Bussin' With The Boys - Shane Beamer Talks Outlook For Gamecocks in 2023, Dealing With The Transfer Portal & What SEC Coach He Would Fight

Episode Date: March 20, 2023

Recorded: March 15th 2023 | In our first episode of our Spring Tour, we sit down with Head Coach Shane Beamer of the South Carolina Gamecocks. Will and Taylor ask Coach about the excitement surround his team going into next season, and what switched halfway through the season when the Gamecocks went on a run. We then dive into what it was like taking over the team and the different challenges he faced as a new head coach as well as navigating the transfer portal. Finally the boys have and ask which other SEC coach that Beamer would like to fight. Big Hugs, Tiny Kisses. 2:00 - Beamer's social media game 4:17 - excitement surrounding next season 5:30 - what do you attribute the switch in the middle of the season to 8:03 - recruiting high school guys vs transfer portal guys 14:05 - navigating NIL deals 17:28 - how do you carry the momentum from last year to next season 19:17 - Beamer's approach coming in as the head coach 21:22 - Beamer's selling point on South Carolina 29:08 - What does Beamer want is players to walk away with after playing for him 30:25 - What SEC coach would Beamer fight 33:28 - development of Spencer Rattler ---- SHOP: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/bussin-with-the-boys FOLLOW THE BOYS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bussinwtb Twitter: https://twitter.com/BussinWTB Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BussinWTB Website: https://www.bussinwtb.com ---- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORSFor more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from a Hypocrite Wednesdays on the Iheart radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to episode two of the bus and spring football tour. South Carolina Gamecox. We got head coach, Coach Beamer with us. Before we get rolling, we are going to bring you the... The Chevy EV.

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EVs for everyone, everywhere. Coach, happy to have you on the show, sir. It is an honor. I don't know if you're very familiar with our show, not the most professional show in the world. You familiar with the boys? I am familiar with it. Not as familiar as I should be.

Not as familiar as I should be. I obviously started finding out more and more about you guys last season, know about you guys as players, but then found out about the show throughout the season last year. And just when you guys were determining whether or not you were going to come here and all that, I guess last fall, just the social media on slot to get you guys here. I remember thinking like, who the heck are these guys? Yeah.

What does this show? And it speaks for itself. South Carolina super accommodating. Like that was a fun time. Like, JP, he's a massive fan. He went here, so he was stoked to come and said he had a plug. And it was like, you know, we went to like, I went to Nebraska. He went to Michigan.

So those are obviously easy to go to. Tennessee's in the backyard. So they were like very accommodating. So we were kind of nervous like getting outside of the box and coming out here. But you guys first fucking class, bro. I appreciate it. You guys are always welcome here. So we got to get you back here more often.

We are going to hold you to that, sir. You talked about social media a little bit. And we, as Juice and Spencer are. You already are already saying who our sources are. we had two players we were talking to earlier in the facility. Allegedly. We were like, what should we talk to coach about?

And they said something about your social media presence. Like you tweet like 10 times a day. I don't know if it's that much. And you went pretty viral. Went pretty viral with the whole mic challenge. Yep. Did it all. How has it been,

you've been in the game for a long time? The development of the NIL, the transfer portal, and knowing inevitably that you have to have some sort of presence on social media to get these big name guys there. Like, how have you had to probably change your mindset a little bit? Yeah, no, you have. It's totally different, especially at a place coming in South Carolina.

When I got hired two years ago, there wasn't a lot of energy and excitement about South Carolina football. And it wasn't just all of a sudden going to market itself. Like we had to, as a program, get out there about what we're about. So that's what a lot of it was. And me as a head coach, like, I'm going to be me. I think sometimes see a lot of head coaches all of a sudden. They feel like, well, I got an act a certain way because now,

I'm a head coach in the SEC or Big 10 or Big 12 or whatever it might be. Like, I'm going to be me whether you like it or not. And I really have just tried to maintain the same activity on social media that I had as an assistant. And it's different nowadays because of NIL and everything, but you've certainly got to be able to market your program. The players can market themselves now in a lot of ways as well. And that's a big part of it. But, you know, most of the stuff that I do on social media is to connect with the fans, but the majority of it is for recruiting. We did that Soldier Boy video last summer.

