Gamecocks Insider Makes SHOCKING Florida Prediction + APOLOGIZES to Jon Sumrall

Summerall said before their first home game against whatever trash-ass team y'all played the first week of the season, and he said, take their ass out in the deep water, see if they can swim, and if they can't, choke their ass out. I have chills right now. That is, I love that ----. Excuse my language. I love that. And that is something I think with Summerall that I do believe in. And I do, I'll tell you right now, if you're buying stock in a program, what they're doing on the recruiting trail, the players they're bringing in, the attention they're getting from elite recruits, that's not going to stop. Boys and girls, ladies and gents, welcome back to High Top Sports. Chris Marler joins us here this evening to talk Gamecocks. First Florida this weekend, live in the swamp. 1245 kickoff, am I, is that correct, Chris? Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, a lot of great games though. So where are you going to put, you know what I mean, there's so many, so many games going on. Well, Chris, man, excited to, you know, talk with you. We were talking pre-show, got a bone to pick. We'll save that for the back half. We'll give you a little teaser. You call my coach cornball and fight words, but I want to get your thoughts, man. South Carolina, Shane Beamer, Beamer ball in full effect this season. Two and three after blowing a tough one against Kentucky. Kind of give me your perspective. Where do you thought this team would be or should be at this point and have they lived up to the expectation or how are you feeling? I mean, obviously they haven't lived up to it, but. Yeah, no, no, it's fair. One, good to be on the show. The setup looks awesome, by the way, this is sick. So great job with that. It's a tremendous job. And I'm happy to be on the show and all the success. It was great seeing media days, all that kind of stuff. So I am frustrated with the Carolina stuff because it's like I think it's so easy in this day and age where like like fans on social media, it's very much like a people will never sit here and tell you, hey, man, good pick. You got that one right. But they will very much tell you how wrong you are all the time because that's just I always say we're like a nation of haters and we have to do that first. And that's and that's like understood in this job and also understood with how bad of a job I think Beamer and the staff have done so far. The frustrating part for Carolina and you can sit here and say, well, like Beamer is never he's never been a good coach. He's never done this. And I don't I wouldn't even sit here and fight you on it. I would sit here and say, I think that we kind of got I don't say sold a bill of goods in twenty twenty four. But the more we think about it looks like what happened in that month and a half span in twenty twenty four may have just been the peak of South Carolina. Like that may have just been a really good stretch of six games where you beat four ranked opponents. And instead of being a blueprint of something they can replicate, it's not something they can replicate. But what's frustrating about it is I'm fine with admitting I was wrong about, hey, this team is not as good as I thought it was like like like that part is totally cool. But there were so many reasons, like valid reasons to believe in this team. I did not think that he that Lenore Sellers would regress or at least not progress as a as a third year starter in the league. Like that is not something we see a ton of in the sport of college football in general, but especially as you see, we're a third year starter somehow doesn't keep moving forward and have their biggest year. Right. And you think about the past couple of years we saw with Garrett Nussbauer last year, we've seen it with Marcel Reed. We've seen it with John Mateer. It's happened multiple times in this league, especially. So that part was something I was frustrated with. And then you think about all the moves they had to make offensively with the offensive coordinator, the offensive line. Those have all been corrected. I mean, like Florida's offense, incredible. They're point two yards per game ahead of South Carolina in total yards per game. Carolina leads the SEC in rushing yards. They are second in the country in yards per carry. These are all things that are really good and things that were completely absent over the past couple of years. But then you think about like the money they spent to top 20, top 20 NIL spend in the country, which is hysterical for outside fans looking to be like, well, where did it go? And what were you spending your money on? And so and I think that's also a fair thing. But I think I had no clue that the defense would take this big of a step back would be this inept in the secondary because those have all been the strengths, man. Like those have all been the defense forcing turnovers. No