SCS #117 | Tennessee's Revenge and Looking Forward to Florida

Clayton (0:30)

And welcome to episode 117 of The Soda City Sitdown. We've got a shorter crew today, because we got Austyn and Josh.

Josh (0:45)

Oh, man, I was ready for like a... I was ready with my skeleton crew joke.

Nah, I'm not even going to bother, you take the cake.

Austyn (0:54)

Skeleton crew joke, because it's Halloween time there, right?

Clayton (1:01)

For the people that have no idea, the joke, Austyn, is what, 5'4?

Austyn (1:08)

5'5, thank you. Put some respect on it, please.

Clayton (1:12)

So I had to get that little jab in there first. But anyways, how are y'all doing?

Josh (1:18)

Pretty good. I adopted a cat this weekend. He's pretty cool. Had to do something to recover from the emotional trauma of the Tennessee game.

But how are you, Austyn?

Austyn (1:33)

I'm good. I can definitely tell. Like I said, it was a bye week. The group chat was awfully quiet.

Everybody was kind of doing their own thing.

Not much football was discussed, even though there were some decent games this Saturday. But yeah, it definitely, it was definitely a bye week. It just felt empty without South Carolina playing. Although the stress level was like very minimal, so that was nice.

Clayton (1:51)

Less stress is always good. But hey, you know, we could have had it worse. We could have been Miami and blown the worst, the worst blown game I think I've ever seen where all you had to do is kneel it out and then you run the ball and fumble it away.

Austyn (2:09)

I think, yeah, I think what's surprising is that no one's gotten fired yet.

Clayton (2:14)

It was a hundred percent a fireball immediately fireball.

Austyn (2:18)

Yeah, I'm shocked. Truly, I'm shocked.

Clayton (2:20)

So, you know, it could always get worse is basically what I'm saying.

So, I mean, we can go ahead and talk about it. You know, the L versus Tennessee, you know, two weeks ago, 41 to 20

You know, there's a lot of negativity that I'm seeing around South Carolina football right now. And, you know, it's going to be weird coming from me because I'm usually the Debbie Downer about the team, because everybody else in here pretty much is a sunshine pumper. But I'm just I'm seeing a lot of negativity. Sure, we're two and three, but all three of our losses are to top 20 teams. Like, we have the number one strength of schedule in the country right now. We've played those three top 20 teams and looking forward, the schedule just looks easier. There's only one ranked team left on the schedule for currently ranked teams. That's number 24 Kentucky. Everything going down the stretch is winnable. So I'm just going to go ahead and start off with that.

Josh (3:28)

I agree. I agree. I think in our preseason preview, this kind of five game gauntlet, we would have said coming out if we're three and two, we're in pretty good shape. If we're two and three, it's okay, but it's still fine. Not ideal. If it's one and four, we're awful, but that would have been awful. So I think losing to Tennessee, they're a good team. We were at their place.

There are good things to take away from the game. There are some not good things to take away from the game. But I think at this point in the season, all of our games are still winnable. Like Clayton said, I think certain games like the A&M game and the Clemson game before the season, we would have thought would have been much tougher.

But both of those programs look like garbage fires, which is glorious to see.

So I agree. I think we've got a considerably easier road ahead. And at the end of the year, we might look back and go, Wow, Tennessee UNC and Georgia are all top 12 teams. And we played them all within a five week span.

So I think lots to look forward to this year.

Austyn (4:38)

So a couple of things real quick. First of all, I was really confused the other week because I thought the Super Bowl was in February. And apparently now I'm learning that the Super Bowl is in October. So it was very, very good. I guess the last week of September. So I was very confused about all that.

But I'm happy that Tennessee did win the Super Bowl. I'm really happy for them.

Hoist Lombardi parade around the streets. You know, enjoy your enjoy.

Josh (5:01)

They take out the goalposts again.

Austyn (5:04)

No, their goalposts were still standing.

Clayton (5:06)

I can't tell you the number of Tennessee fans that I have seen that are extremely butthurt about that comment. Like I'm talking like actually upset.