Finding Positives from the ODU Debacle & LaNorris Sellers Breakdown w/ Aaron Murray

all right we had our overreaction video already what are the positive takeaways from Saturday's game against Old Dominion all that and an interview with Aaron Murray who was on the call in Williams Bryce lock on Gamecock starts right now you are locked on Gamecocks your daily podcast on the South Carolina Gamecocks part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what's up guys welcome in to locked on Gamecocks I am your host Chris maror it is great to have you along I appreciate you guys joining us for another recap of Saturday's game we've now watched it twice um two and a half times really and it was there's some more positive takeaways to have but we will get into that and more I want to give you a huge shout out and say thank you to our everyday listeners thank you for making lockon Gamecocks our first listen each and every day shout out to our every dayers remember we are a free and available podcast where every you get your pods as well as on YouTube as well part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day now today's episode is brought to you by our friends at 5H Hour Energy 5our energy fixes tired fast with zero sugar a convenient portable size it is the perfect pickme up for getting stuff done go to 5our energy.com and use the promo code locked on CFB to receive 20% off your order the offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used other promotions go to 5 hour energy.com today now like I said uh we have a fun episode now we're going to have some positive takeaways we got like our negative overreaction um from from the Saturday's game against Old Dominion we did that in the last episode got a ton of feedback from you guys in the comments we appreciate all that as well we're gonna sit down with Aaron Murray who was on the call it's a former Georgia quarterback but he was in Williams Bryce covering the game for St Network on Saturday so we're going to get his takeaways as well so this is that interview with Aaron all right we're here joined with a former rival of South Carolina but also somebody does a tremendous job with um the color commentary from from the game on Saturday and you know Aon I was joking around earlier I was like it's like it's wild because we talked before the game and it was like Hey you know here's some other talking points and here's because you you know like filling four hours of airtime is not easy it takes a very skilled person to do it it seemed like Shane Beamer did you a favor maybe on Saturday and gave you a very close game yeah oh yeah I did I did as much homework as I could obviously talking to you as well like you alluded to like okay if things get a little sideways in the second half I better know some stories about you know what what so and so likes to eat or what so and so has been doing the off season like uh really going in depth in the Bios uh talking with some people so extremely well prepared uh did not think that we would have a a four quarter battle that was going to take uh two turnovers inside the 10 yard line for South Carolina to score touchdowns uh in order to win verse ODU so I think you know when when you do step away from it the one thing you walk away saying is one we won the game you know you always said I would rather coach hard and be a little disappointed a loss or excuse me a win then a loss so like at least we can get into the meeting room and figure out what the heck went wrong and still know that we're one to know heading into into week two and you also to beber let us of this plenty of times in the meetings and not let he wasn't preparing us uh and he wasn't trying to make any excuses but it was just the honest facts like hey we have one starter on offense returning we got a bunch of young guys we have a bunch of transfers at uh at the receiving position at the running back position uh we're gonna be playing some freshman uh we have a quarterback that just turned 19 years old three months ago so like lot of new and and and a lot of obviously High expect expectations for you know for Lenoris and Company so um just say got a lot of that rust knocked off of new faces and uh you walked out of there with a win which is the most important thing yeah it's one of those things like the win a win is a win is a win that's fine but I think like it it really took me a minute to let it sink in I was like damn they won this game by Four Points yeah and they got two turnovers inside the 10 yard line which is like Kudos the defense I do want to talk about the offense and sellers mainly because I know that's obviously year Forte and where you were and alltime SEC leading passer let's not leave that out um but at the same time when you talk about like like the defense being great that means like the offense did struggle a lot man and sellers like like I I I kept trying to figure out like all right where do you go with the blame because the play calling looks pretty bad in my opinion it was like it just felt very very vanilla and I don't know if that's because you don't have a grass the of the entire Playbook yet or or if it's just because you're new or if he's just nervous but like then you also think about the very first play of the game was like an RPO to get him out in space and just dump off a pass and he kept it so it's like what what what did you notice that like was it nerves is it just like he's not there yet or like what was your main takeaway from sellers um throughout the game obviously there's a little bit of nerves and and you talk to people inside the building and they're like man how mature of a kid he is how prepared he is how much you know Spencer took him under his wing a year ago to help him prepare for this year so like all the poses like he is ready he understands everything uh he's a guy that makes a mistake once and never makes him again like that type of athlete back there at the quarterback position but to me it was a guy that was at times trying to do too much right a guy a guy at times that just wasn't taking the easy completion and there's a million guys