The GamecockScoop.com Podcast - Baseball Falls Flat vs UGA, Previewing Football Schedule

[Applause] [Music] [Music] hello out there and welcome back to the Gamecock scoop.com podcast the official podcast of gamecock scoop.com on Rivals I'm Caleb joined by Allan uh make sure you subscribe wherever you're listening uh it's at Rivals Gamecock uh for all social media and yeah we're on Spotify and podbean and your podcast app and all the things so uh subscribe wherever you listen to podcast and you'll see us every single week um so [Laughter] um sorry we we're starting with baseball um and I can't even really figure out how I would like to to start that I I think I'll start it like this um we kind of talked all season about how it felt like they were like hanging by a thread but they always kept finding a way to win that one game that they needed to when their back was against the wall to kind of keep things afloat um and to me it felt like this this last weekend against Georgia where of course they got swept um really outplayed across the board although we can talk about uh game three because that one felt like a particularly tough gut punch but um you get swept by Georgia and to me it feels like maybe the rug pull finally came you finally got fully exposed finally fell flat in the wrong moment um and the margins as we talked about All Season we super thin and now you need a miracle right you're going to have to go on the road to Tennessee and win two of three to stay in the hosting conversation I think unless you're you go and like win the tournament in Hoover or whatever but um either I mean that would be a miracle too right so either way you're that still qualifies either way you're gonna need something drastic to happen um first time you've been swept at home since 2019 against Vanderbilt um and really I mean what were the Vibes like this weekend because this is a program and a fan base that cares very much about baseball and at least the way it bled through on the screen I don't know uh it didn't seem like there was a whole lot of passion granted there wasn't a whole lot of positive things to be rooting for either but I I think I don't even again I'm almost kind of like you I don't even know where to start with this um I think you probably start at the end like you said and the the details almost don't matter for these games but we can get into game three a little bit like you said you lose you get blown out well you get down really big Thursday you kind of sort of make an interesting late but you lose 14 to1 but you were down 10 to three in the fourth inning I think it was Friday same deal you're down 10 to one in the 5ifth you lose 11 to5 uh Saturday you start gck gainy which you haven't done all year just trying to make something stick he actually pitches pretty well five and two3 three runs allowed one of them was off an air that wasn't his fault pretty much the only one the only pitcher all weekend I would say that actually shut Georgia down at times yeah and you've got a lead in the seventh inning Georgia ties it you take the lead back in the bottom of the seventh you're up six to four going to the eighth and then the wheels fall off you give up 10 runs in the last two innings between SQ Becker McCreary my God I can't even think who pitched after McCreary pulk I think it doesn't even almost again almost doesn't even matter um you give up 10 runs in the two innings you lose 14 to six defense was hideous couple years in there pitching I think that kind of goes without saying you you get swept at home it's just I started to look around kind of about e nth inning people are leaving the place is dead it's quiet it's just there's different conversations we've had about okay South Carolina baseball and what can it really be you're probably never going to win back-to-back national titles again it's a different era but like I just kept thinking it should never ever look like that it should never ever in a big Home Series be empty before the game's over no energy almost no hope like it just felt like there was no hope left in there not just for that those games which were clearly Out Of Reach but almost for the year um um I I I kind of wrote it in the weekend rap it's just kind of like I don't know how you look at this at this point again there's three regular season games to go there's an SEC tournament there's a regional if this Trends the way it's trending I don't really know how you can justify running it back yeah I mean and back to that game three that was an important game like we've seen throughout the season really um them finding a way to win that game three has happened three or four times at this point um and then you at least have like a little bit of positive momentum heading out of the weekend you still kind of keep thatc record around 500 you like they've they've done it all year and they did kind of string together a couple wins uh leading up to the series that um you know made it seem like it was it was possible to to be hosting again um so to get swept at home in this spot yeah it just feels it feels bad um and then the larger conversation which I'm sure we'll get more into uh that you kind of noted there yeah I think it would be it's tough right because this isn't like a full mus champing of this program right it doesn't feel like you're Missouri uh for example or whatever where um there's not anything positive that's come out of the season but you're mediocre and to me almost a decade of U mediocrity really it's over a decade of mediocrity but I'm just talking about the Kingston era in particular um I don't know you feel like you're like wandering in the wilderness like Chula era Alabama or something and