David, Welcome back to the show, my friend. How are you guys
doing? Man, we're doing good. It isn't life good when football season
rolls around. I know it's worked for us and you in particular doing the
work there at the PNC, but it's it's just it's it's the best time
a year to me. Oh well, I'll tell you, fellas. Every
time, you know, I started getting bogged down under the stress. I
remember when I spent a summer when I was eighteen at College Station, Texas
and the way I earned my room and board was to roof Barnes in the
summer. That was a bad job. Every time I think about that,
I'm like, you know what everything college Station? Yeah? Everything. You're
in an air conditioned newsroom and you're not out there. And Jimbo Fish who
would remind you, hey, what does the world come to its economy out
there? David Kloniger is our guests. So, hey, these are interesting
times right now. With the Gamecocks scrimmage just happened. We've been in the
fall camp season. What's the latest on Juice Wells. I'd been a little
bit at of loop here the past couple of days covering the Panthers there for
iHeart, what's the leg injury? Had they disclosed it? And do you
feel like he's going to be ready to go against North Carolina. It's not
a leg, it's a foot, and he's being held out of practice at
least the formative part of practice. You know he's not going to go full
contact. I think he's still get out there and run around a little bit.
It was a pre existing injury. They're just making sure he's ready to
go. He says he's gonna be playing Game one, so you tend to
take him at his word. I guess we'll get an updated thing from Shane
Biemer tomorrow. But he didn't play in the last scrimmage, but still he
was walking around with no boot on or anything, so I would lean toward
him being ready to play. That's good news for Game Cox fans. David
Konager is our guest here from the Posting Courier on the game Coox beat,
and speaking of South Carolina, tell us about the help they're getting in terms
of a grad transfer on the edge right now? What's going on now?
Man? Well, what's been long known finally became official over the weekend.
Drew to Azama, who's a grand transfer from UAB. He's also spent some
time at Syracuse in East Mississippi Community College. He's a six five edge rusher
and he has finally been approved to suit up for South Carolina. He got
into school this weekend and he's got to go through the acclamation process. You
know, he can't fully practice with the other guys until he goes through two
days in shorts, two days in shells, that kind of thing. But
he's the guy that can't help right away. He's obviously played a lot of
football. He's got to get up to speed with South Carolina's defensive system.
But he's a guy that's going to contribute usc needed defensive end help in the
portal. This one kind of came up a lot later than they were hoping,
but it comes so. I don't know how much of an impact he'll
make, like to say, against North Carolina or maybe against Furman in week
two. He's just got to get up to speed, but he is going
to play this year and they hope he'll be an impact player. David,
You've got year one now with dal Loggins, who comes from the NFL ranks
and he's known as a guy like many out there, that has a specialty
for quarterbacks where they need to go in their careers and especially for that program.
Spencer rather finished the season strong, made some big plays. Even when
the stats weren't pretty. Against Clemson, he made big plays. We talked
about that last time with you. What's their relationship appear to be like from
your perspective, it might be too early to tell, but I heard Spencer
make some comments I think in a recent article that things are feeling good.
This is the best I felt. Of course, this could be hyperbole.
We know that there's a lot of that going around this season, but is
there truly a change? And if you've noticed a change, what's different this
year under Dal Loggins than was last year under centerfield? Well you can tell
that. You know, Spencer is a lot more comfortable and what are you
doing out there? And obviously he's kind of in the same boat that he
was last year and learning a new offense, a new system. But the
fact is that this year he has a kind of a I guess a game
plan from last year about hey, this is what I was comfortable with,
this is what worked. These are the receivers and running backs that I got
to know and get the ball too, so Dwell kind of had that in
grains coming with them. But in response to the question, everything's looking great
now, Specier feels more comfortable. He says, he really likes you know,
how this offense is designed to suit him and you know he's not having
to be on that learning turve anymore. Of course, there's going to be
some tweaks, some bells and whistles and Marcus Satterfield didn't have. But everything's
looking good right now. But of course they haven't play the game yet,
so I'll have to go out there and see the speed of the game and
see how he adjusts to it. But in that vein, I don't think
you could ask for a better opening opponent in North Carolina because nothing against the
tar Heels because they're ranked and all that, But every all the hype about
them is their offense. Yeah, Aaron, word about their defense. No,
they've been a bit of a sieve up there in Chapel Hill, and
that's actually I think to South Carolina's benefit. As you said, it could
be one of the premier quarterback shootouts. We'll talk about that game in a
minute. September two, you can hear it here by the way, on
Fox Sports Upstate. Look this program in terms of ex expectations, we understand
coaches talk about one week at a time. That's the standard line, and
it's not a bad way to think. Last year just came on. Like
I said, it was a flourish. It was a bonanza out of the
blue. Where this program, as you followed for many years, like they've
had some high moments, but I don't know if it was quite that fast
that furious. Do you sense the calibration of the expectations were is where it
needs to be from the fan base. I know it's hard to speak for
all of them, but what's what's the general expectation of Columbia for this team?
