Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] On this episode of Cox Talking Gamecocks, thoughts on the football team and a preview to the Alabama game. A week in review and my six pack of picks. Okay, here we go.
[00:00:54] Okay.
[00:00:56] Welcome to episode three, 349 of Cox Talking Gamecocks. I am your host, Tim Cox, where I will keep every episode from 1801 to 2001. And I hope y' all did have a good week out there. I know I say that a lot, but it's been a tough week. It's been a tough week in Gamecock Nation. I mean, my goodness. Like, I'm in a few group chats, and it's just been venting sessions and doomsday scenarios and all this jazz.
[00:01:27] And maybe some of us are a little extreme in those, but nonetheless, like, if you or your or your loved ones are a hurting Gamecock fan, give them an extra leeway here, right? Give them a. Give a pat on the back. Give yourself a little bit of grace if you're feeling a little down. It's been a tough couple of weeks, and, you know, we're gonna get through it, and it's all good stuff. At the end of the day, you know, we're supposed to be fun.
[00:01:54] But, yeah, it's been a. It's been a long week, and, you know, looking ahead and trying to figure out to make sense of this season, it's. It's been a lot. I'll obviously get into the Alabama game here in a minute, but, yeah, hope y' all had a great week. And, look, there's still Gamecock football being played this weekend. Maybe that level of excitement for some of you is a little bit less for me. I'm still excited to watch. You know, it's Saturday is my day of the week. Just like, it's like a lot of yalls out there, right? It's a day of the week to watch a team that you care about, but there's lots of other games on, you know, to just entertain yourself, blow off some steam, and just have a good time. So if nothing else, we do have that here. But before I get into the weeds with all that, let's do a quick week in review here from around Carolina Athletics. Monday, the men's golf team finished 14th in the fallen Oak Invitational. And Wednesday, men's soccer lost to Marshall4. Nothing. Not a score to report here, but a cool tidbit. It was the Garnet in Black Madness, the men's basketball event. Been doing some types of variations of this since Lamont Paris got here, and I absolutely love it like there's no reason why the men's basketball team should not have our full support. The women have our full support.
[00:03:20] Football team in theory has our full support and you know, we'll see what baseball brings. But it's pretty cool. They, they did a little bit of a skills exhibition. Waka Flocka was there. They did, I think like a three point contest, a dunk contest. The women's basketball team was there to support. They opened it up to fans. It looked like there was a decent turnout there in the lower bowl of colonial life. So I just think it's a really cool thing and there's some excitement around this men's basketball team they own in this season. I mean, I talked about it a week or two ago, but Lamont Paris saying it's a deeper team that he's had. It's a very hard working team. So we'll see if that translates. But you know, I think there's guys on the roster who fit more of the mold of what Lamont Paris is trying to do a lot like his first year.
[00:04:11] Whereas last year I think was to a degree like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole in some instances, but nonetheless really cool to see. And hopefully that fan support and excitement and momentum lasts throughout the basketball season. Right. The early parts of it. And that's that, that's all right around the corner. It's not going to be too long before we're talking about those scores there, but. All right.
[00:04:38] Focusing now on what has all of our attentions, for better or worse, and that is the football team and the football game this weekend. So I really did think about this week doing it a little differently in the show. I thought about just, just talking and giving my thoughts and not necessarily doing a pre game discussion and analysis and all that jazz. And it's just because I feel like we know what the narrative is right now at this point, right.
[00:05:11] Where everyone who's a fan of this and covers this knows that there's one side of the ball that is just severely lacking in production and it's taken on a life of its own. And there's displeasure amongst the fan base. I would imagine there's some frustration in the building that they can't translate this thing from theory and practice into the games.
[00:05:38] But we're gonna give it one more go or two and we're just gonna see where we're at. You know, it's. I believe it's homecoming weekend. You know, we're gonna see if the last two weeks have Served as a kick in the rear end for Beamer to maybe do something.
[00:05:54] I don't know, but we'll see. If you watched Beamer's press conference this week, you know, he said all the right things he did. You know, he's taking responsibility for the team's record and the offensive production and not being where we want to be. You know, he's saying, you know, it is his job to fix it. He's vowing to fix it. He understands that there's people, not just in Colombia, but in the entire state who want us to do well and who look to Gamecock football to bring joy and everything like that, and they're not doing it right now. So he's saying all the right things. And then, you know, you'll talk to some fan, some fans, and they'll say, well, he's not calling out this and that. The fact of the matter is, no coach is ever going to say, like, yeah, I sat down and I told Mike Shula he's not calling the plays on Saturday. Or, you know, I ripped the offensive staff a new one on the meeting we had on Monday. Like, that's just not going to happen.