I do think that that's an appropriate metaphor I think South Carolina baseball should be or at least and I a lot of the fan base believes should be and and I I don't think incorrectly so um that level in the SEC baseball pecking order even though yes you're right the SEC has gotten better maybe you don't win back-to-back national championships ever again whatever um you were supposed to get better with it right you had the Head Start yeah that's a probably a good way to put it you had the Head Start and really you talk about that pecking order like I think kind of what struck me and kind of what I've been thinking about a lot this week is okay you're going to Tennessee this weekend you're going to Knoxville that's a that's a great baseball team they're number one in the country they've won eight Series in like they might win the national title that's all that given I'm not taking anything from Tennessee you're going into series just blanket statement this regardless of opponent or Stadium or whatever you're going into a series and nobody realistically thinks you can win it that's like forget about anything else forget about whatever this team is whatever that team is just the idea of South Carolina baseball going into a series late in the year with Stakes that nobody realistically thinks they have a punchers chanceen does that not kind of say the whole thing right there no right like even in the past because yes Tennessee is very good uh they are number one right now is that right yep they're number one yeah so number one team of the country so and this late in the season obviously uh well earned and deserved but that isn't yeah your program should never be a to a point I think where like this should be the the big series to end the season uh to see who's going to be a national seat or not or whatever uh instead it's like oh what like what percent chance would you give them of winning two of three this weekend like it's got to be under 10 I mean Tennessee hasn't lost the Home Series all year I mean they've only lost one series period like I said it was on the road um I don't even know how you'd piece it together like we can talk about that for a second too like they put a weekend rotation and if you're listening and not watching the YouTube video I just use air quotes because they said Ty Good's going to start tomorrow um okay no starter for Friday no starter for Saturday I don't even think they know where to go on the mound right now where you can get outs and it's kind of um it's kind of the 81 outs thing right I was talking about this with someone yesterday you need 81 outs in an SEC series you got three games you can move ggh to start from the bullpen and that's fine but you're just moving his outs like someone else still have to pitch later in the game and if you don't have the dudes you don't have the dudes and I'm not really sure how you would piece together winning two games this weekend yeah you just create a different problem if you have gy start which uh I think you probably should start him um but um yeah it's kind of been really disappointing because the pitching seemed like the strong suit through the first half of the Season or so um and then the bats finally sort of came alive and the pitching fell off um you it just doesn't it's it's been a weird season you just haven't been able to get all the cylinders firing at the same time with the exception of maybe the sweep against vanderbel and then more recently I guess that Series against Kentucky was some of your the best baseball you've played uh this year so I don't know can you rally it together and give Tennessee their first Home Series loss of the season and their first SEC series loss since it was week one they lost Alabama the first weekend of the conference play they've won every series since yeah literally yeah their first uh Series so um not to mention just the like emotional aspect too uh because we talked about it and I I believe uh Kingston himself used the term gut punch yeah um that's a really tough thing to Rally back from and you gotta come back on a Thursday again so another short I mean I guess the series ended on Saturday so not really a short week but feels like a short week yeah and I actually I feel like all we do on here is we pick apart Mark Kingston quotes and figure out what it means for the psycho analysis this baseball program but he had another one I guess it would have been Tuesday was his pre- Tennessee press conference today's Wednesday when we're recording this so yesterday that I thought I don't have the quote in front of me but he basically said you know someone asked him about you know what's left for this year and what he still looking for and he said you know this is not a conference you go to if you want to have an undefeated record okay okay true no one's going 30 and0 in SEC play this is not a conference you look for if you want someone to dominate well someone wins the league every year and he he he basically pulled the Mississippi State and ol miss you know didn't have great regular seasons they got hot in won national titles recently that's true that I mean Miss I guess two years ago now was like the last team in the tournament they won the national title that's fine but like is that the goal here is the goal here to sneak in the tournament as a three seed in the regional and get hot for a month like can you count on that like can you snap your fingers and play your best baseball in June because you say you're going to at this point I feel like he better hope because I think that's his last shot really at this point um and yeah I guess I kind of wanted to to bring that up for a second too this is Mark Kingston this is