And as soon as we finished the Soldier Boy video, it hadn't been posted for five minutes, and I bet you I've got 20, 30 text messages from recruits that are just texting me and calling me like, oh my God, this is amazing, you know, coach. And we still have kids that'll visit here, and they'll, like, pull out their cell phone and the lock screen or screensaver is a picture of me,

you know, doing the Soldier Boy video down the hall and stuff like that. So you realize how many people see it. And then we've got a great team here at Carolina that helps with that also. It seems like it's paid off because I was reading that you guys have kind of put together the best recruiting class talent-wise since 2012. You guys really came on late last season. You beat Clemson for the first time in eight seasons, seven seasons or something like that.

Well, since the trophy got, since the trophy came about. The new trophy. Yeah, the new trophy. But talk about the excitement surrounding the program. Yeah, it was huge. A lot of energy and excitement coming off the 21 season, going to a bowl. goal game for the first time in a few years, beating Florida, Auburn, and then North Carolina

in the bowl game, in the last three of our last five games, we won, and then to get a guy like Spencer and Juice here last season, if they were your sources, I don't know if they were or not, but to have Spencer and Juice here in 2022. And then to finish like we did, I mean, we had beat beat Kentucky, beat Texas A&M, had some great wins, midway through the season, and then to come back and finish

the regular season with a win over Tennessee and Clemson, back-to-back top 10 wins. It was already, recruiting was already going really, really well for us. But then to finish the season like we did, the recruiting just went to a whole different level and open up a lot of other people's eyes as well. And I think validated, you know, kind of what we're doing. And when young men recruits come on campus and they get in this facility and they see what we're about, it's a huge thing for us, for any program. But just for then the people that may be honest familiar with us, it really opened up a lot of eyes regionally and

nationally about us as a program. When you're in the beginning of the season and things aren't necessarily going the way like Spencer wanted to go and your offense wanted to go. When you see that transition, what do you attribute that to in the middle of the season where it's like there seemed like a switch went off? Yeah. You talked about Tennessee. You talked about Clemson. The way you guys ended the season, it was electric. We were here for that. For sure. One, you guys know you've been around. The thing we talk about with our team is just continue to get better each week. And I get it. we're judged on 12 Saturdays, but I tell our guys all the time, like, it would be a shame if in game 12 were the same team that we are in game two or three. And we, we practice really, really hard

and do a lot of competitive work in practice where we do get better as a team throughout the year. And I saw us getting better. Spencer will be the first to tell you that he didn't play his best, you know, early in the season, but then I saw him out at practice and I saw how he was performance. So we had to constantly tweak and adjust things as coaches to make sure that we were putting our players in the best chances to be, the best positions to be successful. But honestly, I think it was just particularly going into that Tennessee game. We just went back. We talk about competition all the time in this program and we told our players the week of the Tennessee game. Look, the way that Tennessee plays defense, they're going to play a lot of man coverage. The way that

we play defense, there's going to be, we're going to play a lot of man coverage and this game's going to come down to just one-on-one opportunities. And Spencer, give these receivers a chance to go make plays and DBs. We're giving you an opportunity to go match up against their receivers one-on-one as a winner and a loser and just go compete. And I think from an offensive standpoint specifically, I think Spencer just did a really good job those last couple games of just given our playmakers opportunities to go make plays

and just kind of had somewhat of a screw-up mentality and just let it all hang out there. That's got to be a testament to your staff, though, because, I mean, you know, middle of the year, if you're not playing your best ball, it's so easy for guys to either, whether pack it in, just kind of be discouraged, like, keep feeding this the same bullshit weekend and week out, so that has to be a testament to the staff that you have. Yeah, I think so.

The one word that always comes up when we talk to people, when people talk to me about our staff, recruits, players, players, players, families is two words, real and genuine. And I believe that. I mean, to me, that's a great compliment. Like, what you see with us is what you get. And we're going to coach these guys really, really hard. We're to be demanding, hold them accountable.