Well, expectation is a dangerous word to say, isn't it. I
mean, yes, people what they expect and they're going to answer with the
whole pie in the sky stars in there ius, Hey no reason we can't
go twelve and oh this year, well there is probably a few reasons,
but on September two, you know, the word reasonable and expectations don't ever
go together. It's just something that you know happens in fandom, you know,
with sports but I think that the bare minal and expectations is win more
than you lose, which hasn't been a problem, and give Clinton a game,
which obviously was not a problem last year. So they hope to repeat
that and do a little bit better. Shane obviously won seven in his first
game his first year. He won eight last year. So you think it
is the next logical step nine? Well, sure, I mean that would
be the next step up, and I think it's going to be tremendously difficult
to get there this year. But I think a winning season. I think
everybody's just saying, like, okay, you know that that should be it.
But then again, if you get a season one of the breaks all
go your way, sure there could be a nine win season, maybe even
more. But it's a very difficult schedule. They've got a lot of major
question marks, and it's really kind of an unforgiving schedule. You know,
they've got the whole month of November at home, which is great, but
you got to play two months before that, and there's a lot of tricky
road games. I'm gonna tell you that September is staring you right in the
face, and don't sleep on October and we asked our listeners last week.
We've got a good buddy of ours named Billy out and Greer, who is
a look debuted like Billy. Billy knows football as well as anybody, and
Billy is one of these regular callers that is like, I don't want to
get my hopes up. I say, two wins in September two and three.
Acock fans are like four wins, three wins. I think that's gonna
be tough sledding for them in September. But how important is this first game
to set the temple? Obviously it's vital to win every game, but you
springboard yourself out of that North Carolina game in that neutral environment. Could that
give them enough confidence if they're out healthy, to maybe pull a four and
one record in September? Or is it is it just too tough? Man?
Well, it's gonna be extremely tough. But obviously, if you look
at that first game among the first five games, you say, you know,
if there's gonna be any toss ups, that's probably gonna be the easiest
one to win. Why Because it's in Charlotte, where South Carolina has usually
played very well. They'll be able to have a huge fan contingent. You
know, Mississippi State in week three or out, sorry, week four at
home, that looks like a good one too, but it's also kind of
a major question mark because you don't know Whatssissippi State's going to bring in.
I mean, you know what they were, you don't know what they are
now, So that one's a little more of a question mark. And say
North Carolina is, which is, hey, god, Drake May and it's
gonna be tough to shut him down, but you should be able to score
at will against that defensive. So you look at the North Carolina game and
saying, not only is it you're opener and you want to win that,
but that's probably among the question mark games among those five, that's gonna be
the one that's most reasonable to get. So you get that one. I
could definitely see you coming in October first for the three and two record,
maybe even better. But of course I can look at it and say,
in a worst case you could be coming in October one and four. I
don't think that will happen, but somewhere in that two and three, three
and two's that's definitely reasonable and then maybe even probable just looking at out of
the game Cocks that played years past. Yeah, David, I think that's
the important part. I cover this with the NFL, with the Panthers two,
and there's this expectation all of a sudden, Okay, new coach,
new staff, they're very well equipped with Bryce Young, Sky's a limit right
off the bat. And sometimes you might take a step back that seven wins
that the Panther said last year to make progress of the year following, and
I think the Gamecocks feel like they're in that mold right now. Wins may
not define who they are this year versus losses. But look, you got
Tennessee on the thirtieth. How about a game here? You mentioned college station.