[00:06:50] But you got close to something unique with what he did in his press conference, which was point blank owning it, point blank vowing to fix it. And who knows, right? Like, actions speak louder than words. And we've had a lot of words to this point in the season from Beamer, from Shula about everything looks good behind, you know, when they're in the building, and it's just. For some reason, you know, it's not translating onto the field. So it's going to be very interesting to see what happens Saturday. You know, like, does. Is there sort of, like, a shadow change? You know, we all remembered at the end of the Satterfield tenure where those last two games, Tennessee and Clemson, that offense was different. It was. It was night and day different from what we had seen for really two years of the Satterfield tenure, but yet Satterfield was on staff, and it looked like at least Satterfield was calling the plays. And we don't know exactly what happened there.
[00:07:54] It's kind of known that they basically scrapped a lot of the playbook and simplified it and said, like, you gotta call these types of plays.
[00:08:03] Do we see something like that?
[00:08:06] I mean, you got nothing to lose. You know, I, like, that's the thing. I don't know if you necessarily need to change the play caller.
[00:08:15] You know, you could. You could just be like, look, you have to call these types of plays like you have them in the playbook. Stick to this, this is the game plan. Push the ball downfield, be aggressive, get Lenoris on the move and do these things. Or maybe you do make a change at play caller. And you know, Beamer doesn't have, he doesn't have to announce those things. Right.
[00:08:37] He can just kind of do that behind closed doors. So it's going to be very interesting to see what happens this week because to me, that Oklahoma game kind of feels like the straw that broke the Campbell's back with our fan base. And I would imagine Shane Beamer saying, like, we just are not doing anything here. Although at the same time, Beamer has said some things even in that press conference that are head scratching. Talking about, well, I've seen how we can run the ball, you know, at times and we've run the ball well against Kentucky in the fourth quarter and that, you know, LSU at times it's like, that's fine, but those are blips on the radar.
[00:09:15] So it's going to be very interesting to see here injury report going into this game. It's better than it has been the last couple of weeks. This was mentioned this week, but Kayson Henry is out and it seems like he's done for the year. Shane Beamer basically said that, that he's gonna focus on getting well. He has had a rough string of injuries since he's been at South Carolina, so I expect him to probably be done for the rest of the year. Questionable offensive lineman Jatavious Shivers, probable defensive lineman Monkel Goodwine and offensive lineman Nolan Hay. Those are two big, big developments there. Hopefully those guys are fully ready to go and the injuries have been a note of these struggles. Right. I don't think it's the thing you can really pinpoint it at, but it is a factor in some of these things here. But the question really, like is do we see more of the same offensively or is there that change behind closed doors going into this game? The Gamecocks are eleven and a half point underdogs. I think the line opened at around 13 and moved our way. So some tidbits here about the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Tide are ranked fourth in the country, which is pretty crazy. They had that opening week loss that really rocked the college football world against fsu, but since then they haven't lost the game. They've had a couple of big wins and they've seemingly come into their own. They're not really blowing a lot of people away. Like I they beat Tennessee by two scores. They had a 99 yard pick six towards the end of the game to thank for that. But they're not blowing anybody away. But they're just like playing good football. Their defense is solid. Running the ball, I think could be a little bit better. But Ty Simpson, their quarterback, he has been ballin like he has been that answer for them. He stabilized that position for them, not making a lot of mistakes. And because of that, the Alabama Tide are really making a case for the best team in the sec.
[00:11:19] So nonetheless, it's gonna be a challenge. So what are my crows to the game? So starting with the offense here, first crow score multiple touchdowns. I, I mean, that is a novel concept. I, I know it seems like, you know, you shouldn't even have to say simply has been inexplicable and unacceptable these last two weeks, failing to do that. I mean, we're talking crows to the game here. Like, that's where we're at as an offense that, yeah, go score more than one touchdown. I mean, really the answer is you got to score three or four touchdowns to have a realistic shot in this game.
[00:12:03] And for the last two weeks, that has not been doable.
[00:12:06] You have to do it. And that's what I'm talking about where, like, are you able to make a change behind closed doors or whatever to do that? Because what we've seen really most of the season, but certainly since the bye week has not been that.
[00:12:23] My second crow, Lenoris, needs to be sharp with his decision making. I talked a little bit about this after the Oklahoma game, but he's been off like, his footwork hasn't been great. He has been holding onto the ball too long. There's been instances where you'd expect a good quarterback to throw the ball away and he hasn't.
[00:12:45] And then even against Oklahoma, there were times where, you know, at least one example where he threw the ball away when you really shouldn't have, you know. So he needs to be sharp with this decision making. He has been inconsistent this year. It's an, it's an okay thing to say. He's an incredible player.