But we're going to treat them with respect. We're going to treat them right. And we're the same people, each and, every day. I'm sure you guys have been around coaches that they're on like an emotional roller coaster and they're high, they're low based off wins, losses, their mood that day. I mean, there's highs and lows throughout the season, but we as coaches really, really try and just be consistent and steady throughout and hopefully our players feed off that. When you're, when you finish the season at a high note that you did, how do you, in the new

day and age, attack like the transfer portal as opposed to your classic basic high school recruiting? Yeah. Like, is there like a difference you go about it or is there like different? I really don't understand it a lot because when we played, the transfer portal was basically you have to sit out for a year and it hardly ever happened. Like you commit somewhere like you're there and that's what it is, whether you like it or not. Like juice, like juice, the portal worked out. It worked out great for him. I remember from JMU. Absolutely. And we've, we've had a lot of guys that have come from smaller schools and nobody had ever heard of that we thought were good players and they came

here and it worked out great. For us, it always starts with high school recruiting. But the difference to me now is like when you guys were in high school, if a team was going to take, if Michigan was was going to take five, they were going to take two offensive tackles in your signing class. And they had five guys that they offered scholarships to. And they didn't get any of them. Well, at that point, you kind of turn, I don't want to necessarily say to plan B, but plan B would have been high school player six, seven, and eight maybe that isn't quite good enough. But we got to take them because we need two offensive tackles.

And today's time, it's, all right, if we don't feel like these guys are quite where they need to be high school-wise, you can turn to the portal. So that's kind of how it is for us, if that makes sense. We go into it right now. If you went in our staff room, we looked at our recruiting board, we have target numbers for how many guys we want to sign at each position. And that's going to start in the high school ranks. But you don't have to, quote, unquote, reach for somebody that maybe isn't quite good enough. You can go to the portal.

Or it's a position that we realize that we're losing for us, for example, last season, we knew. we were losing off our 22 team, we were going to lose five offensive linemen, three starters and two backups that were seniors. The worst thing they're saying, well, crap, we got a really good group of freshmen coming in. We need some experience and some older guys

to come in and play offensive line. So we brought in to transfer portal guys to play offensive line. And I think it's situations like that where you need, you don't have to go to the junior college ranks necessarily to get an older guy. You can find somebody in the portal as well.

So it's definitely changed things. And it's a lot like free agency in the NFL and just trying to get the best guys here. Seems like it's more difficult than free agency in the NFL because in the NFL, you're tied to a contract for a few years. And in college, it seems like it's basically just a frenzy any time guys can pick up and leave. Is that difficult to navigate? Like, you know, when you're out through, it feels like you've got to recruit these guys all year around year and year out now. Even when they're here. Right, even when they're here because, you know, they're looking like, oh, this guy.

he might have got an NIL deal at this other school and he's like, oh, I played more than him. Maybe I deserve to go do that or go to another school. Like how? Really, really, really hard. Really hard. And for a couple reasons. And what you just said to me is one of the issues to a T is this guy

heard that this guy got that. Well, the problem is with NIL, there's no transparency. So, you know, nobody really truly knows what anybody is getting. So guys hear different things. You know, we may have a guy on our team that here is that a teammate of his is getting X and why aren't I getting that?

You know, there's that narrative. And then I can go somewhere else because this guy got this amount of money to go to this school and you just don't truly know because there's so much transparency and BS, if you will, out there about what certain guys are getting. And it is you don't have contracts like the NFL. And then the portal windows are big. So in college football, there's basically a portal window that's open from like the first week a December to the middle of January where a guy can enter the portal.

So, I mean, it's one of those. Like, every time my phone rings and it's a player, it's like, oh, God, you know, what does he call on to tell me? Yeah. And then we've got anxiety. Yeah, no doubt for six weeks. And we've got to say, son of a bitch. And we've got the same thing coming up at the end of April.

After spring practice, there's another portal window opening up for two weeks where guys can transfer. And don't get me wrong, we've benefited from it, Spencer, Juice, a lot of guys on our team that we've brought in here as transfers. So it's one of those, yeah, you can frame it as recruiting your own team, but we're not going to change who we are and all of a sudden, you know, treat these guys with kid gloves because we're worried about upsetting somebody and him leaving. Like, we're going to be us.

I don't coach any differently than what I did pre-transfer portal, and I don't think any of our coaches do. We're going to care about these guys and love them and coach them really, really hard. and day in, day out, you know, be real where this is a program that they want to be a part of. And at the end of the day, if a guy feels like he can be better suited somewhere else and wish him well and we move on. What about a guy that is in a gray area who feels like he's not getting as much of an opportunity as in his mind? He feels like he should be. And you see a lot of upside in him and potential.

