[00:10:05] Offensively, you got more questions than answers, unfortunately. And we are putting all of our hopes on Lenoir Sellers, who's a red shirt freshman, which, how many times in college do we see a red shirt freshman, you know, waited his turn. It's his turn to lead and he has, he has a strong season and then he grows from there. We see that plenty also on the other side, we've seen it plenty of times where there's been a lot of growing pains and that red shirt freshman just wasn't ready. I don't think that's the case with Lenoris. Lenoris, in my mind, has a huge opportunity in front of him personally. Wherever I. He has all the skills and he has the mentality and he has the mindset and he has the temperament and he has the leadership to be the next guy. At South Carolina we had such a small sample size, but if he can grow into this and the running backs and the tight ends, if they can step up and be that security blanket that he needs, I think there's plenty of reason to be excited for this upcoming year at South Carolina. You have to make a ballgame. Okay. I'm not going to get into my predictions yet. That's for next month, but you absolutely have to find a way to get to six wins because that's improvement. And really, I've said it before, I've said it again. That's the minimum expectation at a place like South Carolina. Right? No fan wants to live at six wins, but you are damn sure I'm not going to be okay with five. I don't care how much I like you personally.
[00:11:51] So the opportunity is there, though. I think it's a fun schedule where, yes, there is no Tennessee Georgia. Right. Some of those traditional eastern rivalries you swap out for Oklahoma, Alabama. So, you know, strength of schedule wise, it is a little easier than last year just by the nature of. You have the three cupcakes. You know, you've kept Vanderbilt.
[00:12:17] It's football. It's football season. You should be excited for what's ahead. This team is deep, but this team has a lot to prove. So, looking ahead for this season, I think you should be excited. I think we should all have the faith. This team was not a bottom dweller last year. This team was a bad fourth quarter away from six wins and beating Florida. Right.
[00:12:41] This team was one or two things away from being a fine team last year. This team didn't win two or three wins. You talked to some people out there, you would have thought we were the worst team in the country. We're a fine team.
[00:12:53] Got a young quarterback, you got some unproven wideouts who need to step up their game. But I think there's reason to be excited for this year. And if you can get that six or maybe even seven, my goodness, wins, then you're all good again and then you can really talk about building something here. So that's football. Moving on to men's basketball here. I don't think the excitement for men's basketball has been this high, maybe ever. Right? I mean, post final four, you knew we lost some really big pieces. There was still some excitement for sure, but I think there was this understanding of we're going to take a step back here. Lamont Paris surpassed everybody's expectations in year two. We get to the tournament, it was a disappointing showing, but hey, we got there and it was a hell of a season with upset wins, being ranked for several weeks and that momentum has really carried on. You kept a couple of key pieces like Miles studie, Colin Murray, Boyles, Jacoby Wright, amongst others. You got red shirts coming off like hero, you know, Yugoslavs coming back.
[00:14:06] But then you have some very exciting momentum in the recruiting front with Cam Scott Pringle from the transfer portal. So this roster should be as good, if nothing better, than it was last year. It's going to look different, they're going to play different, different style a little bit. But I think Lamont has done a really good job in communicating his style and setting the expectations amongst his team. And that's why I love having a guy like Colin Murray Boyles still in that locker room. Even Miles studie Jacoby Wright. Right. But CNB in particular, like, he has an opportunity to play himself into the lottery and he came back for year two his sophomore season and he's going to be that leader even as a sophomore to tell these guys, hey, here's how we do this.
[00:15:00] Now, the schedule for the Gamecocks is going to be, is going to be a tricky one, right? But I think Lamont did that on purpose because one of the knocks against the team until they got deep into the SEC play was that their quad one, quad two schedule was, was light.
[00:15:20] So I think he wanted to get some of these bigger matchups like Indiana on the books, so that way his team can at least have that resume. You look at a team, I believe it was Texas A and M last year. Their record was just okay, but they played so many quad one and quad two games that the committee ultimately rewarded them for that and gave them a bid, and I think they won a game or two. Even so, the excitement is certainly valid for men's basketball.
[00:15:52] And you don't want to say it's tournament or bust, right? Because that's not fair in year three when you're still establishing yourself and establishing a culture. But when you look at the roster, you really do say, well, shoot, we really should be more competitive or as competitive as we were last year and last year got us to the tournament. So tons of reason to be excited there. I'm absolutely going to be glued watching Lamont Paris and now soon to be living closer to Columbia. To be able to go see these guys in person is going to be a blast. But you have every reason to be excited for men's basketball this upcoming season. And you have as much reason, if not more, to be excited for women's basketball who are on their repeat tour. Shout out, Raven.
[00:16:44] They're on their repeat tour. You're basically looking at a team that is just as good. Losing Camila Cardozo to the WNBA is a big loss. She was absolutely critical to this team last year. She is so good. There's reason why she got drafted so high, so good, so big, so tall, so athletic.