what he does like this is not out of the ordinary even before he came to South Carolina at Illinois State he had a career 629 winning percentage at South Florida he had a career 561 winning percentage he actually had a losing record in conference at South at South Florida um and now so far here he's got a 586 winning percentage and 470 in conference and if you're looking at just this year that's right in line 647 so a little higher on the overall season but 481 winning percentage in conference you're at 13 and 14 in conference I think it is what it is at this point and I think there's enough evidence at this point to to say it is what it is and sure that means you'll probably like like I said you are not going to M champ you're not GNA uh fully fall off I think if you give them another year but are the standards higher then we're going to finish as the last SEC team or two to get into the tournament and then hopefully something happens that's kind of the way it's kind of made it sound and I realize at this point that's like you said that's kind of all that's left you're not going to host barring a miracle you're not definitely not getting a national seed you're not winning the SEC um I don't think you can even finish higher than like six in the SEC mathematically so you're you are right in the middle of the pack I think you're seventh right now going into this last series um yeah I think that's at this point you're going to be in a regional I mean barring something really stupid 13 SEC wins in a top 20 RPI should be enough to bank that you're gonna be going to someone else's Ballpark and you I me we talked about trying to piece together two wins this weekend right like granted you're not playing Tennessee three days in a row in a regional like you're going to be playing different teams and probably none of them are going to be quite as good as number one team in the country but you got to win three games in a weekend to win a regional like is anybody feeling that this team can piece together three in a weekend I mean the crazy thing is if they ended up going to a non SEC host I mean it depends right obviously I me they have to for the regional right you can only be a super for an SEC I I could see them winning as a two seed it's not crazy I mean they've done fine out of conference for the most part throughout the year um obviously depends on where where they go but yeah they're it SEC is a stacked conference I'm not trying to say that it's not um there's a reason that what8 nine 10c schools will will be in the tournament um I just don't know if it's enough yeah it'll be interesting it'll be really interesting that's the other conversation we could yeah go ahead no just obviously there's a lot of work to be done to even get to that point but if you somehow make it to a super then I think that this discussion gets really difficult um but I wouldn't put the odds very high on that right now and if you don't make it to a super to me again this isn't my job necessarily to to say whether someone should be done or not to me it feels done at that point I'm inclined to agree with you just because of what that would mean what that would look like especially cuz and this is I don't another point someone brought up to me the other day but you lost seven of your last nine SEC games last year kind of limped into hosting with that hot start right now you've lost let's say you get swept this weekend let's say the number one team in the country does what theyve done to everyone else that's eight out of nine or seven out of eight excuse me seven out of eight to end the year even if you win one this weekend that's losing six out of eight sec to end the year so that's two years in a row you've basically fallen off a cliff in May you Salvage it in the regional last year even if you did again I almost like there's enough of a pattern here that late in the season you're not playing your best baseball um that I would wonder if it's just time to move on there but you don't even have the injury excuse this year either that's also a good point last year you know you lost two weekend starters you lost two your starting infielders you were banged up you actually were like no pun intended limping into the postseason and then you kind of got healthy at the right time but that's true you've almost remarkably other than Eddie copper who was starting midweeks for you the first half of the year and got hurt you've pretty much had every pitcher healthy all year which just doesn't happen in college baseball and you still haven't really been able to do anything with it do you think this roster could have done any differently with different coaching I guess like were their decisions made throughout the season you think lost some games yeah I do um I mean I'm not gonna pinpoint stuff that it doesn't have to be specific ones I mean I mean an overarching one is I think probably waited a little too long to make the lineup changes that you made um probably should have won some of those earlier season matchups if you aren't so stubborn and I get it I mean like you gave up a little bit of something defensively but look at the team you just played that was a terrible defensive team and they just five errors in the Saturday game Georgia had yeah and they just blew the doors off of you because it doesn't matter uh if you have a lineup that can hit against you know all these great pitchers in this league so yeah that and I think you probably waited a little bit too long to get Tai good more Innings on weekends he's proba been your most consistent SEC pitcher and he wasn't really throwing that much on weekends early in the year um I think there's I think there's that you waited