Like, what is that conversation or what is that messaging like when he comes to your office? And he's kind of up in the air about it. Yeah. Just being honest with them and having those conversations about here's where, we see you. I mean, we had those conversations last, the transfer portal window after spring practice is good because you know, you guys know, there's going to be guys that go through spring practice for us. And at the end of spring practice, you have a general idea of what their role is going to be this year and it may not be as impactful as they want it to be. So I had

those conversations last spring and I'm sure I will this year that look, so and so we don't want you to leave. You're going to be a senior though. This is your last year of eligibility. Here's your role right now. You're the fifth defensive tackle for us right now, or you're going to be our fourth offensive tackle coming out of spring practice. That can change over the summer and preseason camp, but if you want to go somewhere and start and be able to play a lot more, you may want to look, you know, going somewhere else. I mean, I'll always have those conversations with guys and be honest and not BS them and tell them what they want to hear because I don't want to lose a roster spot. But you also, you know, we just want to tell guys the truth too and with where they stand and

always be, you know, transparent also. When you are navigating the NIL deals, which I know, like, there's rules at the university can't be involved, but you can have third parties. It's really, like we said, the wild west of what's going on in college football right now. But you're sitting in a room full of guys that are from all sorts of different incomes growing up. You have guys that are in the 1%, their parents did really well and guys that are coming in from, you know, government cheese type stuff. And these guys are getting deals, whether it's a six-figure deal, $50,000 or something like that, how do you kind of temper jealousy in that locker room when guys feel slighted?

Is there a role that you feel like you should take on as a head coach of being like, hey, like if you're comparing it's a thief of joy, like let's not focus on that right now. Let's focus on what we can do. Yeah, no, it is. It is to me, one of the biggest challenges for not just me, but probably any head coach right now is just navigating that, you know, because we got 120 guys on our football team. You count scholarship guys, walk-ons, everybody. We got 120 football players.

That's a lot of personalities and a lot of different backgrounds that these guys are coming from. You know, basketball, they're dealing with 10 to 15 players. I'm dealing with 120. So it's something I'll be honest with you. I wish I had a great answer for you. I'm still learning each and every day and how to best navigate it. Do you talk about it? Do you not talk about it?

Do you have individual conversations with guys? Do you talk about it as a group, you know? But the one thing is we talk out here all the time. about, you know, the team and old adage. I mean, the more success the team has, the more it's going to be great for individuals as well. And I've been able, for me, I've used examples of other teams,

maybe in other sports where NIL or whatever you want to call it, a fractured locker room has really affected the team's ability to perform on the field. You know, great, talented teams, and why didn't they win football games? well, they weren't very strong in the locker room and they had a bunch of jealousies and things like that as well. So the more examples that we can point out about that and the better, but it's something, I'll be honest, and I'm still kind of navigating through and each and every day's different. And I'm learning each and every day the best way to handle it also.

It seems like everything you just said said on so much like the NFL. Like, Rable will sit in front of the team meeting room and be like, hey, you guys want more money, win games. Teams want guys who have experience winning. Yeah. And so it just kind of seems like this is legit turning into the minor leagues. Yeah. I mean, we literally had that conversation this morning in an offensive team meeting where we talked about, look, we won eight games last year and went to the Gator Bowl and that was great. Well, it's just like whether it be NIL or whatever, you win more games, you go to better bowl games.

You go to better bowl games. You go to better bowl games. You get better gifts, you know, you get more NIL opportunities. The more you win if you're on the national stage. So our guys know it, but, you know, let's not lose sight of. They're here to play football. They're here to get an education. They need to graduate from this university. And then if they can capitalize on their name, image and likeness along the way,

more power to them. And we want to help them, you know, in any way. But let's not lose sight of why these people have given you this opportunity. And that you can, you know, the best thing that you can do is go be a good student and go play really good football. Right. Keeping the main thing, the main thing. Exactly. You guys beat Tennessee.

You beat Clemson. You guys have. You guys finish strong. How do you carry that same standard over in the next year so that way you don't get off to a slow start? Yeah, that's the other one. You know, I got here, I got hired December 2020. I got hired. And when I came into that program, my biggest challenge was instilling some confidence into this football team because it wasn't a very confident team.