Now you know the twentieth of October, you're gonna have to be there
right on a roof somewhere on a barn. I expect that because it won't
be that hot by then. Dave, Absolutely. And you know Missouri the
week before that, So the two longest trips and back to back week,
Oh man, it's not real forgiving. And of course, you know Tennessee
is always going to be difficult to play, especially now that they've kind of
gotten back on their horse. South Carolina has never played very well in Neeland.
They've won three times up there, ever, so you know, I
have to see how that goes. And obviously, coming into this year,
Tennessee is still very very very upset well South Carolina visiting last year. And
I never look at the term of revenge. I think it's a hokey term
because it's not like anything can a race happened. But you can bet Tennessee's
gonna want to put their best foot forward on a September thirtieth against South Carolina.
So it'll be very difficult to handle. But they go in they're confident,
they go in there with their own offense and might be able to score
a few and say, hey, listen, you know the game last year.
I mean they saw a lot of one on one matchups they liked,
and it might be the same thing as North Carolina, Like, okay,
we'll hear a lot about the offense. What about the date, because it
sure wasn't very good last year. No, it wasn't. It was it
was all about the Hype Bowl offense and there was a real void in that
secondary in the past rushing, and I think that's where this team has a
silver lining in those games. It's interesting. I talked to coach Beaver last
week on this show and we thought him on a few times, and I
think he's got the right mentality for the long haul for this program, and
he comes from that stock with his father Frank. From observing college football as
you have over the years, how much of a and I mean this in
a positive way, not a negative way, how much of an advantage and
asset has that in for Shane over the years. Not that he hasn't carved
his own path. We've talked about this with him, but from your view,
how positive has it been considering beam ball is alive and well still to
this day. Well, it certainly helps, and obviously it's going to be
part of the game. How much you want to treat it as a part
of the game is up to you. But of course, Shane, coming
in with that background, said, listen, special teams can really swing a
game, and it's not just having a great kicker. That's a part of
it. But you know, it's not always going to come down to a
game winning field goals. Sometimes you got to go make something happen. And
obviously these last two years has been just getting better and better every game.
He hired the best special teams coordinator in the country, and he's been able
to improve himself. Pete Limbo keeps coming up with new ways to really pull
every opponent's pants down around their ankles and just say I got you again.
You knew it was coming, and I still got you. And of course
this year he's got all of his starting personnel back in punter Kai Kroger,
kicker Mits Jeter, longsnapper Hunter Rodgers, and you got some guys behind them,
but those are your three main guys, and they've all been in the
system for a while, so it's always going to be creative to do it.
But the best thing is that they know that they can succeed. They
believe they could succeed. And now, as you saw against Notre Dame,
they went out there for that field goal. Everybody in that stadium knew that
a fake was coming. Everybody, And I mean it's like Lombard touchdown that
was thrown from Kykroger to Hunter Rodgers. That was a third read third,
and that's had enough presence of mind to check down twice and to get it
to thee. I've talked to coach about it and I've looked at the tape
on that and it's remarkable the detail involved. And I talked to Johnny Hecker
about this and the Panthers, who's one of the best passing punters of all
time. Any marvels of the work they do. On that note, before
we let you go, look, the NFL contingent has been strong for South
Carolina. We know that al Shan Jeffrey is being honored here uh this season.
Talk about what they're doing for al Sean and and just you're years of
covering him down there with the Gamecocks. Oh, I mean just terristic and
al Showan was just such a freakish athlete. I mean he could show up
and shake a leg and be ready to go and he'd be the best player
on the field. And that's why maybe it took a little longer for him
to get on the field, because when he first got there, the coach
was like, man, this guy needs to practice harder. I just don't
know. And it took him five games and they finally put him on the
field in that fifth game and he caught three touchdowns against Kentucky and it was
like okay, yeah, all right, okay, maybe we messed up.
It's not always practiced like you play. But al showan's getting his jersey honor.
It's not officially retired because it's going to be added up there with all
the other ones, and he's definitely deserving of it. South Carolina had a
lot of stars here from twenty ten from to thirteen. He's one of the
biggest ones and he had a followed his NFL career, got a Super Bowl
ring, so it'll be good to see him back, and I'm just looking
forward to the next guy that gets his number honored. Well, David,
sounds like he got some things to tend to there that are more important this
show. Dave vid Conager from the posting curve, You've been too kind to
take time, and you have now informed us that if the pants are around
your ankles, you've been limboed. Thank you, David. We'll talk to
you next time. But it's always a pleasure.