a while to get Austin brindling in there it was like mid April and he's hit pretty well like I there's some overarching stuff for sure and I just I I don't know if it's an approach thing I don't know if it's a a game management thing if it's a mentality thing but I don't think any of us looked at this roster in February and said 13 and 14 in the SEC I think I think the other thing that isn't doing Kingston any favors right now and even even mentioned it in the press conference Georgia has a first year head coach that turned over that roster in the transfer portal that is a very good point yep and made it work immediately the team in the upstate second coach has a seconde coach that very quickly has turned things around and they're probably going to end up as a national seed or right right around there yeah I mean when you're when you're sandwiched by that and you've seen immediate results more or less um and you've given someone eight years and have maybe one season that you feel pretty good about last year um of those eight years then that's that's a tough comparison Point yeah I actually I'm glad you brought that up because like you said he did mention that Saturday postgame he's just said it you know he gave a lot of credit to how fast Georgia's turned it around in one year Well it's not comfortable to say but Georgia fired a coach after last year they were a bad team they didn't even make it to a regional last year it had been a while and gotten stale there they made a change um and it's not all coaching they've got probably the number one overall pick in the MLB draft here coming up in their lineup and that helps but still like it's not nothing they've they've patched it together with a pitching staff that's not great but service that the lineups you saw what the lineup did this weekend um and here we are Georgia might get a national seed Clemson's probably gonna get one too and at a certain point you just kind of kind of Wonder I guess I maybe this is where you leave it like if Georgia can do this if Kentucky can be getting a national seed and they got to a super last year too Tennessee was nowhere near South Carolina three years ago look where that program is now if those programs can do it there's no reason South Carolina can't I do and I also do think there's something to be said that the transfer portal has changed dramatically since Kingston arrived to now um so should a change be made uh it wouldn't surprise me if just like all the other sports that's uh something that you're looking for in your candidate is is someone that's shown a little bit of a ability to make that happen granted I don't think that Kingston's done terrible in the portal or anything um brought in some pretty important contributors and stuff but yep I I I do think that that that's going to be a factor and um you know he had to learn on the job in that respect at least I think so um we'll see yeah maybe maybe we maybe we come back next week after they uh sweep Tennessee did we write the obituary a little bit too soon I mean it's hard to say right W with this team it's been very up and down we have I I don't know if I ever unburied them after the Clemson series at the beginning of the year that's true I've been a little bit more even ke than you um you and I guess maybe it ended up being your right um we'll see how these last three games go whatever happens after that but um well it's it's not I don't take any pleasure in being right because no I know I think I was just we both talked about this right like even when they were winning games or or squeaking by one game out of a series just stay alive it always felt like your eyes were lying to you or your eyes were telling you something differently than the record was um and it feel like that kind of culminated this weekend and it wouldn't surprise me if it culminates again this coming weekend um to really put an exclamation point on or whatever the opposite negative of an exclamation point is on the season it just feel very this is going to end very un ceremoniously you you're going to go to a regional it will not be at Founders Park you probably won't go 0 and2 there you'll probably the four seat at some point maybe get a win you'll be on that last day of the regional either either in like the one in-one game or is like the team with one loss in the final you probably won't win it and that'll just be that that's about where this the water finds his level there right like I don't think it's GNA I don't think You' get swept out of a regional but I also have a really hard time seeing you win one I think that's the most likely scenario but we would have to see where they end up um yeah I do think yeah the majority of the top teams in the country are in the SEC which is not a crazy thing to say um so so if they go to Regional as a two seed or a three seed even although that's a longer shot um and get the right draw yeah I think they could piece it together but I wouldn't put money on it yeah I wouldn't either and I definitely would not put money on them winning a series in Knoxville this weekend which means you're finishing under 500 in the SEC for the second time in three years you're going to Hoover is probably like the eight or the nine seed at that point um and you're definitely not hosting yep that about sums it up but again we're not it's not over we're not bearing them yet um there's baseball to be played this weekend come read the website there is uh so yeah we'll have live coverage uh of all three games this weekend um and then you know maybe they make a run in Hoover yeah the thing is they could still end up hosting it it just is the longest of long shots at this point um so trying to