And they did not necessarily expect to win. And you had to build that belief that fellas were good enough. We can win football games in this league. Now, fast forward two years later, or two years later, and you're sitting here, I don't want to say tempering expectations, but let's understand all the work that went into winning eight games last season. We've said it a bunch of players are probably tired of me hearing it. Like, we just can't assume that everything's going to go well this year because it went well last year at the end of the season. Like, this is a whole new team in so many ways. Yeah, we've got a lot of returning players, but we've also got a bunch of new faces, coaches, players,

transfers, freshmen coming in, on and on and on. So let's look back at what we did well last year, continue to build on that with the great players that we have returning. Let's look at the things that we weren't very good at last year. And there's a lot of things that we have to improve on as a football team and definitely not lose sight of all the work that went into us being able to win those games down the stretch, win eight games, and make sure that nobody's satisfied.

We have higher expectations here. really, really proud of what we did last season and the progress we've made, but I didn't come here to be the, to be a head coach that was seven and six and eight and five every single season. Like, we have higher expectations than we should. And, and, uh, we're just getting started in our minds. When you spoke on tempering expectations with the guys, when you walk into a program that is lacking confidence, what was your approach? Like, how did you dissect that, we're lacking confidence here? And then how did you approach it of how you're going to give guys confidence? I dissected it when I met with, I got hired.

and when I got hired, I met with every single player on the team individually in my office. So 100 plus guys just get to know you. Tell me about yourself. Where are you from? Tell me about your family. What are you majoring in? Why did you choose South Carolina? But then I asked every single one of them at the end of the conversation, why are we a two-win team?

Like, why is the coach that you came here to play for no longer the head coach and why am I sitting in this office and what needs to change for us to have success? And I wrote down everything that all 100-plus players told me and then just added it up. And a lot of the same issues kept coming up over and over and over again. And one of those was there was a lack of confidence. Some guys, not everybody, but a handful of guys that didn't believe that they could truly win on Saturdays. And we needed to overcome that. So for me, it was just early on celebrating every small victory and accomplishment inside this building, outside this building, academics, you name it, just celebrating those.

And then just pointing out the good football players that we had on this. this team, the individuals, the progress that we were making. And then just also, I think, you know, when you enjoy what you're doing and enjoy coming to work or coming in this facility each day, that hopefully builds confidence over time. And that's what we try to get back to as well, where, yeah, we work really, really hard here, but let's have some fun and let's make these guys or let's hope these guys learn to enjoy coming into this facility each day. And it just kind of took off from there.

Seems like the boys love playing for you. Hope so. It's a fun group. You know, I got into this for a lot of different reasons. but relationships and just being with the guys is right at the top. And I truly, it's not coach speak. I love coming in this building each and every day. Like we got a bunch of really good dudes on this team,

really good people in this program. And even after a loss, like I can't wait to get back in here the next day and get right back to work. So, um, what was I going to ask? Can't remember. I'm drawing a blank right now. From a recruiting standpoint. There you go, big dog.

What's your selling point on South Carolina. Like if we were trying to recruit us, what you didn't. Yep. That's okay. We were too good. Big 10, Big 10, one of us. Yeah. I had no SEC offers. Yeah, the best conference in the game. Wow.

Not even Vanderbilt. That's terrible. That was more of a great thing, I hope. If you're sitting here, got a couple five stars sitting right now, and you want to sell us the dream in Columbia. Yep. I would tell you that we have everything that you need to be successful here and for us to win championships, we can win at the highest level.

We've got a beautiful city to go to school then. South Carolina is an awesome state to live. You're close to the beach. You're close to the mountains. There's great academics. It's capital city of South Carolina. So there's a lot of good from that standpoint. Academics are strong here.

It's a great school as well. We've shown in other sports, women's basketball, currently baseball about 10 years ago, that you can win national championships here. There's no reason why we can't do it in football. When I got hired here is the head coach. I wanted to create a program that in my mind, like, checked all the boxes as far as everything that you needed to be successful. And I feel like we have development in the weight room,

nutrition, the facility that we work in and out of each and every day. Anywhere that you are, you want to have a good recruiting base to recruit to. And we do. We got a lot of great players in this area and within a five-hour radius. And then for me, it's just the challenge of doing something that hasn't been done before. But you can. can here at Carolina. Like I was here as an assistant coach before in 2010. We played in the SEC championship game against Auburn and Cam Newton. And we lost, but we got to that game in Atlanta. And we did it and we didn't have any of this, this facility that we're in and all the resources that we have here. We didn't have any of that. And now I see what we have. So there's

no reason why we can't get back. And as a competitor, you want to compete in the highest level. No disrespect to the Big Ten, but the SEC is the best conference in all the college football. So if you want to play against the best and compete against the best, come on. We have no room to talk right now. What are you talking about? After Michigan and Ohio State. Yeah, you're right. That was embarrassing.