one's done it better in the SEC in the last five years, like 110 total. They're they're dead last with two on the season. You think about the secondary? They put eight dudes in the NFL in the last six years and have been nothing but really good at replacing and plug and play guys in the back end. They have been atrocious. You and I could start at safety. You're a better athlete, I think, than me. I think that you would be you'd probably have to play free. I'd have to come down the box from a little bit bigger. But I mean, it's it's brutal, dude. And so I think that part for me, and I look at this is I just did not expect all of the there's so many things that you needed to materialize that materialized. And it's still they're still doing the same dumb things that they've done to lose games here. And you talk. That was me with Napier in Florida last year, right? Like you go went into that season last year and you're just in complete awe of what the team looked like. And I agree. I was fairly high on South Carolina this year ago. Man, they've got a lot of returning snaps on offensive line. The talent is there. My question mark was the Norris. I felt like you thought you were more optimistically viewing it. I had already kind of been turned off because I don't feel like he made progression in year two. And I was like, until he shows me, I can't trust it. And that was my concern with the Norris. And look, it's Beamer Balls kind of looked at Napier. For me, it's like everything makes sense. But Shane Beamer, for whatever reason, like Napier, just finds ways. I don't know what happens. It just makes it go go completely a disarray. I think that that's that that you just said there where South Carolina is dominating is offensively, which I don't know if you were able to see or look into Florida Twitter this past week. But defensively, we weren't too. We haven't been too great. And I know historically, Brad White versus Lenore's is not fantastic. And look, we're coming up against this team. And if the spread is 14 and a half, I think it's a bit disrespectful to South Carolina. I think defense, the defensive woes, what has people probably concerned because Florida, when not being shut down, has showed to be able to score at a pretty elusive clip. Defensively, though, is this could be kind of like an Ole Miss or Auburn versus Florida game where it was forty one thirty nine type thing. Yeah, and I think that that's a great way to phrase it, because that game wasn't nearly as close as the final score. I mean, like Florida went in there and dominated. Listen, my fiance is an Auburn grad. And so I get to mince my words at times in this house. But I mean, and I think that is like that's kind of where the program is. I have really, really enjoyed watching the summer experience. I know we're going to get into the comment later, but like it's such a perfect example of the things you have to do to reinvest not just into a coach, but into a program. And I think it's a perfect example of it's kind of what South Carolina is fearful of, of firing Beamer, because if you go out and get a new coach, especially last year, right, like I remember writing about this, my my real job and saying that I thought that even with Golding, even with Kip and it felt like that Florida had won the hiring process in the hiring cycle for the SEC because the first thing Summerall did was go out and get an offensive coordinator. And he poached him from a from another power for school. Like like Buster Faulkner, I think, wants to be a head coach at some point from what I've been told. And to coach him from another power for school to come to yours, you know, with not a ton of Florida ties, right? Like I mean, like a guy that was at Georgia and all that kind of stuff and make that like your first move. I thought that was awesome. And then then you see the investment into the NIL part of it. Like Easton Royal, I think I got crystal ball there last night. I don't know if it's going to happen, but like, you know, getting the was it Hiller, the the offensive guard? Yeah, yeah. Like like you've seen this investment when you get a new coach, you have to make sure that you have like you're aligned with like your administration and the boosters that are going to invest into the NIL part of that. And I think that's the saddest part with the Beamer part, because I don't think I don't know if they're in they're in an ability right now to replace him because they don't have enough money to do so. And if it means they're going to have to go hire a new coach, pay out all the current coaches, then go reinvest the NIL stuff because they did that this year. And I think that is that is the thing that's so frustrating. I've never seen a team. I mean, Billy Napier was bad. Billy Napier was bad offensively and him not giving up the plate calling duties for four years when you just saw the numbers continue to plummet. And it was like, what are you