Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This episode of Cox talking gamecocks is brought to you by the Mason Jar, New York City. The Mason Jar is the official gamecock bar for the New York City area. Fans and alumni of USC can come by the Jar for some great barbecue, cold drinks and of course, to watch the gamecocks in any sport, all while surrounded by South Carolina memorabilia. If you want to get a slice of game day in Columbia, all while in the Big Apple, head to The Mason Jar on east 30th street.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: All right, here we go.
It.
Welcome to episode 193 of Cox Talking Gamecocks, brought to you by The Mason Jar, New York City. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 18 one to 2001. And deep breath. Exhale. Gamecocks exhale. Do we feel a little bit better on the right side of a game, albeit a stressful one? It's over. It's over. We got the W. It's the next day. Nothing better than when you're looking for a win saturday and Sunday you found one. This was awesome because you had the whole day ahead of you after this game ended. Watch some amazing games in the afternoon and evening slate, but I'm going to get to it in a little bit. It was obviously very far from perfect. It was stressful, it was aggravating, it was everything you want to say, but we have that winning feeling and we haven't been able to say that a lot this year. So no matter what, take a minute, take a beat, bask in the win and then we can worry about the rest later. But congratulations, gamecocks, we made it here. Let me get into a weekend recap from around USC athletics here. Starting on Friday, good amount of action here. The women's volleyball team unfortunately, lost to Kentucky three to one. That's all right. Equestrian lost to Texas A and M. Ten to eight. A lot of that going around with A and M lately. Swimming and diving. The women tied UNC 151 50, where the men lost, unfortunately, 161 to 139. That's all right. Screw the Tar Heels. And on Sunday, the women's volleyball team, they beat Ole Miss three nothing. So a nice bounce back win from them. But the news coming up from this week is that both the men's and women's basketball teams start their seasons on Monday. So you get double action going on Monday. Monday afternoon for the women and Monday evening for the men. On the women's side of things, I'm sure y'all know already, but they are tipping off their season in Paris. Viva la gamecocks. That's not french. Point remains. They have been over there for the last few days and they are getting ready to take on the 10th ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish in really what is a very high profile, high stakes opening game. That's nothing new to South Carolina, but this is a historic game as it marks the first NCAA women's basketball game to be played in Paris. So the Gamecocks are quite literally making history with this.
Got my romance languages confused there for a little bit but this is an early test for Dawn Staley's new look team as she starts this new era in gamecocks women's basketball. I think dawn will lean heavily on the likes of Camilla Cardozo to really lead this team in the early stages of this season along with Raven probably. But it will be fun to watch and see who emerges as other reliable playmakers someone do they have that clutch gene in them? Someone they can turn to to close out a game? And these first couple of games could be a little start and stop, could be a little give and take but this first half of the season is going to be very fun to watch for the women's team so bonchants and let's go gamecocks now. The men meanwhile they kick off their season at home in Colonial Life monday night against USC Upstate. Hopefully you know, this is a game that allows the men to start the season on the right foot. I'd look for Michi Johnson to have a nice game and a heavy dose of BJ Mack as well as Lamont. Paris is also beginning a new page if you will, a deeper team, a team that has more experience. Can we see more of his style and can we see the Gamecocks close out games where they had difficulty doing so last season so hopefully they get off on the right foot against Upstate in Monday night. So very excited to see that. And like I said while football is going on that's going to take priority as far as where the episode balances and things like that. Once football winds down I will of course dive into more details on both basketball teams, crows to the game and things like that but of course I will update you all with the scores and highlights, things like that.
And speaking of football here let's turn our attention there as the Gamecock Bowl aka the Cockpocalypse aka the Cock NATO has come and gone and South Carolina is finally off the Schneider as the boys got a much needed win as they take the game 38 to 28. Side note this game should be played every year. I don't care about the other implications or anything like that. You have to have the gamecocks play the gamecocks every year. It's just amazing. And they're not that far apart, right? Geographically speaking and things like that, it should absolutely happen every year. But this game, it was anything but easy. I mean you had a very good Conference USA team going up, this team in South Carolina that has been struggling for most of this season, pretty much all of this season, y'all and you saw things get a little hairy there for a bit more than a little hairy, right?
Both teams were exchanging blows for most of the day, but I felt you saw South Carolina excuse me, squander several opportunities to take control of this game, whether it be drives stalling out on the offensive side, or allowing big third down conversions on the defensive side of the ball. Carolina just was not able to fully impose their will in this game. And so, as such, there's definitely still question marks around the team as they go into the final three games of the year, which are all against Power Five opponents. So this notion of you had the easier team to sort of get some momentum going, like, yeah, you got the W, but now it's only going to get harder. And nothing was easy against Jacksonville State. So it leaves a lot of question marks and definitely some concern here. But I'm done rating on our own parade for now at least. A W is a W is a W, and that is all that Gamecock Nation needed.