speak to reality and not dream world um there's no reason to be positive after last weekend like you you got swept and you gave up 39 runs in three games we're all realist we have eyes we watched it yeah and just go back to those last I mean you're six outs away from at least Savage in a win and then it just totally blows up in your face so um let's talk a little bit of football so we're I don't know the exact count but something like 12 weeks away from August um get you keep talking go ahead I can get you a number of days till the first game um so there's about 12 uh football games so we're going to start breaking down the schedule week by week um we're gonna if it's an SEC team we'll just do one uh per week if it's a non-con we might do a non-con SEC team which is what we're going to do this week we'll probably finish a couple weeks before the season but by that point SEC media days will have happened and we'll have more real things to talk about 108 days from the first game and let's see I can do math uh like 78 days away from Camp opening so there we go yeah so uh I don't know that's 10 points that's 11 weeks there we go yeah perfect basically 11 weeks old Camp yeah so so uh let's start well we got a little bit of news uh today about the Kentucky game smallest crumb of football news today yeah that's going to be at uh 3:30 on ABC ABC not CBS anymore for the big SEC game every week 3:30 on ABC which is going to be weird and takes some getting used to and probably gonna have a new theme song so that is that that was my question that is like the SEC game of the week I'm pretty sure it's the only SEC game week two everyone else is either still doing noncon or playing cupcakes or um I know that's the first SEC game of the season for anybody South Carolina at Kentucky so yeah that is the by default game of the week week two yeah and honestly I think should be a fun one which we'll we'll talk about here in just a second um obviously the week before that you have a home game against Old Dominion we don't have time for that one yet right correct they ESPN put out a release yesterday saying that all the times for weeks 1 through three were coming May 30th and they went back on that and put one of them out today which is not May 30th so I don't know it they they do it when they do it and we'll know when the games are eventually yeah I guess they were just trying to get a little bit of SEC hype now that they have the 330 game um okay so Old Dominion we don't have the time yet if I was guessing and South Carolina has any say in it because it'll probably be SEC network Plus or ESPN Plus or whatever it'll probably be a night game uh but you put a noon game in Columbia and obviously against Old Dominion that's how you end up not selling out your opener yeah exactly so um we'll see how that goes uh as far as just previewing previewing Old Dominion real quick um I don't have a ton weirdly I haven't fully scouted all of old dominions roster um but I can tell you a little bit about last year um so last last year they went six and seven um they did go to a bowl game which they lost to Western Kentucky they went to the Bahamas Bowl which hey that's kind of a nice constellation for winning six games go to Bahamas um they beat Georgia State who South Carolina obviously was familiar with last season 25 to 24 in the final game of the season so that that was pretty crazy um see they beat Georgia Southern they beat EP State um they're they're kind of up and down uh Virginia Tech beat them um Coastal Carolina beat them Liberty beat them so pretty much anytime they ran into upper level con competition program right now totally um so very similar I think talent-wise to the Georgia State team you opened with last year um two years ago now right oh you're right wow March is on it does uh two years ago um when I'm looking at their transfer portal activity from this past offseason I'm probably going to look at a transfer quarterback uh imtt Morehead came from Boston College I don't know who else uh is currently on the roster so we'll have to see on that um couple more D1 transfers they had a wide re wide receiver Deontay Vines from Iowa a cornerback from Arizona uh Charles Yates a running back from rugers Aaron Young a running back from Virginia Tech Bryce Duke so probably one of those two guys will make an impact there and then a offensive lineman from Illinois Zack barlev um just some random names to to kind of think of that might be a little bit different and might make an immediate impact uh kind of going down from a power five level to them um that's really all I know about Old Dominion do you know anything about Old Dominion I know they played a lot of close games last year 11 out of the 13 were decided by one score obviously didn't win all of those but they were pretty much in every game and like I said it's a pretty typical middle of the- Pack Sun Belt team um three and N the year before last but then the year before that six- six again then lost a bowl game so I think that's Ricky rones the coach there the old Penn State coordinator um so you know is I certainly would expect South Carolina to have more than enough in the tank to win this game um I don't know you want to set a line right now for week one South Carolina by 17 20 in Vegas somewhere in there yeah I would I would say probably at least three scores um but the question I have for you is what score has you excited coming out of week one uh against so Dominion anything that involves Lenor sers in the offense moving the ball up and down the field several times um like stringing together a full game because Loris hasn't even done that yet you know he's just played kind of mop up he hasn't had