doing here, dude? Yeah. And so it was it was it was very much a case of I want this for me more than I want the program. And Beamer's not like that. Like Beamer wants the program to succeed. But the mistakes that they make is like, hey, we have a three score lead again. What should we do? It's like, I don't know, completely piss our pants. We have no clue what to do right now. Like, that's what's so frustrating is it's like they have no idea how to go win games anymore. And I think that's the scary part for South Carolina. Is it like you and I were talking this off off off air? You said the 14 and a half points is disrespectful. Well, I mean, is it? Because I don't know if there's a lead that Carolina could have that you feel comfortable with, especially on the road. So let's let's kind of like let's talk about this game and how you think it could unfold here. And it sounds like you don't think Beamer is going anywhere, which from the outside, we're all like, this is it, right? You got to put up or shut up if you get Wally loft. And again, it's on the road. It's going to be in a tough place, but it's still a first year head coach. I think there's a lot of expectations for South Carolina to be successful in this game. I mean, I'm sure if I had to guess, did you pick South Carolina when this game in the beginning of the season preseason? For sure. Oh, man. And and two of the other three that they've lost. Like, what was what was your prediction? I thought they'd go eight and four. I think I said this game. I thought they would split this game in Tennessee, maybe. But I also thought my thing was going to the swamp is tough. Now, I did not expect this Florida team to be this good. I think the receivers are going to be great, especially like the starting receivers. My biggest question, I think, and it wasn't like a detriment because I listen Park to Panther myself. I'm a believer in Buster Faulkner. I think he's awesome. My biggest question was, what does he look like without a book, one of the most unique skill set quarterbacks we've seen in the last 10 years? Not saying Haynes King was like a Heisman level quarterback or like a first round pick is obviously he wasn't those things. But like very few players, if any, in the country had that unique skill set. And Buster Faulkner was able to like just dazzle us with him as his quarterback. So I just wondered what that would look like with a different quarterback. That wasn't Haynes King. I knew Jaden Ball was great. Loved, loved all the offices and work he put in with Brad Lester. I did not think that this game was going to be I would never thought a 14 point spread. And I think that the bigger thing for me, too, was like going into the season for Carolina's part. Like I didn't expect Mississippi State to take a step forward with Camario this quickly. I didn't think Kentucky. I still don't think Kentucky's that great, because again, you should have buried that team. And I think it speaks a lot more about how bad this Carolina team is at being able to win games. I didn't think Bama was going to be as good in the front seven because they had to replace six or seven guys. Replace four or five on the offensive line. There's all these all these programs. I think that we kind of talked about going into the season. Everyone thought Oklahoma's defense was going to be incredible. And, you know, there you look at what they've done in SEC games. It's really bad. So I think it's been I jokingly said this last week. It feels like the more we watch, it's like the less we know, because I watch I bet Ole Miss and I hate to say that we have to do this for a living. And so I'm like, I love being right. I love being right. It's a great feeling, but like Ole Miss beating LSU. And then the next week you're like, I knew in Vegas put out that line. I was like, that's not good. That's like they they know something. And and so then you guys it's not like they just barely beat Ole Miss. They beat the crap out of Ole Miss. And then the following week, you're like, all right, well, what are we what's going on here with with Mizzou? Oh, Mizzou is averaging 13 and a half missed tackles a game and they got to go tackle Jaden Ball. Have fun, dude. Like, have have fun with that. And and then all of a sudden they turn into like like 2011 Bama on defense against the run. And then and then all of a sudden, you know, Aaron or I mean, Austin Simmons is like is, you know, incredible. So it's been I think that the thing that scares me most about this game now is that knowing some roles, first personality. I think he is going to want to make this hurt. I think he's going to have the opportunity to make it hurt. I just I don't. Carolina doesn't do enough things. Even when the even the office is rolling, man. Like I there were so many things that I said they had to get better. And I know I'm rambling here, but there were so many things I said they had to get better. But if you