[00:13:01] Raw talent and ceiling. Maybe the best South Carolina has had.
[00:13:07] I want him to be upper echelon of the SEC like nobody's business. His play this year has not been. Has the play calling and the situations he's been put in helped him? Absolutely not.
[00:13:20] But it doesn't mean that he still can't be some of. Be a little bit better with some of the things that he can control, like that third crow, don't turn the ball over. Okay? So of course you're thinking interceptions and fumbles. Don't do that. Don't turn the ball over on downs either.
[00:13:38] I understand Shane Beamer tends to be an aggressive coach. And when you're trying to snap out of a funk and upset a team like you might have to be a little bit more aggressive. But let's do that with caution because if you come up with an empty possession because you went for it on fourth down and didn't get anything, well, now you're just playing right into Alabama's hands. So just don't do that fourth crow. And this is circling back to what I've said a few times. If it's possible, change your identity.
[00:14:09] You know, like right now, South Carolina is not playing a creative brand of football.
[00:14:13] They're not playing a fun brand of football. It's, it's, it's very much like trying to play keep away, but you're down half the time, so it doesn't make a lot of sense. Change your identity if you can go fast, get the ball out quick, keep them guessing, keep them off balance, right.
[00:14:34] Take some deep shots, but you know, don't rely on them. I don't know, it's a big if, but if possible, change your identity.
[00:14:44] Defense. My first crow try to make Alabama one dimensional.
[00:14:49] To me, like seemingly like their run game has really been hit or miss. When you look at the last couple of games, they either get, you know, like a hundred yard rusher or they're really just not even close to it. So it's. If we can take that away from them because Simpson's too good to take away entirely. If you can just take away the run game and force them into the obvious passing situations, that's going to play right into our defensive strength. And so maybe you can make something happen then. Which leads me to my second crow is force a turnover.
[00:15:22] Simpson has been so good protecting the ball. I think he has one interception all year.
[00:15:27] But if you can force him into a mistake, that could turn the tide of the game. No pun intended.
[00:15:33] And then my third crow of the game is improve on third down defense. I've talked about this a few times. Hurt us against Oklahoma. It's hurt us throughout the whole year. You need to be able to get off the field on third down, especially when it's third and long.
[00:15:45] You know, it's just, it's just the fact of the matter. And I understand, especially when we talk about second half with the way the offense is played a lot of times I think these guys are just gassed, but especially in that first half, find a way to get off the field on third down.
[00:16:03] So look, overall, my thoughts for the game are, you know, you're probably going to tell be able to tell in the first quarter how this game is going to go, because the biggest question mark is what does the offense look like? If it's more of the same, it feels like it could be a long afternoon for South Carolina. And I'm just being blunt here because that's where we are in the season, right?
[00:16:31] But if South Carolina is able to find the end zone in the first quarter and make a couple of big plays defensively, then maybe we can see some life, right? And if you see more creativity, because it feels like the first drives have tended to be creative and then after that, Shula kind of turtles up.
[00:16:54] If you see a noticeable change, kind of like you did in that Tennessee game a couple of years ago, maybe we're in for at least a fun and entertaining afternoon, Right?
[00:17:05] It's still a great opportunity. And you got two games left in October. This is your last home game in October and last home game before the bye week, Right.
[00:17:15] So it is an opportunity to go out there and shift the course of this season a little bit. If you can go out there and get a massive upset win. Like, I'm not even worried about what it says to the sec. I'm not worried about what it says for the college football world that opens up a path or two that right now feels closed off as far as how this season could end up. So it's. It's possible. It's there, right? Like Missouri was close with them. Georgia was close with them. You know, I. Vandy was close with this with these guys for much of the game. And I know right now those teams are in a much different spot than South Carolina. Right? Not saying Georgia and South Carolina are, you know, the same, but you still can play with these guys, I think. So let's give them hell and let's see what happens. Let's have some fun on Saturday all around. Fun on the field, fun on your couch.
[00:18:17] All right, let me give you all my six pack of picks, then I'll get y' all out of here. I need a big week from the six pack here and I like my. I like my picks here in the ACC. Give me SMU minus three and a half verse wake in the Big 12. Oklahoma State versus Texas Tech over 54 and a half. Big 10 Illinois plus three and a half versus Washington. And in the SEC, we're kind of we're rocking the boat here a little bit. Two unders here. Missouri versus Vandy, under 52 and a half. Auburn versus Arkansas, under 55 and a half. And in the group of five, give me USF versus Memphis, over 58 and a half. 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 Cox.