I mean, look, I've said it two or three times already. It was not the prettiest. Right? But at the end of the day, the team needed to rise to the occasion late in the game, and that's exactly what they did.
There needs to be another playmaker on the offense to come to the aid of Spencer and Xavier. The defense has to find a way to get off the field on third downs.
But the fact remains that the hope is still alive for South Carolina, right? You have no margin forever. That hope is still alive.
A lot of people, they don't feel very confident in this team after being pushed to the brink by Jacksonville State. And that's understandable. It is.
But the team found a way to win, and they're one and o in November, which is all you needed to start, right?
And there are teams across the country, and we've seen South Carolina teams that in that position would have folded, being pushed to the edge late in the game.
This team didn't. We can go back and forth, and I agree with a lot of why did it have to get to that in the first place?
And we can debate about the details and things like that, but I do think there is something to be said, and it has to be acknowledged a little bit that when it mattered most, the team stepped up.
But I just think that that's what we can expect from this team moving forward, just in the sense of if we're going to be in competitive games, these last three, they're going to be ugly. They're going to be hard fought, close, ugly games. And if you're hoping South Carolina to be on the right side of them, it's going to be ugly wins. And it's just the nature of this team this year, but especially when you're banged up and thin in multiple positions, I mean, even a lot of these games this year, they've just been close, tough, hard fought. I mean, Mississippi state was closer than it had to be. Furman hung around in the first half, right? There hasn't been this just smooth sailing win this year and I don't see that starting in these last three games. So buckle up because it's going to be tough. But now you finally have a locker room that finally has that winning feeling back in it. You have Shane Beamer continuing to get the team to win at Know. He's not perfect, but the splits are heavily favored to home.
And maybe, just maybe, a little jolt of energy, a little juice, little swag, little win is just what the team needs to get this thing going. They needed to see one go through the hoop, right? You just needed to get over the hump need to get a win.
Well, now you know you can do it. So maybe things can start clicking a little bit here. But let me get into what I liked and didn't like from around team this game for the whole team. I like that you won the game.
Ending on the wrong side of this one would have done a lot more damage than simply pushing the program out of bowl eligibility.
It would have put everyone and everything in this program in flux.
Everything would have been able would have been under question.
So, again, the team needed to win. They needed to rise up to the occasion late in the game and they did, and they got the W.
Now, I didn't like the penalties.
Carolina was the more penalized team by far and there is just no excuse for that.
You have no margin forever this month. The team has to be better in that department because you can't give opponents an inch right now. South Carolina is basically relying on a handful of playmakers to carry them. And if you're doing that, you cannot make it any easier on your opponents by hurting yourself, right? And just silly penalties, too. Special teams penalties, just mental errors, so those need to get corrected.
Now, on the defensive side of the ball here, what did I like? I loved the turnovers, like a bakery. All of the turnovers.
Four total turnovers created by this South Carolina defense. And the massive one coming from stone Blanton with the game ceiling pick six. Stone my guy.
I mean, really, what a great moment for him. He's had an up and down season and he kind of had a tough day in general leading up to this play, but it was a smart, high IQ heads up play by him and it was just elation in that moment across gamecock nation.
Also, you love to see Tonka, he had a great game. Finally jumping off the stat sheet again. Debo with a huge force fumble, O'Donnell making plays and that O'Donnell fortune pick to end the game was just great. So you absolutely love to see that.
Also, with that. I like that the defense didn't allow any points in the fourth quarter. I mean, it was a bad third quarter, but when it came to clutch time in the fourth, the team stood tall.
Also, to start the game, I felt that the defense looked okay, only allowing one touchdown in each of the first two quarters despite a couple extended drives, big plays, things like that.
I was okay with how that stood at the half, basically. Right.
But let's get into what I didn't like here, starting off with the tackling. I mean, all game long there were missed tackles and sloppy play just across the board, and you can probably ask five different coaches and you'll get five different answers. But to me, tackling comes down to a matter of focus, grit, and coaching. And you can't expect to go against SEC teams and then Clemson with this poor tackling and win. You just can't. So that has to get cleaned up.
Also, giving up 14 points in the third quarter almost cost the team the game. That was almost the difference. Right.
I also didn't like the ability, or rather the inability to slow down the read option. I mean, we knew going into this game that Jacksonville State like to play fast and they like to run and incorporate the quarterback in that.
Giving up 225 yards on the ground and letting Jacksonville State continue to move the chains was just an absolute killer. And a lot of that goes back to the tackling.
So, I don't know.