have Lenore Sellers, you saw him go for 17 carries 147 yards on the ground. You explained to me why two times in the last two weeks on fourth and two, you have taken a tight end under center or behind center and done a direct snap to like sneak for a first down. And this is going to shock you, dude. Neither one of them worked. But when you have a nurse, it's I just thought that things like that would be would have fallen by the wayside and they would have they would have run the ball a little bit more effectively because they they're second in the country in yards for Kerry. You could run with him and Matt Fuller. They just don't do little things like that. Well, and I think that knowing your identity, that's something Florida definitely does. I know it's a little bit shaken right now because what happened at Mizzou. But I think that knowing your identity of what you want to be as a football team is there's a lot of a lot of confidence in that. A lot of like a safety net in that, for lack of better words. And I think Florida has that way more than Carolina does. It's a unique word identity. We talked a lot about during the Napier era. What is the identity of this football team? I think I spoke about this last week against Mizzou. And I agree. It does feel like, although it is a bit shaky right now. Yes, that is right. We died by the identity. You could say, right. We at least died by what we had been trying to do the entire year. They just figured out what our identity was and exposed it. And that's where fans are a little bit concerned. But yeah, I think I'm a Hawaii. Fortunately, I got it for me. And Miller with you gets a rush, which is not a compliment, right? When you hear that, that's not a good thing. What do you it is? And it isn't because beer ball sometimes like they win games. They shouldn't and then they lose games. They shouldn't either. That is the the compass of beer ball. That is the identity of look. And I say it's disrespectful because I think that any two touchdown spread in the SEC is a bit outlandish just because of how talented every team is and how close every game is. For me, this game was always going to be close. I felt I mean, I picked Florida, obviously, for how I felt this game was going to go. I did it early on preseason. I had us losing to Mizzou for multiple reasons. Yeah, but I don't trust Shane. And I will not entrust of Lenore's was my reasoning for for picking Florida. You again, you like the 14 point spread and flavor of Florida. And once we got over that, I want to get your score prediction. We'll get into you. Call my coach a cornball because I think it's fun. But give us give us your final score prediction. And what do you think is going to be the difference maker for for Florida since you are going for Florida on this one? I'm not going for Florida. All right. It's very clear. I'm not pulling for Florida to really in there. Yeah. No, I'm not cheering for Florida. I think I just I think I look at this and there are there are spots that I think South Carolina can have success. But what are the spots, man? Like, like you think with the explosive plays they get from the past game last week? Now, I've Matthew Fuller has been very good at running back. And this offensive line has also been very good. Now, then being able to consistently open up holes for him to run through against against this Florida defense. I think you'll see some of it. I don't think you're going to see a Jamal Roberts type day. I'm sure that summer all will get that cleaned up after after last week. And then I think about like, you know, what Austin Simmons is a passer. Austin Simmons is a really, really good passer. And so and I would love Lenore's to be great. I really would. I think he's a great kid. And I would love for him to leave college without this taste in his mouth and everyone else having to taste enough about him because I did not believing in him. It's like his fourth different OC in a span of three years. But that's also something we've seen people be. Jalen Hurts had that like. And we saw that progress differently for them. But I think when you look at this game specifically, I think you're allowed to get some chunk plays. And I think they'll do what they usually do, which is get down to the red zone and not know what to do and come away with field goals. And I think you're probably looking at something for for Florida where they're going to run through South Carolina as much as possible to prove a point early on and then get filo going because he is a very capable quarterback. It feels like especially off play action times. He's he's he's like bringing people down in the box. Is that that secondary in the safeties cannot cover deep? I think you'll see some explosive plays for Florida. And I think you'll you'll see a 42 to 17 point win to me off. She's now I told you at the beginning of the show, we've had this this segment or this series we've been