to play a 60-minute football game in college so even against Old Dominion just anything that hey you scored points in all four quarters you had touchdown drives in both halves you just things like that where you kind of see a full game progression and ultimately yeah probably score in the 30s and win by 20 something yeah I was thinking something like 31 to1 you're feeling pretty good um because I think also we we've talked about this a little bit and we'll talk about it a lot more heading into the off season I I think you agree with me on this but this is definitely my take I think this is the best defense that Shane Beamer has had since he's been here um so I I think I also want to see a fairly dominant performance against a inferior inferior opponent um if they score 10 or 14 or whatever ever I want that to be late you know game should feel in Hand by early third quarter um in my opinion to be excited now obviously a win is a win is a win and and it's opening game and at least you get this warm up game compared to last year where you had to immediately sure uh open against North Carolina so I mean I don't think it's it's it's you don't get a preseason in college football right and it's kind of this is kind of like a preseason game and and like a preseason game it's hard to fully tell right like there's like that cliche of you get so much better between week one and week two um so I'm not freaking out pretty much no matter what happens as long as you win um but if I'm G to start to overreact in the positive I think 31 to1 uh with some of those things that you mentioned and in a defensive performance like I mentioned gets you gets the hype train rolling yep and then I I agree with that I agree with you on the defense then you roll that hype train up to Lex in Kentucky for what is honestly in my opinion the most important game on your schedule I think there such a difference between two- 0 and one and one this is one of your swing games this is the difference between actual optimism and feeling good versus the oh here we go again coming out of week one week two it's a road game against a team that is also breaking in a new quarterback that also feels very good about its defense probably got a first round pick at defensive tackle with Deon Walker like a team that you always play close with like you got a shot yeah so to me this like you said very much feels like the North Carolina game from last year the Arkansas game from the year before which notably you lost both of um and kind of killed that early season momentum um before it could even really get going you have to win this one to I think you have to win this one to make it a make a bowl uh you know it's it's maybe a little too early to say say that but as we work through the schedule uh you'll understand why I say that I mean it gets pretty tough pretty quick uh a few weeks after this so um I think you need that and then also to exceed expectations to start to become part of the national narrative to keep the hype train rolling to sell something to recruits like all the things I think you need you need this win uh I think it's a pretty big game um like you mentioned as far as what we're looking for from Kentucky it's going to look pretty similar to the way it has throughout the Stoops era um but this might be one of his better defenses uh he's had since he's been there all Juniors and seniors uh on the the starting you know roster for for the defensive depth chart um and the majority of them are seniors and then like you said one of those Juniors is probably going to the NFL after this junior season uh in the defensive lineman Deion Walker so it's uh I think it's points are going to be at a premium especially if South Carolina's defense is as good as I think that they're going to be as well um yeah as far as other names that South K fans will recognize running back there returning Demi Sumo kurang B who had a pretty solid uh Junior season last year um Brock Vandergriff is probably going to be the quarterback if you recognize that name that's because he was at Georgia right backing up Carson be um danne key uh was a wide receiver uh and baron Brown was a wide receiver that both kind of broke out last year uh in a a room that was pretty clear uh for them two neither felt like immediate NFL level like maybe some of the guys that they were placing but solid and experienced now um and then your their offensive line is very old as well all Juniors and seniors along the offensive line um there is one transfer Gerald miny I don't know where he came from I'll have to look that up later that sounds right um that's who's slotted a right tle right now but we'll see if how that plays out so like I said very similar to all these other stups seems that we've seen uh they're going to be experienced along the defensive and offensive front um they're going to run the ball uh they have a solid um game manager at quarterback um and I expect yeah to be one of those sluggish uh low-scoring South car Kentucky yeah yeah exactly that's kind of how I feel about it too it's you know I think it's one of those games and obviously we'll get into it more as Camp progresses and we kind of learn more but you don't really know what you have a quarterback for either team we've had the sailers conversation a lot and Brock van Griff's a former five star but he barely played at Georgia you don't really know what you have there if you're Kentucky either and you add that into breaking the new offensive coordinator at Kentucky as well after Liam Cohen's 78th bounce back and forth to the NFL in the last two years it feels like um I have no idea I I think this is definitely kind of the learn something game for