[00:17:04] But the team is filled with women who are athletic and big and tall, and they're only going to continue to get better. Right?
[00:17:14] Recruiting class, one of the tops.
[00:17:17] You have more experience, right?
[00:17:20] Someone like a Malaysia full Wiley now. She's a national champion. She did that as a freshman. She's only going to get better. She could be that leader, that scorer that you need. Tahina. Pow, pow. Coming back, this team could look a little differently. Dawn likes to play inside out, if you will, where you work the ball down. She always has had those bigs, whether it's Asia or Aaliyah Camilla. Right.
[00:17:45] We still have several options on our team this upcoming season, but I think it's exciting when you look at the guards, that's what gets me excited, for sure. And there's going to be some young, exciting talent on this team. And, yeah, I mean, the landscape of the SEC, it's still competitive.
[00:18:03] You look at some programs, I want to say it was Kentucky that fired their coach, but hired someone who was very established. So that's a team that's going to be a little bit better.
[00:18:13] There's going to be some tough out of conference games and you're going to get everyone's best shot. But as a fan of South Carolina, like, yeah, we want that best shot. We're the top dogs right now.
[00:18:25] I think having an expectation of going undefeated again is a little silly, right? Like, that was incredible. But, you know, new look team to a degree, very, very small degree, but, you know, there might be a stumble or two along the way, but the goals and the aspirations of this program, where it is right now is national champions.
[00:18:49] So that's where my sights are at. My sites are March. Like, let's see what this team looks like early in the year. Let's see how this team responds in SEC play, especially on the road.
[00:19:01] And let's gear up for another big run in the tournament. So every reason to be excited there and then baseball, I mean, wow. Like coach Mineri, he's coming in, he's coming hot. Recruiting has been steady. Monty Lee has been doing a fantastic job of holding up his end of the bargain in that regards. But this whole staff really has brought in some players, both from the portal, from the high school ranks. They're doing a really good job there. You have, maybe it's the nil collectives, maybe it's the university, maybe it's the staff doing a good job of keeping a lot of these players intact, right? This roster intact. Ethan Petrie comes to mind.
[00:19:44] So when you look at next spring, which I know seems a long time off, but there's every reason in the world to be legitimately excited and legitimately hopeful this year, right? It's not this feeling that we had for the last couple of years where it's like the Kingston, like, what are we going to do now? You know, like we have a roster, but we've always kind of underperformed here. Like, you know, guys haven't developed at the rate that they should. That's all gone.
[00:20:15] You're getting Paul Mineri with a fire in his belly. He's back on the bench. He wants to win. He wants to win now. He's like he said at his press conference, he's not here to wait around five, seven years and go to Omaha. He wants to go to Omaha right away. I don't know if that's a reasonable expectation in year one, but again, the roster is good. This is not a bottom feeder team. This team went to the regionals. This team almost won the SEC tournament.
[00:20:47] And so if you keep some key pieces and you tinker around with some of the recruiting and the transfer portal additions, and maybe you tinker around with some of the starting pitching, I think this team is good.
[00:21:01] So it's a really cool spot to step back and maybe this is everyone in the offseason, but you have legitimate reason for hope in every major sport, in my opinion, and you have really good post season excitement and optimism in three out of the four that I just listed. Right?
[00:21:27] So our winter and spring, at a minimum should be fun. At a minimum, that should be a good time.
[00:21:35] That's a good chunk of time. But the sport that takes up the most real estate in all of our minds is football.
[00:21:42] And while the vibes are certainly different than they were a year ago, I don't mind that. You know, I think this team struggled with that and I think if you were to maybe get some honest answers from them, I think maybe there was a little bit of not this sense of maybe they've arrived, but I think it was, well, okay, we did some good things and we got the ESPN behind the scenes access now and people are saying it might be a dark horse for this and that, and you came up short.
[00:22:18] So I think this team and the staff is ready to lock in and get back to the grinding, you know, nature that years one and two were. And I think with Lenoris and Rocket and just a better offensive line, I think you'll see more of a dialogue and system that he more intended to be less reliant on the pass. I think you're going to see a lot of ground and pound short to medium passes and then you hit one over the top, whereas last year it was, Spencer, do whatever you got to do to get us some points here. So I do see reason for optimism. I mean, it's the off season, if I'm going to. What kind of fan would I be if I'm sitting here saying, yeah, we're going to win four games in, you know, in July? Like, what's the fun in that? So I think there's great opportunity in each four major sports, all varying degrees of those expectations, whether it's a deep post season run, a post season experience, improving on win total, right? So nonetheless, fantastic opportunity lies ahead for this next academic year for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. Athletics teams, major and non major aside, it's just a great time. But that wraps up this episode, y'all. 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.