doing. Yeah. Jake took Auburn to win. They lost. Who's Jake? Jake Crane. Oh, Jake, come on. What are we doing? Why would you take over to win? He took my three. Because it's your hair. Because the magic. It's Jaden hair. Yeah, we really. Been from Ole Miss from all three being Garrett. He took old like him to a great, great guy. And then but last week, Mizzou from lockdown, Mizzou took Florida and we lost John Miller. Yeah, John Miller. And now he has some good guys on this show. Oh, it's been great. It's been great. Yeah. We dropped the ball this week. I did. Yeah, I don't know. I was going to say those are all really good. Do you know you were the first one I set it up with? Actually, like when I texted you, I was like, this is actually like we set it out a couple of weeks ago. I was like, yeah, this is a good idea. Like I should do this for every week. So you got it going. And although it didn't seem that way, you got the ball rolling because I enjoy talking to you. And now you've also taken South Carolina. So hopefully with this, this doesn't become a trend, because if not, I'm just going to have to make sure the guest picks their team every week. Right. Yeah, I just mean, I would love it if South Carolina wins. I think there's there's Carolina fans that will sit here and say, you know, like it would be the most South Carolina thing ever if they go out there and win. But I just don't see them having the ability to get four quarters. I will say this, man. They have not quit. Like the players haven't quit at times. Dylan Stewart has. That was ridiculous. But like for the most part, I don't think he's lost the locker room. Like I think talking to people around Columbia, like he hasn't lost the locker room. I just don't think that he has. I don't think this team has the ability to go out and win a game in this environment. And I think that this is, again, a statement game where Summerall Summerall is having a bunch of firsts right now, man. Like it's like you go on the road against Auburn, which obviously meant a lot to him. And then the next week you get Ole Miss at home and your favorite. It was like like the drive to stay home in the fourth quarter. Finish these people who were just kind of teetering in there. And then, you know, he had to go on the road and live back up to expectations, get his team back up emotionally and all that kind of stuff. A week after a massive win. Well, now he gets to come off a loss for the first time at Florida. And I think that's going to say a lot about how a coach is. And you think about how some of these these good coaches are. Like Saban was always like this. Kiffin has been like this, Kirby. I'm not putting Kiffin in that category, just to be clear. I'm just he's very good off a loss. He's like 7-0. But Summerall, I think this is a first for him. And I think he's I think he's going to prove a point. You called him a cornball, though. After being very favorable of Coach John, this was after he said, I'm sick to my freaking stomach after right after the loss. We're talking moments of their vulnerable moment here, Chris. And he gives us a raw reaction to us fans. And then you. Yeah. And here's my thing. And here I want to make if you give me the right answer, we can call this even we can call we can shake on it. I think the audacity of a guy that cheers for Shane Beamer to call anybody other coaches a cornball is a wild take. Like I've always said this, like Shane is a is a unique character and I enjoy watching him. But if you literally look up his picture is in the dictionary next to cornball. It's Shane Cornball Beamer. Can we at least agree that he is? He is. If you're like, yeah, I know a cornball because I have one. I'll give you some leeway. Yeah. I mean, two things to be true at the same time. Here's the thing about Summerall, if you want to if you want a transparent conversation and I'm sure this will be taken somehow in an even worse way with Florida fans because they're fired up right now and all pissed off. And like they had to come to my throat last year. And I was right about that one. What it was never the take. It was we talked about it. I was there about the take. It was it was graphic. Never the graphic. It was out there while it was other stuff. I'm all for people talking. But I think I think that I think that if you want a transparent conversation about this, I do think Summerall's antics are a little bit much at times. I think we were at media days and he in that poor like it was hilarious. I was cracking up when he was there. You were sitting right behind me. Yeah, yeah. I'm on my cover. We're cracking up. But he's like, I'm through his frickin podium over there. And I was like, brother, like, I mean, this this like six year old photographer is like like hustling ass up to the front, trying to get his phone that he forgot, which I don't know why he had that ringtone. It was way, way unboomer. He wasn't 60. He was 50 plus. No, he