It's just nice to have a little banter. The only thing we do have is there are two Bay 10 teams in the college football playoffs. Yeah, yeah. A little trash talk never hurt anybody. Speaking of trash talk, would it be fair to say that the South Carolina are the team to beat in the state of South Carolina? Ooh, we've got great respect for our rival in the state. Don't do that.

Don't do that. We need the clip. We need the clip. We need the clip. We got a great respect. And I got told Davo after the game this year, we were able to win that football game and we played really, really well.

And a big part of that was because we knew what it would take to beat a team, you know, like that as well. So it's two great programs and it's great for the state when both teams are good. I was a part when I was here as an assistant the beginning of a five-game winning streak against those guys. So we certainly need to get back to that as well.

Sorry. Do you think could you guarantee your game talk fans that you guys will beat Clemson this year? y'all are trying i respect it uh i guarantee it's one's a fluke two makes it real you know what i'm saying it's gonna be a hell of an atmosphere across the street in winzbrice stadium the saturday after thanksgiving and and uh i can promise you we know the importance of that game and and uh we got a lot of work to do before them but we can't wait for that Saturday as well i was reading an article on

the onion um you are quoted saying dabbo little weeny sweeney can you confirm that cannot i don't remember saying that i've said a lot of things i don't remember that one that That's a new one for me. Okay. I like how you threw out the onion, though. That's your source for that, though. I'm just saying for anybody watching in season here is that at least all those people will be like, okay, he stated the onion.

I'm not even sure. Changing gears a little bit. January 2nd, 2012. Was that a first down? It was a catch. Talking about, yeah, Danny Cole? No, I'm talking about Michigan versus. Michigan versus Virginia Tech, right?

No. Oh, I'm talking, well, I was going to bring it up with you. You guys robbed the 2011 season Sugar Bowl. from Virginia Tech because we caught a ball in the end zone that was a catch. Are you in hell right now? Not on. Yeah, it was. No,

oh, dude. That was the 2011 season. I thought you were bringing back the up. First down. January 1st, 2012. Help me roll that one. January 2nd,

2012 was the Outback Bowl. There was a guy who played here. Oh, that was clowning. Number seven. Yeah, that's his name. Yeah, we won't bring that one up. The Virginia Tech one is still raw in my mind as well from the Sugar Bowl that night. Yeah, we caught that coach in that game.

Oh, he legit in that game. He was averaging. You were at a runnerback's coach there at the time. Yeah. And we donkeyed them. We dominated that entire game. I wouldn't go that far. I mean, we went to overtime, but you could see the line of scrimmage, the way it was swaying.

The way it was swaying was very, it was very, they're running back. You guys were moving the line of scrimmage. We were moving at ease, whatever we wanted. We could really, the only is why I was closest. We had, you know, a couple of maybe play calls could have been a little bit different. Yeah. Coaches were kind of trying to get too cute with it. Oh, so you're blaming the coaches.

Yeah. But we won, so there's no blaming. Yes. I do know that we were on Bourbon Street that night and the boys were stoked. We had a good time. That's like the really only bowl game. That's the only bowl game I won. That's the only relevant bowl game we went to, too.

Well, I wasn't putting the years together with South Carolina, Michigan. You were you in? You were in here? Not for that game. For that hit. I was not there for that. You saw it? Oh, I saw it on TV.

Dude, he was like the running number one play for. They had to retire it. Yeah. Dude, I remember about to play that game and my coaches, like, it was like the only game I really prepared for in college because everyone's like clown and clown and put the film on, boys. I played pretty well. And after the game, I'm like, I was hype.

Goes first round. I was like, guys, hey, I played pretty well. Brother, you went in the first round. I think everybody knows. He played solid. Everybody has a little... Like, no one could stop him. And I had a good game.

And I go and I'm like so fired up. I turn on Sports Center. And sure now that's all they talked about for the next two and a half years seemed like. Just leaving your tight end out to dry. The titan should have made that block. I'm not in the game right now. I don't have to be accountable for nothing.