doing that too I mean I just did the breakdown of of uh Jaylen milro from his first game with the new coordinator there at Alabama under under kayin deor and he was doing similar stuff too just you know trying to get big plays down the field at times not taking the check down so like everyone trust me I did it too U part the reason why I got cut from the K City Chiefs after my my third year like I was trying to create home runs instead of just taking the the simple check down so like that's something you really don't know until you go back and watch the tape and say okay I ran C this play and let's not forget to like ODU is facing or or running this 326 defense you don't see that defense in the SEC visually for a quarterback because I faced it a couple times visually for a quarterback it's it's it's different you're not used to seeing three safeties back there uh that are eyes downhill ready to go there and fill the Run Lanes as well so like you're not going to have to face that unique defense rest here you're going to face more that 42 you know 425 you know two safeties look one safety look kind of thing so you know I'll kind of give that excuse for him too but um yeah for him it's it's all going to be about just taking completions going forward this is an offense that you know takes some shots when they're there but they're going to move the ball methodically down the field they're gonna have to run it but before you and I started this whole thing I still think the biggest thing for him is he needs some support man yeah like like are there going to be some receivers that are going to step up make and make plays and and and I didn't see one receiver that could say like that that's going to be a dude in third down or Red Zone situations that we can we can hang our head on that's going to go out there and make plays so that was like that was gonna be my next question and here's the thing man I hate to to beat a dead horse but I'm going to and because because it's like also part of the overreaction what we saw in week one like yeah if there's the receivers there was no separation there was no creativity in the route running or in like the play design it felt like everything just again it felt very very vanilla and you could say like well you know you want to make sure you don't put put too much on tape for Kentucky then you're like dude at some point you got to go win a ball game right like like because it's not like Beamer Newton's back pocket they were going to turn over the ball again inside their own 10 so I I just have to wonder like where is Nick Harbor and what could be happening if Nick Harbor is not separating himself in that Bunch after what we saw against a secondary at ODU I get the 326 thing but it's like you still should have been that you there some Mis opportunities though there were some like one not not on him necessarily I mean there was one high ball that I mean it's kind of hard to overthrow a guy that's 6'5 that was that was tough yeah the ball was over his and there's another one that I I talked about during the broadcast where he had a post route and it's one-on-one the safety jumped I think the number two receiver yeah and you got a Olympic sprinter right running a post route that you just got throw as far as you can let him go catch it it's like those are the Miss opportunities of like it felt like every time that that Norris needed to check the ball Down based on the coverage he wanted to take a shot then every time that they did give him an opportunity to take a shot he didn't see it and need to make the play so like it it works hand in hand like the receivers have to be better the Norris has to get them the ball you know how many times did he overthrow guys where you're you're seeing a receiver jump up or a tight end jump up or a running back jump up and you know he has to be more accurate whether it's on the run or inside the pocket and then like I said those guys got to make plays like I'm with you like Nick haror has to make plays but you got to put him in a position to make plays and you got to throw the ball down the field for him um and then the guy that I covered at Coastal who I was excited to be on watch him Jared Brown like just give him jet sweeps give him screens like just just give him the ball in space any put him in Wildcat I don't really care just like give him the ball in unique ways to make defense and say where's 14 where is he in otion is he in the back field like he's just such a fun Gadget player and I just feel like you didn't really you know South Carolina did not really use him I know he got banged up did not really use him in that fashion here uh in the first game for Old Dominion that may be something like once again maybe they're kind of hide that for week two I don't know but it would be nice to see him get some more more touches as well it honestly the last thing I'll say too is is that I think like because there's no way you went into this game plan thinking all right we're going to run lenorris 20 times there's just no way I I don't think that you were ever going to plan on doing that so part of me likes the fact that it's like if I'm trying to be positive and spin this in a positive way it's like man that's a great job by sticking with lenorris and he he did go out and make enough plays I guess at some point to to win you a game but it still feels like there was a lot more negative from this one and and listen maybe this is definitely a lot more negative yeah be honest like this was not this was not the uh you know uh the the the the H State kid that just committed to Syracuse and decommitted and you know stayed home and you know was had some big plays last year you know we we we Illustrated that in the open like the big throw and the big run and all the excitement and Yad yada yada this was uh very anti-climatic of of of a start and you know what once again like you still won the game so yeah it doesn't matter how you start it's how you finish so we always talk about like you take a big step from year one to year two well you also take a big step from week one to week two as well like