was 50 plus. Yes, he was an old man. So so but like I think that it's it's obviously played well with Florida fans, which is great. That's what you want. Like like all of that. So on Saturday night, when I have watched South Carolina do yet another an unspeakable thing on the football field and I'm sitting here and I've had I've had some drinks and I'm frustrated and I see this dude go up on stage who lost me my best bet of the week because I had Florida at five and a half and I thought they'd go up there and win by 10 plus points. So now I got to hear about it from from Missouri fans who I always stick up for. I got to hear John Sumrall goes, I'm freaking sick to my stomach, man. So I fired off a tweet after some drinks. It's like, what a cornball. And then I'll tell you exactly what I did. I hit the mute this conversation button. I went to bed and I went about my day. And the next yesterday, I'm on air here in Baton Rouge and one of four or five with Hester Jacob Hester, Matt Flynn. And and we're sitting there talking about it. And I was like, yeah, I just I didn't love that comment. It just felt like it was like a bit much. And yes, the Beamer thing is very fair. I love Shane Beamer. Great dude. It's been nothing but great to me. And so I will never say anything negative about him personally. But I totally understand the perception. You're not wrong at all. I've seen the video of him doing the hot about the bed. Turn my swag on video. That was tough to watch for everybody. Still is. And I don't like it. It's resurfacing right now either, man. So that happens. And so I tell I tell Hester this. And Hester was like, you know, I'll tell you this, man. I I get the statement because it's like we're on the outside looking in. But that guy, they've interviewed him. He's a two lane. They interviewed him as a Troy. Everyone I've talked to, I've talked to people in in Alabama that have covered in the media. Every single person to a man and woman has said that's exactly how he is and how he's always been. So Gator fans, I was wrong. I was frustrated. He's probably not a cornball. I would have loved if you would have covered the five and a half point spread against a team that hadn't beaten a ranked team in three years. But yeah, he seems like a good dude. And he seems like he actually does care. And I'll tell you what, too. The cop, the thing that 600 on John Sumrall way more. And you better clip this. Save my ass on. I'm just going to clip wrong. Yeah, that's perfect. Perfect. Put it on loop for the rest of the year, brother. No, I think the thing that the thing that I love more than anything was the comment that I knew that Sumrall was like, I thought Golish was like the right guy for Auburn. And you saw what he did, which was like, I'm going to bring all these G6 guys in. I'm trying to Kurt Cignetti this thing at Auburn, which is not working at all. Yeah. But like when Sumrall said before their first home game against whatever trash ass team you all played the first week of the season and he said, take their ass out in the deep water, see if they can swim. And if they can't choke their ass out, I have chills right now. That is I love that ----. Excuse my language. I love that. And that is that is something I think with Sumrall that I do believe in. And I do. I'll tell you right now, this if you're buying stock in a program, what they're doing in the recruiting trail, the players they're bringing in, the attention they're getting from elite recruits, that's not going to stop. And it has been it's been great to watch in the in the fans. It's like y'all didn't miss a beat in the swamp. Watching that thing is Ole Miss. I love it, man. I'm excited for you guys. I'm sorry, I drunkenly called your coach a cornball, whatever. We all say things were hurt. Hurt people, hurt people. Yeah, I know. I love the full transparency. And I think you're 100% spot on. I want you to tell people they can find you. I know you got a rip, but I tell them they can keep up with you and continue with your good and your bad takes. I do agree that we we live in a world where it's much more fun. Guilty. OK, I'm a Braves fan. I've been having a blast. Just quote tweeting our friendly fans. So that's that's been fun for me. I definitely would never compliment a Philly fan. Yeah, so that's just the world we live in. But tell me if I follow you, Chris, and I appreciate you, man. Yeah, of course. And it's burn underscore fun quest on Twitter. Don't take it too seriously. It just it's it's a lot of fun. But yeah, also follow along with our weekly best bets that we have. We're seven and one unlocks the week so everyone can. Oh, so we were the first to break it, break it, break the streak. OK, you were OK. Maybe the tweet was maybe the tweet was was warranted then. Yeah, I see it. Chris, I appreciate it, man. Go Gators. Well, hopefully we can have you have you back on soon. Great stuff, man. Yeah, sounds good, brother.