I know. Remember when George's dad came on. He was like, no, that's not the... Yeah, I mean, anybody who knows Ball knows it wasn't my block. So I don't need a George Kittal, dad. He'll know Ball. He takes great accountability. Yeah, I love it. I'm a great, you want me in the locker room. You

absolutely want me in the locker room. Definitely getting off the bus, too. Yeah, I mean, not now, but like about 40 pounds ago. Absolutely. Yeah, I feel. I mean, you still look good. You just told me I seemed like I was bulimic about an hour ago. Yeah, but that was off camera. We're on camera now. Like, I'm trying to get flowers. You look great. You all

see who Wilcofton really is. You all see who it is. So we didn't mean to turn this into us. Is there anything we're missing that we should ask you? I think you've covered the gamut on that one, for sure. What's your thought on gambling, on sports? Gambling on sports, man, y'all are hitting me with everything right now. Especially when you guys lost against Missouri this year.

I was... Some people had some questions about... Yeah, I was really... I was really... I started to carry the South Carolina flag. I was like, I think this is... Because JP, big, he's our gamecock analyst. I was like, hey, there's a lot to be excited about. He's like, I don't know, man.

There's always once a year. The game cocks will let you down. That was a tough night. Tough late afternoon. That one was for sure. Gambling was, I'll tread lightly on that one because I just got the email about do not make sure, make sure nobody on your team or your organization is betting on the NCAA tournament and all that as well.

So I just got that email from our compliance office. So you're not right with the women's basketball team. I'm riding with them. I'm not a betting on my month. Yeah, fair enough. Legally. Yeah, really. I want to get my hand up and say this.

There's no money on Dawn and her. team. Yeah, I'm not gambling. JP, do you got anything? You want to re-ask that question? JP said when his players, after they get them playing for him for four years, what is the big takeaway he wants them to have when walking away? That's a good question, Jay.

It is a great question. That is a great question. I would hope that when they graduated, you know, for one, so when I sat in their home as a 17-year-old and talked to their parents about the experience they would have at Carolina, that included graduating from college. They walk out of here with a degree, but I would hope that they say that myself and and the entire staff treated them with respect, treated them right,

were the same people day and day out and got the most out of them as a person and a player, you know, as well. And that's what's cool as a coach is, as I've gotten older, that now I'm going to weddings of guys that I coached and guys that I was in college with were recruiting their sons and things like that, just those relationships that you have,

that those would, they would have such a great experience here that they'd want to continue to have those relationships. You know, when I worked for Coach Spurrier, here he used to always say you know if you had if you were a great coach and your players enjoyed playing for you they're going to come around all the time after their playing days are over and i would hope that we continue to have guys that come back here all the time because of the experience they had here that is a great question that's a great question i think that's well said too because you know like when you're going back around the program that knows you you you fucked with the staff there yeah

big time um if you could fight any SEC coach nice nice and i'm not saying I am saying, if you could fight one SEC coach, who would that coach be? If I could fight them. Or power slap. Power slap. Maybe power slap. Yeah. Power slap one SEC coach.

Who would it be? Two questions. This is developing. Who would you want to fight? And who do you think you could beat in a fight? This is hard-hitting journalism. You're welcome. I hope you're enjoying yourself.

We really are. No, I feel like you are. Okay. You didn't reciprocate. That's okay. I feel like I'm having a good time. There's a few, I could say that certainly at times I definitely would want to fight with as well. We sit in those head coaches meetings and we're all competitors and we're intense.

And there's great respect for one another. But there's things that happen outside that room and things like that you're kind of like, come on, man. I'm not going to say a name. Yes, fair. But there's a few. And who would I, who do I feel like I could take? I don't know.

I worked with Sam Pittman at Georgia. I worked with Kirby when I was at Georgia. So, I mean, I know both those guys well. I feel like from a quickness standpoint, agility, all that. I could probably take Sam, you know. He may be in a beer drinking contest or something like that, I'm sure. But Sam and I were neighbors at South Carolina. And he's a little bit older than me.

So I don't know. I mean, neighbors at Georgia. So I don't know. There's a few. I mean, not to tip my own horn, but I stay pretty active and I try and work out regularly and things like that.

