Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecock's football recruiting news. And also reasons to be optimistic heading into the 2025 season.
Okay, here we.
Okay.
Welcome to episode 329 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And happy 4th of July, Gamecocks.
Fantastic weekend. It's like it's the second best placement of 4th of July when it's on a Friday, the first being a Thursday because then you get the day, the day after you would take off. But Friday, fantastic because you're not really doing work on Thursday. I said this was like you're taking half back dives up the middle. You're just eating clock chewing up that time much as you can. But yeah, Fourth of July weekend, honestly, Fourth of July is up there for me as far as the holidays, like Christmas, top tier Christmas time really is my favorite. And then I think it's fourth of July is my next favorite holiday. You know, you're just always going to do something outside. It's just you're really hoping for nice weather, activities, and you're chilling, you know, you're having some drinks, you're barbecuing, whatever. It's just a good time. Fireworks. It's just American.
Absolutely love it. So hope y' all have a great fourth of July weekend. Gonna jump into the show here, but I do have a quick housekeeping note for y'.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: All.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: I don't typically bring in my personal life into this show. You know, we focus on my personal feelings towards the Gamecocks and things like that. But I am gonna have a little bit of a break coming up in the podcasting as I'm gonna be going on my honeymoon. So. Yeah, your boy is getting hitched. The future Mrs. Is a adopted Gamecock fan. Was not big into college sports, but I, I introduced her to it and now she fully loves it. So that's good. No worries there. She actually, she made it through the must champ years with me. So if she could come through that and still stand the sight of me and still want to watch games on Saturdays, that is a keeper for sure. But yes, going on my honeymoon in a little over a week from now when you're listening to this. So there's going to be this episode and then one more, and then there's going to be a break of about two weeks or so just with traveling and things like that. So I'll get back at the end of July.
And please don't forget about me. Please don't find another podcast that you love more, although you know that might exist now. Just one that you listen to. Listen to. Listen to More to More More or something like that. Don't leave me. Don't forget about me wedding present. Tell your friends and family about the show. Have them listen to it. If y' all know of anyone looking to sponsor a small independent podcast, send them my way.
But all right, before we get into things here, just going to talk a lot about football this episode. I do have a piece of trivia for y', all, thanks to my handy dandy Gamecock calendar. So here we go.
What team chose South Carolina's Isiah Cook with the number 10 overall pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft?
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Oof.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: You know, I do not know this one. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and is it the Storm?
No, it is the Los Angeles Sparks. There we go. Shout out Gamecock women's basketball everywhere. In the pros, I saw that Aaliyah Boston and the Fever won the Commissioners Cup. Shout out Aaliyah Boston.
Absolutely love to see it, but all right, let's jump into this here. Wasn't really a whole lot going on, full off season mode as I've talked about before, but you know, we've gotten sprinkles of some news from other sports here, but there really wasn't so focusing just on football here, a piece of news and then going to tie that into a segment talking about next year. So we'll see how long we go, see how much rambling I can do. I mean, we know y' all know me. Once I get started about South Carolina football, sometimes I just can keep on going. But let's start this off here with a piece of recruiting news.
Four star defensive tackle Noah Clark has committed to South Carolina. This was a great win. You know, I don't always talk about the recruiting news, but this time of year it's nice to keep a little bit of track of. But it's a big pickup here continues the North Carolina pipeline, which is something that you can tell that the staff is working on. Of course, they've always recruited in North Carolina, but there's been some close recruiting battles that Carolina has lost.
So it's important to get that win there. It's at a position of need in D tackle. Granted, it's going to be some time before he's on campus, but you want to start building that up. So then when he is on campus, you feel good. He was a highly recruited player. I Actually think South Carolina was one of his first offers, if not the very first. So built that relationship for a long time, but by the time the recruiting process was over, you had NC State, you had a lot of ACC schools in on them. So high, highly recruited player.
And this recruiting win really came at a time when the team needed it. If, if you follow Gamecock recruiting or if you're even somewhat on Gamecock social media, you probably saw the sky is falling sentiment that was happening over the last couple of days.
As you know, there were some recruits who were crystal ball to go to South Carolina or you know, reports that they're going to go to South Carolina. These highly, highly recruited guys, highly ranked guys and South Carolina missed out on them. So there was this all of a sudden feeling of just whoa. Like all the recruiting momentum is just gone. And then bam. Noah Clark commits. 4 star D tackle, highly recruited guy, big dude. I saw him next to Dexter Lawrence and he is a big dude like Dexter Lawrence, now current NFL player next to Noah Clark and he did not look small next to him. So that's big.