both teams like you said but for purposes here talking about South Carolina just the kind of keep this thing from going off the rails early you gota I think you got to go up there and find a way to win a winnable game even though it certainly will not be an easy game an early matchup in this one that we're probably gonna talk a lot about uh heading into it and and hopefully not talk a lot about heading out of it if you're a South Carolina fan uh Kentucky just came off of a eight sack performance against Clemson in the bowl game uh and they returned pretty much that entire front seven so you know pretty solid early test for sana's offensive line which was much maligned last year we think it's going to be better this year but still young still inexperienced and not what you like to see your young inexperienced offensive line line up against uh in the second game of the season welcome the SEC and I think this is that's probably where the having tree having tro you know having those guys play a full SE or close to a full season last year at least you should start to see some benefits of that I mean they're definitely not going to be intimidated by that they faced that defensive line last year in Colombia um and that's kind of where you need to start seeing it yeah I agree so we'll uh we'll break down all of these games a lot more obviously as we get closer to the season I also do a weekly starting this week um game by game breakdown uh written on gamec cube.com so you can go read those articles also right now the weekly recruiting wrap-up is on the front page of gamec scoop.com if you're interested in what's going on uh with instate recruits uh in the 2025 class I break that down pretty extensively the only other thing um that I talked about which we can talk about on the on the podcast is uh the offensive lineman we talked about last week that South Carolina had visit from the portal from UTEP hubard that was name um seems like he is not going to ultimately land at South Carolina um he might stick with his Vanderbilt um transfer commitment uh I don't really know exactly but not going to end up at South Carolina so it still wouldn't surprise me if so they have some other late portal visits from offensive linemen um just to get that one more depth piece that we've been talking about but also they're at the 85 scholarship limit so we'll see how it plays out um I don't think that they're going to be adding anyone that's transferred out since we last recorded oh I missed that okay well there you go so you have room for for one more and my guess is they're still going to try to Target another depth piece at offensive line so yeah that's all there anything else you had to say about Old Dominion or Kentucky I think that about covers it and really just in news in general we got basketball opponents for the SEC so no but we at least know who's going where this season I actually think if you're a basketball fan and I'll keep this quick so I know it's May but if you're a basketball fan in Columbia this is kind of exciting if you want to buy some tickets like on the men's side you're gonna get Alabama coming to CLA next year off of final four John Calipari and Arkansas coming to CLA next year uh Bruce Pearl and Auburn coming to CLA Texas is coming in their first year in the SEC it's a pretty fun home schedule um your three your three opponents you got to play twice or Georgia Florida Mississippi State which I don't think is a terrible draw um and then on the women's side you get some fun home games too LSU's coming here with Kim Moi Texas you played twice home and away it's a top 10 matchup probably um you get a road trip Tennessee with their new coach Kentucky comes here with their new coach I think you got some fun home games at least for those who want to think about basketball in May yeah a lot of fun at home games and like you said I think kind of a manageable Road schedule at least for the men which I'm looking at uh right now um you go to Kentucky but new head coach go to Tennessee but no Dalton connect uh go to Oklahoma which that'll be their first time since 1992 with a road trip in in Oklahoma so um yeah no I think about as good as I mean it's the SEC right it's going to be tough it's going to be a difficult conference slate no matter which way you s it but certainly not the amount of dread that one felt when you saw the 2024 football schedule release and we won't know what the the lineup is you might I don't know maybe the SEC is feeling particularly mean to you and you get I don't know Tennessee Kentucky on the road back to back and then Alabama at home like you get this like one of these Gauntlet stretches but for now all you have is opponents I think you feel okay about that right because yeah I mean even if you look at the 2024 football schedule on the surface the road games at Oklahoma and at Alabama without context are like well you could probably talk yourself into it I guess but having them back to back certainly makes it a little worse so we'll get to that episode and that'll be what it is um all right well we will have full coverage on gamec scoop.com of the Tennessee baseball Series this weekend uh we're about to hit a window here in a few weeks where there won't be any more live sports that we're covering so definitely you know even if you're you're not feeling overly optimistic um we you'll be just like us but if you're not feeling over overly optimistic at least there's still live sports going on right now so check that out and uh we'll be back here next week to hopefully just like put our foot directly in our mouth and uh see where things stand from there but uh this has been the gamec scoop.com podcast we'll see you