You look fantastic. Well, I appreciate you saying that. Do it well. So I really feel like I could hold my own and be okay with all 13 other ones in that room. I mean, there'd be some battles,

but, but, you know, there's a few in particular that I would be a priority at the top of the list, maybe. On your schedule, who's a team that you love to obviously be up late in the fourth quarter

and grinning thinking, I got you, motherfucker. My wife and I literally just had that conversation this morning about a team in the SEC that goes back to who I'd want to fight right now as well. It's one in particular right now that I'm not really high on. And my wife literally just said, you know, we need this year when we play them, yada, yada, yada. So ask me again, y'all come back during the season and we'll talk about. I want to know now.

Will you tell us off camera? I'll tell you off camera. All right, we'll tweet it. Just record. I'm like, all right. Would you say? Yeah. Totally off.

Totally off. Yeah, I'm juiced up now. I'm a bit of a South Carolina fan. Yeah. Yeah. Now, be easy on that, though, because we became Tennessee fans last year. I'm pretty easy to win over as long as we have a good time. But hearing his players talk, listening to him talk, I feel like I'm rooting for the boys now.

I would play for you. Appreciate you. Yeah. You seem like a great guy and a good coach. Yeah. In all honesty, that's a huge compliment. And Coach Echler speaks highly of you. So I'm like, I'm an Echler guy.

You know what I mean? Likewise. Well, knowing the respect I have for you guys, for you to say that means a lot. Appreciate it. One last question that I have. Can you talk about the development of Spencer Radler since coming from Oklahoma? Obviously, he had a falling out with Oklahoma. Can you just talk about how he's developed as a player and a man now that he's going into his fifth year?

He's been awesome. I was with him at Oklahoma, so I knew what kind of person he was. You were with him at Oklahoma. Oklahoma. Okay. Two seasons. We were together. We were two seasons.

I think it was great for Spencer because Spencer was there in 2019 when Jalen Hertz came in as a transfer from Alabama. It was our quarterback at OU. Spencer saw that transition with Jalen and how he handled it, which I think, I don't know if Spencer would say this, I think it helped Spencer when he came here because he had seen somebody high profile like Jalen Hertz come in there and do what he did. And he was awesome when he got here last year. He didn't come in and all of a sudden, you know, I'm Spencer Rattler and act differently. He came in and earned the respect of his teammates with the way that he worked. in the wait room.

And then he took a lot of crap throughout the season last year. Some of it not necessarily justified because of maybe how we were performing and he wasn't playing at his best. And you guys know, I mean, the head coach and the offensive coordinator, they're going to take the most, offense coordinator, head coach, and the quarterback are going to take the most criticism of anybody in the program. When things are going well, they get a ton of credit. When things are going bad, they get all the blame.

And he wore that, but never changed and just continued to work and get better. and I was so excited for him to have the success that he had last season, especially towards the end of the year. And then that's just carried over into this year with the way that he's come back. And it's his team and the leadership that he's showing and the work ethic and all that as well. He's been awesome. Where were you at it in the process when he was thinking about going at the draft? Like how involved were you with him?

Very, but wanting to give him his space as well. You know, I mean, I told him early on that, look, man, I'm not going to, obviously, I want you to come back. and I'm not going to lie to you to try and get you to come back. I'll get you all the information you need. I'll get you on the phone with anybody in the NFL you want to talk to that I've got a connection with or relationship with. And let's make the best decision for you.

And if it's coming back to South Carolina, great. And if it's not, there'll be no bigger fan of yours in the NFL than me. And I had those conversations with him. I had those conversations with his dad as well. And it was an open, you know, communication throughout. And Spencer said it, and it's the truth. Like really in the month of December, he was focused on that bowl game. I think I talked to his dad maybe twice and Spencer once about it in the month of December.

And it was like, let's just get through the bowl and then we'll make a decision. And then we did. And all right, we got through the bowl game. And there were a lot of conversations that were taking place after the bowl game as well about whether he was going to come back or not. And I just tried to be there to answer any questions, tell him what I thought and how much I wanted him back. We were hiring a new offensive coordinator during that time. so that hire was going to be really, really critical because that guy obviously was going to be working with Spencer,

and Spencer needed to develop a relationship with him as well and feel like he did. So it was a good process, very open and very engaging. Awesome. Awesome, man. We appreciate your time. This was incredible. You guys are awesome.

I appreciate you. And I mean that. You all need to come back more often. We will. Don't worry. We will. Hey, guys, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe.

I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite.

Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to date. David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021. And I'm Kunky, his best friend and business manager. And we've got a new show called The 1021 Podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports. And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the biggest storylines

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