And it just goes to show recruiting, you never know what you're going to get and kids flip and sometimes they come back in the transfer portal. But South Carolina has done a good job building a base in the high school ranks and who knows, maybe Noah Clark is the next iteration of that. So very, very cool to see.
Also we had some preseason accolades going around. It's that time of year. Several Gamecocks got a few here. You had Lenora sellers, Dylan Stewart, D.Q. smith, Jalen Kilgore, Josiah Thompson and Nick harbor all were selected by Athlon Sports as preseason all sec.
That feels like a lot. And that's not even including you had Lenore Sellers and Dylan Stewart. You, you had these guys getting preseason all American hype.
But that core group right there already preseason all sec. And I look at a guy like Nick harbor who, you know, his production has slowly gotten better, but you have people now looking at him like he is primed to take a step to be all sec. That's no fluke. Josiah Thompson, he got some good accolades as a freshman year. He can continue to progress. Jalen Kilgore, love to see that continuing to progress there. And DQ Smith, you know, a guy who has been good for us, good for us pretty much since the word go, but you know, at times maybe had a couple lapses, has developed steadily, is going to be expected to take a bigger step now without Nick E. Back there. So it's just Cool to see.
And of course, you have to get on the field. You have to back it up. A preseason accolade doesn't mean anything in November, but I think it still just speaks to the fact that there are some dudes on this team, y'.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: All.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: There are some dudes. And it's not just us. It's not just this situation where you have Gamecock fans hyping each other up and building scenarios where, oh, this guy can be really good, this guy can. Like, of course we, we're going to do that regardless.
But you're having national folks take notice of the Gamecocks, and it's really cool to see.
And all that leads nicely into this episode's football segment. Football off season segment, I should say, which is reasons for optimism going into the 2025 season. So this is not necessarily a deep dive into that, but I was sitting back and I'm like, man, like, there is a lot of, whether you want to say, cautious or not, optimism around this football team going into this season.
Like, maybe going into last year, you had a feeling like, you know, like, maybe this team can, can, can, can be better than it was the year prior to that. But, you know, hey, like, if a couple things fall into place here, like, we can be pretty good. And a lot of that was like, if Lenores can be lived up to the billing and things like that.
And we saw a lot of that and more come true. But naturally, when you do something good, especially in college football, when you have a good year, the expectation is do it again. That's the expectation.
Not even a question of can you. And I think a lot of Gamecock fans do feel that this team can be good this year.
You know, there's varying degrees of that. Like, are we talking playoffs? Are we talking, you know, eight wins? Are we talking nine? Are we back to double digit wins, you know, or is it back maybe a little bit towards. Towards the mean, but still a successful season at the end of the day. So I put together top of my head notes here as to reasons why. I personally think you should be optimistic and you should be excited going into this season. And, you know, none of it's groundbreaking here, but let's dive into this. Number one, Lenore Sellers. Need I say more? But I mean, seriously, anytime you can bring back your quarterback in college, it's a win because you just tend to get better as you get older. You're more experienced. That's the leader, your team. But when you have a guy like Lenoris who it almost feels like, hasn't even really scratched the surface.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Of his potential.
If he can. If the game can slow down for him and he can continue to hone in his craft. And now guys fully are looking at him as the leader and he has command of the building. Really, you can go places. You just can.
You know, I saw a clip of him talking the other day, just working on his patience and his execution this year. Like, he made a lot of magic happen and it was fantastic. And I think his ability to do that is what makes him so great, that he doesn't panic when things don't go according to plan. But a lot of it was off schedule and coaches talked about that and even he talked about it like, yes, we made some incredible plays, but it wasn't how it was supposed to go. And if I, if it had gone according to plan, we would have been in a better position. I didn't have to do that.
So if he can continue to work on his patience and evolving his game and all the different little aspects of being quarterback. We've seen he has the rocket army and we've seen he can make some great throws, but continuing to develop that side of his game, continuing to work on the touch passes, you can, you can follow a really good quarterback far.
And it's just so cool. It's just so cool to be part of this. You're seeing Lenores listed as, you know, top 10 quarterback in the country, top five in the SEC, like in all these lists, right? Like top three in the EA Sports video game.
We have not had that.
Like, yes, Spencer Rattler came to us and that was a big deal. When he did his first year in the program.
Didn't really bring all the eyeballs like this.
And then he had a good year, second year, but then he went to the NFL.
So it's just so cool to be like, holy crap. Like, we are part of this where we have a quarterback that's bringing national attention to himself and to our program. Just so cool.
And then sticking on, on the offensive side here, reason for optimism is the continuity on offense.