there's a lot of nerves like I don't care that you're playing ODU um I I don't it's at home I get all that the next week you're gonna be playing at Kentucky so that's a whole new set of issues that you're gonna have to face but playing your first Collegiate football game is is still a really big deal and be like walk out of there and say you know check I did that got that off my off my chest and now I can kind of just like breathe a little bit yeah I'm not saying like Lenoris is gonna go out there and you know throw for three touchdowns and run for 100 yards next week versus Kentucky on the road a very good football team very good defense but hopefully he just continues to build because he is super talented there's no doubt about it he's talented as hell it's just he got to get the Reps I agree man well listen dude I appreciate I know you've had a long weekend you had to drive um back to Columbia been back to Atlanta and all that good stuff so I appreciate you joining us we'll have to do it again at some point during the season uh next time you're on the call and I'm back in Columbia we'll have to go out and get uh beers on this uh on this podcast I beard like that I it's it's a very familyfriendly very we'll have to go out and get some water or some five hour energies is our ad sponsor there you go I appreciate having me on happy to join anytime and uh uh don't mind going to Columbia man it was a good time hopefully a little bit better game next time for some reason man like I just I'm 0 and2 in the stadium then at least I called it was a decent game to call not as expected but uh I never I'm 0 for three with going into Williams bre stadium with a certain expectation of expectations to be yeah and now my expect have not been met so I'm 0 for three unfortunately yeah let's just set that bar Lower I love my whole life on that exactly all right brother I appreciate it we'll get at you soon appreciate man all right we appreciate Aaron coming on and we are going to move into our next part of the show and talk about some more positive takeaways from the South Carolina Old Dominion game before we start getting into the week ahead and Kentucky and all that good stuff um we've given it 48 hours right we've watched it we've watched the the tape at least two or three times um sadly to say and there are some positive Tak so we will get to them as well before we do I want to give you guys a quick shout out uh to our good friends here at the ultimate head football our football head coach it is a new and exciting game that you can get in your app store or Google Play Store whichever one but let me tell you something right now uh I want to take a moment to give you a heads up on a brand new mobile game I think 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talked to we talked about with Aaron Murray obviously earlier the more people that were that were you know around the situation at the game itself a very disjointed game right like a very disjointed game you had a rain delay which seemed to be a theme all weekend I don't know why um across the college world but you had a very disjointed game with that then you had situation where um your quarterback came out I just don't believe that the that the game plan ever was going to be hey let's run the ball with lenorris 20 times in that game um maybe if you were preserving a lead late that would make more sense but I don't think that that's what the plan was at any point going into that game I think you absolutely wanted to get more people involved um whether it was passing game with it's in the running game or whatever I think that the the the biggest takeaway I have for for what I saw and I'm not trying to make excuses for this team I'm not trying to make excuses for any of the players but the more I look at it the more I just think that like man L Norris looked just just nervous like just nervous and you think that with more experience that that's going to come along with playing this position the more he's going to be able to go out there and just cut it loose and and that's what you were hoping to see in game one him being a little bit more calm um I had a friend of mine text me earlier today as we're recording this saying what if we just invested and getting him some beta blockers or something like that to help you know she she was saying how it helps her when she's go to give a speech or something like that um to not be nervous I don't know I don't know what the what the uh the move is but I do think that the the takeaway I keep having when I look at it you talk about the overthrows you're talking about like the the the indecision um and the the hesitation especially when it came to his decision making I think that was the thing that suck out to me the most which was he just looked nervous he just didn't look like himself he just did not look like himself and I know that we've only had a very small sample size of what Lenoris can be but you know it's better than that you know it's better than that we had to come out with our our quarterback rankings um from other job today and I'll be honest I had lenorris last in the SEC after after his performance and you guys you guys can get mad about that all you want um if you want I don't think that's where he ends up but if it's on a week toe basis it's really hard to look at every other quarterback around the league and think yeah lenorris outperformed him because he didn't because he didn't you know 10 of 23 passing 20 uh 20 carries for like what like 60 something yards I just feel like the ceiling is still so high for this kid and I do think that he's got some Talent around him and they will get this figured out but I don't I did like after game one it's very hard to argue that he as one of the 16 starters in the conference didn't have the worst performance in week one and that's fine like it's it's one game it's one game so that was one of my takeaways the other takeaway I had was you know from a positive standpoint the defense you do have to give your tip your cap to the defense one of the one of the stats I brought in that I thought was crazy going into this