You tried to sell out for the run, but then you allowed Jacksonville State to do more damage than they really have done through the air to this point in the year. It also, in a weird way, we talk about offenses being predictable in the same sense. That's not what I'm saying about this game. But I kind of felt like the defense was almost like I didn't feel that Clayton White was mixing up his looks, but more so mixing up the timing of sending the blitz and things like that. It really felt like we were just sort of playing in our base defense, first and second down. And then if it was third and long, it blitz. If it was third and short, you wouldn't. But there were not a lot of different looks. And early blitzes Incorporated, I think that actually was the case on the pick six, and look what happened. Right?
Also, you hate the third down defense. Jacksonville State went ten for 19. That's crazy. Cannot let that happen. Especially early in the game. They were really rolling on third down. Can't let that happen against a team like Kentucky. Just not going to get it done.
Now, on the offensive side of the ball, here what I liked more. So loved Xavier Leguette, take a bow, tip of the cap, everything. Have a day. Nine receptions, 217 yards, and two touchdowns. Probably could have been three.
A career day for X, and it was just incredible. Him and Spencer carried this offense and this game. And a few miscues aside, this duo was absolutely perfect.
Xavier Leguette and Spencer Rattler have been this bright spot in what has been a pretty dark and grim season in reality. And it's the reason why you might feel okay going into almost every game, because if them two do that shoot, you should have a shot, right? You also like Spencer's play with that. He had a couple mistakes as well. Definitely a couple of throws that he would want back that one to Leguette. When he was one on one and Spencer threw it short, that was just not it. But it was a stellar day. Outside of that, 399 yards, two touchdowns, and yes, the one pick being a little too aggressive there. I also liked seeing Josh Simon have a day seven catches for 64 yards and really, what was an inch away from a touchdown, he seized his chance with Trey Knox being out, and it was very nice to see. I also felt that the pass protection was pretty solid. Like was not great. But Spencer, on the whole, I felt, had time to have himself that nice day. Despite being sacked a couple of times, it seems like they settled in early in the game. He was running around a lot, but seemed like they settled in as the game went on.
Now, what I didn't like was the run blocking. South Carolina totaled 89 yards on the ground, but 40 of them came from that big Mario Anderson run to start the game. So what's, that 49 yards? Aside from that, aside from the one big run too many times, jacksonville State was meeting our backs right at or even behind the line of scrimmage. Too many to count.
And I understand that that has been a calling card for their defense tackles for loss. But an SEC offensive line just needs to be able to be the bigger and tougher unit and you need to be able to move guys off the ball and not getting a consistent run game. It handcuffs Dala Loggins and makes things even harder on Spencer.
I also didn't like the inefficiency on third down.
Carolina went four for 14 in the game. That's just bad.
And it speaks to this pattern where I felt for the whole game, it was one step forward and two steps back, really on both sides of the ball, but especially the offense. Right offense would get a chunk play to move the chains. You'd think a drive was starting to cook and then they'd get stopped on third down and have to punt it back. And you had this great play, but then that was it. And it's frustrating because you saw the team able to move the ball, especially with the chunk plays through the air. But when it mattered in short yardage, they just could not convert. And really, when you think of it, that's probably the root of the root cause of this game being so close.
I mean, even if the team goes 50% on third down, seven for 14, maybe even, let's just say six for 14, you probably eke out three to six more points and then you probably don't find yourself in the position that you were in at the end of the game.
And not to take away from Xavier Leguette's. Amazing day he had that day. It was amazing.
I was a little surprised to see Nick Harbor really not featured at all. Spencer threw the pick on the deep shot to him, but there were moments where you thought maybe he could get the ball when you needed someone else to step up. So for these last three games, if you can work him in so he's a legitimate featured wide receiver, two couple of catches to complement Leguette, then you sprinkle in Josh Simon or someone like that. That feels like a winning formula moving forward. So, yeah, I mean, overall for this Game, it's certainly a mixed bag. You love the win.
You needed the win. We should be happy and celebrate this win, really, because there have not been many happy moments this season.
At the same time, though, this South Carolina team put themselves in a position where Jacksonville State was driving late in the game with a chance to take the lead and maybe win the Game.
And throughout the game, South Carolina was not able to pull away or really impose their will against Jacksonville State. So it definitely can leave the cause for concern out there as to how the Gamecocks are supposed to do this for three more games, win for three more games, especially with increasing level of competition.
But at the same time, the Gamecocks did their job and won the Game.
This season has been tough. So again, it stands to reason that there's not going to be an easy game left.
Even with Vandy right, that's probably going to be close. But the team completed step one. They completed the first step of November, which was to win out. They've done that and they've moved the win total up. So let's just hope that the team continues to get to work and comes out ready to play next Saturday and build some legitimate momentum within this locker room here.
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 Cox.