Of course you're returning Lenores, but you're return. You're returning your core group of wide receivers.
Like, pretty much anybody who made like, plays consistently on in that wide receiver group, you're bringing back, especially when you look at guys like Mazy o' Bennett and Nick harbor, like two guys who are primed for breakout seasons, you know, and then you look at tight ends like, yes, you lose production from Josh Simon, but you're bringing back Mike Smith and Brady Hunt. Especially a guy in Mike Smith who's athletic and can do it all, you know, and of course you bring in some backups, you know, some not backups, some additional production in the transfer portal, but again, focusing on continuity here. Two guys who played good roles in that offense. Then on the offensive line, this team returns a lot of production as well, bringing back a couple of starters. You still have tree on the roster who wasn't starting and then moved in and slid around places. If the, if the staff can find a place for him to start full time, whether it's left guard, right tackle, whatever, that's a big win too.
So again, continuing with that continuity, guys who have played together, guys who understand the expectations and then with the running backs, I'm not going to get into the whole rasul of it all, but there is still talent that had experience last year in this program. Jarwan Howell, Oscar Attaway, Matthew Fuller, you know, and then, yes, you bring in some other pieces from the transfer portal who can help you. But there's dudes in that group who have been part of this system, who know Lenora's cadence, who know some of these tendencies and what to look for with the offensive line.
So on the offensive side, just in general, like you have this incredibly good nucleus of guys who are a little bit older who have played good amount of SEC football. I mean, even a guy like Oscar Attaway, who was older, came here from a mid major.
He's seen a full season of SEC play. Now, Mazy o', Bennett, he did some real nice things as a true freshman. He was still a true freshman and there were a couple of games where I don't want to say he disappeared, but you know, you didn't see all the production all the time.
Now he's going to have a lot more confidence. He's going to be bigger, he's going to be stronger and faster. Nick Harbor, a lot has been made about him focusing purely on football this offseason. I think it's going to show.
So when you have all these pieces, you can really start to get excited about that side of the ball.
Now looking on the other side of things here, Dylan Stewart, I mean, need I say more again, like, how cool is that? You get to say that both sides of the ball Here he's another year older and all that more experienced and stronger.
Now. It's interesting with him. Like he's going to make some plays and he's going to be a monster, but he's going to get A lot of attention from opposing offensive lines. So, you know, don't be surprised if there's a little bit of an adjustment period for him. Don't be surprised if there are games where he gets bottled up.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: But all of that attention is going to help the rest of the pass rushers. It reminds me of Clowney. It does.
You know, when Clowney really broke onto the scene and was getting national attention, talking Heisman votes, things like that, teams just started keying in on him, double teaming him, leaving a tight end and it slowed him down and he struggled sometimes he would, he would find his moments and he would still break through when you needed him in the clutch. That's what I loved about him.
But it opened up lanes for other guys on that defense.
So maybe Dylan Stewart isn't making these game wrecking plays every single week multiple times.
But I promise you his presence alone is going to help defense.
And then I got down here, the defensive backfield, this group is deep, they are experienced and they are good.
And all of that was before some of the reinforcements the staff brought in through the portal, right. Like Brandon C. Say, of course, you know, you have to replace Nick and Man Warri, but this group has played a lot of football together and they are multiple. So I am very much excited to see them play. And you know, if South Carolina can have a top tier pass defense, it's just going to make things slow moving for our opponents.
You know, we're not focusing on reasons for pause with this team now, but the front seven, you know, is something that some folks have been a little concerned about replacing. A lot of production from the linebackers. But you know, when you have a backfield that's experienced and that can work in unison and is good, you can create some coverage sacks, you can create some mistakes, some turnovers.
And so even if it's that extra two, three seconds where the quarterback has to hold onto the ball, that extra time bought is another moment or two for a Dylan Stewart, a Brian Thomas, a good wine to get after it, you know what I'm saying?
And then my last note here, just, you know, something fun to round it off to five points is the staff, you know, this, this program, right? Like it really does feel like this is the most in sync Beamer and his staff have been in.
And I look at how the team got off to a solid start last year, you know, winning games, you know, you know, I'm saying like it took a little slow against Old Dominion, but you still won't.
Normally it had been tough to get off to some good starts with this team, but it makes me think that they have zeroed in on their offseason program and they can start and finish strong.
So that's it, you know, Couple reasons, couple talking points you can throw around your Fourth of July barbecue. But yeah, I think the continuity on offense.
Definitely be excited about it next year.
That's good talking points there. 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'.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: All.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: Go Cox.