season was with the turnovers that that Carolina was being able to force like they've led the conference in forc turnovers over the last three season Seasons right um that that's I think it was like 63 or 64 total turnover something like that that's a that's an incredible job and and and I think with this defense one of the things that set out the most was they had so many turnovers that were forced inside the Red Zone which is like that's hard to replicate it's very hard to replicate hold on I'm pulling this up right now um very hard to replicate but they go out in game one and lo and behold you did go out there and Force four turnovers and and and I know I brought the fact that you were able to do it inside the Red Zone in a couple the fact that you're were able to do it inside the 10 yard line like like the defense won this game and that's one of the things if you're trying to be positive and figure out where to go move forward the defense is going to go out there and have to win you some games early until Lenor cers get settled down and is able to get through some of these early season Jitters that we've already seen rear their ugly head against Old Dominion now again I'm not sitting here trying to make a bunch of excuses for sellers because I think if he plays like this and D login and you know doesn't doesn't figure out a way to start using and utilizing his strengths a little bit more but again it does fall on sellers if he plays like this moving forward this is not going to be a bull eligible team this is a five win team at best if he plays like he did against Old Dominion I don't expect that to be the case but let's call a spade a spade and that's what that will be that is what that will look like if if it continues but the defense itself man the defense was very very good it was just very very good I saw somebody talk about this the other day um Emanuel Alo uh love him or hate him or anything in between I don't I'm very indifferent but like he brought the fact that he played on a Texas team that went like five and seven they had the number six overall defense in the country I don't think this defense is gonna be the sixth overall best defense in the country but man you look at what they were able to do in game one um they did hold old been into around 300 yards they did Force four turnovers they you know they made they made they made plays they needed them most they held them like around five yards per attempt which is really good on the other hand it sucks because South Carolina averag even less it was five five yards attempt uh exactly so I think those are some things that that you want to see shaped up a little bit but you also they did a really good job stopping the run right around 3.2 yards per Rush allowed that's better than they've had in the years past that's that part is great I think that for me what I want to see moving forward is well would love to see them start two and 0 and we'll get to the Kentucky breakdown this week but I want to start seeing some receivers get some separation I want to see Lenor start feeling like a little bit more calm and you you don't want to feel like this defense is is is going to have to like shoulder the entire load but if we are being overly positive and I will I will do it for this particular episode if we're being overly positive you know if you Force four turnovers at Kentucky you're going to probably win that game too so can the defense carry you until he gets get settled down maybe I don't know you hope you don't have to put all that pressure on them but it seems like at least so far they have been able to ra rise the occasion and be okay now before we close out our last part of the show I do want to tell you about our good friends at Five Hour Energy um five energy helped get me through the rewatch to be honest um uh multiple times watching watching the the replay of the game uh against Old Dominion but listen um 5 Hour Energy is the perfect perfect little Sid kick uh if you were trying to go get a workout in if you're tired after lunch if you needed tackle Tod do L this five hour Five Hour Energy fixes tired fast whether you have a long list to do for work or a list of DIY projects to tackle at home Take Five Hour Energy Shot so you can check everything off your list if you're like me you always have a large list of projects for the home yes when you get your supplies for the project do not forget the most essential Supply which is a 5H Hour Energy Shot if you guys are watching this on YouTube you saw me give a glare to my girlfriend um and she makes a ton of to- list for 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Kentucky game week we'll start looking ahead here shortly and looking at the games um and I know there's a lot of people that are that are pretty pissed about uh the way that game wins and I do want to remind you one thing this Old Dominion team yes they were six and seven last year yes they only have one uh one season one winning season in the LA like since like 2014 I believe when they joined FBS that was that was in 2016 when they won t games but they have made a bowl two of the last three years they just finished six and seven it's been a good program and they've played power for opponents very close they've played four of them over the past couple years they have won one and in the other three two of those games were decided by three points or less so this is not anything new to them I think it's a throwaway game where you like you have to look at the tape obviously and figure out where you improve but also you know maybe you also just throw this one in the in the bin if you're Lenoris or if you're any of those receivers and think all right we know we're better than that we know we're capable of way more than that and moving forward we're going to go out there and show it you're going to a Kentucky team that is a very very good and physical team this is something I told you guys last night or last or probably about a couple months ago um when I started doing the show I think this is going to be a good Benchmark for this team honestly I love the fact that you're going into it where no one's going to believe in you after what happened against Old Dominion I think that only helps South Carolina to be honest you're playing Kentucky team that is coming off their first game against Southern Miss and Southern Miss uh goes in there completely overmatched Kentucky wins 31 nothing the game was actually called Midway through the third because of also um lightning and rain and weather delays that they had like I said just kind of plagued a lot of games around the southeast especially um all weekend you're going on the road to Kentucky a place that you won last time you were there right 24 to 14 with Spencer Rattler this is a Gable game and they're gonna have to figure out what kind of advantages they can they can uh find with a defense that is like I said turnover prone um and opportunistic here's the one positive thing I will say about about where I think South Carolina has an advantage in this game because there are some there are some concerns when you look at it like up front I mean Dion Walker as my Grandpa would say ate your lunch last year I mean Dion Walker had like nine tackles multiple tackles for loss like he was in the back field all day I think he had like eight solo tackles or something crazy um he is possibly the best defensive tackle in the country and will be a very very difficult matchup for the interior offensive line from from guard guard uh against South Carolina on Saturday that being said one of the things that I think South Carolina does have an advantage on if you talk about just from a number standpoint I brought it up earlier they have led the SEC in turnovers force over the last three seasons like 64 starting quarterbacks for Kentucky over the last three years will Levis had two years there and then you had um Devon ly last year you have Brock Vandergriff now kid from from Georgia that transferred in former five star go going into the season their starting quarterbacks combined for 35 interceptions over the last three years by far the most in the conference 35 over the last three years and you know in in the first quarter of this game and Brock vander's first career start at Kentucky he throws a pick so the number only climbs there are going to be opportunities for South Carolina to win this game I think it would have to be an ugly ugly game um you're going to have to figure out creative ways to get the Run game going I think honestly east to west might be might be your best best option trying to get them spread out uh and and try to go sideline to sideline because they are really really good up front I've said this before they returned six of their front seven the only person they don't have returning from last year's front seven which is already pretty good was um Dumas Johnson the the linebacker is a former All-American from from Georgia um that's a kid that started 24 games at Georgia one of the best defens in the country if not the best defense that is going to be a very very big issue if you're trying to run between the tackles and we've seen South Carolina been able to have some success with it but not a ton and so I think that you're G to have to find creative ways to get the ball uh get the ball moving um and I think going east to west and kind of stretching this defense out is one of those ways to do it the other one is trying to figure out chunk plays with Van dvus Jacobs um and and these receivers I I think this could be a game where and this is going to sound odd but like South car or sorry Kentucky has Kentucky has the best cornerback arguably in the conference right they have I think Harrison um he L the like the conference and and PX last year pull this up make sure I'm being right because I know somebody will correct me in the comments if I'm not uh but this is this is a team that does play a very physical style of offense and defense honestly and I think when you you're trying to figure out a way to get anything going especially with sellers one of the ways to do that is to attack them you know for lack of better words horizontally instead of uh you know North and South not ideal but it's also something that yeah it was Harrison I was right there we go Maxwell Harrison right um he's a he's a projected early round pick uh it's a guy that had five interceptions a year ago he had two pick sixes so on the the inverse of what I'm I'm saying about being opportunistic be to turn them over get get turnovers early and often you need to make sure also sellers is not doing that as well I think one of the ways to do that is try to get the ground game ground game going maybe maybe you see some sort of package for Robbie Ashford I was shocked that he didn't go in at all last game you don't want to you know do anything to damage the north sell's confidence but I do think that if you need to have a go-to person to get especially on Third and short that's where you struggle the most and that's where you cannot struggle like like there's multiple times in the first half alone when you had third and four third and three and you only gain two yards third and four you only gain three yards right and and you're running a lot of rpos and and and and like and QB reads Ex Zone reads I think that you get you get Ashford involved as well because at the very least get a spark going for this offense at the very least you need to spark going for this offense so that is all for today's episode we will have more obviously this we'll preview Kentucky continue to preview Kentucky as we get closer to the game um that is pretty much it I appreciate you guys joining along thank you for everyone that watched the overreaction video it has like it's the most views that we've had since I've been on the channel which has been really cool appreciate all the comments and and everything like that give me your feedback give me some score predictions and questions you have going in for Kentucky as well either on social media with locked on SC as as our Twitter or with me Vern funist CFB on Twitter and Instagram as well appreciate you all very much I hope you have a fantastic rest of your Tuesday I talk to you all