Scott Davis: A Renewal of Gamecock Gratitude

Scott Davis has followed Gamecock sports for more than 30 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective.

He writes a weekly newsletter that's emailed each Friday. To sign up for the newsletter, click here. Following is the newsletter for Friday, Nov. 26, 2021.

Scott also writes a weekly column that appears on Gamecock Central during football season.

Thanksgiving feels a little different this year, doesn’t it?

It feels different for South Carolina Gamecock fans like you and me.

Our gratitude here at the end of November 2021 feels natural and easy and right this time around – it’s not forced or willed into being, like maybe it was last year and the year before that.

A couple of Thanksgivings ago, I started compiling the Gamecock-related things I was grateful for here in this newsletter, a listing of all the reasons why I’m thankful to be a part of this university’s family. I noted my gratitude for the resilience and unwavering devotion of the fan base, the hopeful and life-affirming spirit that surrounds the school and its sports teams.

I said I was thankful for Cockabooses.

I even commemorated my thankfulness for the “It’s another Carolina…FIRST DOWN!” Guy and the unshakeable enthusiasm of Tommy Suggs (and let me reiterate that I am indeed thankful for those two individuals).

It’s always important to find gratitude in every moment. I believe this.

Still, I can’t help but recognize an overall vibe of exhaustion when I look back on my gratitude lists from 2019 and 2020. I seemed to be gritting my teeth and grinding forward, kind of like a marathon runner who’s simply determined to finish the race even if it means he’ll die in the process. I was going to be grateful come what may, by God. No one was going to stop me.

This year, it’s not necessary for me to summon an extra gear to find reasons to be thankful. Gratitude is flowing like Thanksgiving gravy around here after the South Carolina football team battled its way to an unexpected sixth win against Auburn last Saturday night – which you can read all about in my column from the game, "The Sixth Sense."

South Carolina will still be playing football in the month of December.

It’s an unexpected Christmas present…and it’s easy to be thankful for unexpected gifts.

But don’t we deserve that gift this year? After everything we went through the last few years, all of the heartbreak and the turmoil and the growing cynicism and the slow erosion of our one great superpower – our hope?

Yes, we do.

Let us be thankful for unexpected gifts.

They do not come every year.

They do not come often.

Let me tell you what I’m thankful for.

I’m thankful to be mildly nervous about the Clemson game again for the first time in nearly a decade. When I was a young man, I woke up on the morning of the Clemson game with a feeling of paralyzing nausea. It meant that I cared. The desire to win swelled within every cell in my body. I was worried, I was hopeful, I was near tears, I was ready to fight, I was hateful, I was loving, I was everything.

But at some point during the monotonous slog of Clemson’s recent ownership of the rivalry (and their unfortunate ascent into the college football elite), I stopped worrying about this game. I stopped – dare I admit it? – thinking about it at all. With South Carolina not even a factor in the rivalry, the game was drained of meaning, of the electricity of “us against them” magnitude. Where it had once loomed in my mind throughout the entire calendar year, it now no longer had an immensity about it. It had become just another game on the schedule in which South Carolina was not particularly competitive.

This year? I feel butterflies. That’s progress. Yes, I’m aware it’s going to be a difficult climb. Yes, the Tigers still have a frighteningly talented roster. Yes, the Gamecock roster still features players who don’t know what it’s like to win a game in this rivalry. And the final score may well end up reflecting all of those things. But the good news is that I feel something. You feel something. And I’m thankful we do.

I’m thankful for the family atmosphere head coach Shane Beamer has built within the South Carolina football program. That’s what Gamecock fanhood has always felt like to me – being part of a family, being part of something bigger than myself (but that included me and embraced me and gave me a place to belong). It’s refreshing to see the team itself reflect those feelings.

Beamer’s postgame interviews have become notable for featuring his children laughing and playing in the background behind him. The coach even got choked up addressing the team after the Auburn win, stopping himself before eventually sputtering, “I’m just so proud of you guys” as the team closed ranks around him and chanted his name. And sure – winning helps. But there was a different feeling surrounding this team from the moment Beamer took control of the program, and that feeling was one of positivity and warmth and kinship. I’m thankful for it.

I’m thankful for the sea of flags I encounter when I tailgate in the Fairgrounds, as though an army has camped outside the stadium, ready for invasion.

I’m thankful Connecticut’s women’s basketball team finally has a rival. I’m thankful the Huskies really seem unsettled and unnerved by their new rivals, and even seem to hate them.

I’m thankful for Dawn Staley.

I’m thankful for Todd Ellis.

I’m thankful for my old USC roommate and lifelong best friend, who still texts on the morning of every Carolina football game with his score predictions and still calls to rehash big wins. I hope I get a call from him on Monday morning.

I’m thankful for the always enjoyable Gamecock-focused text chains with my brother-in-law (maybe even more so after ridiculous South Carolina losses). It’s good to know there’s someone else out there in the universe who understands your pain and your hope.

I’m thankful my Mom, Dad, sister and wife all huddled with me around a TV in the North Georgia mountains this past Labor Day weekend to watch South Carolina play Eastern Illinois. It was during a family vacation, and there were plenty of fun and exciting activities they could have chosen for spending their time. They chose that one, because they knew I’d be doing the same.

I’m thankful my tired, old Golden Retriever – who still wears the Gamecock collar I bought her as a puppy way back in 2009 – is still around for another Palmetto Bowl rivalry game. For the first five years of her life, the Gamecocks never lost to Clemson, and I touted her far and wide as the team’s good luck charm. Then 2014 got here. She hasn’t seen the Gamecocks win since.

I am thankful she’ll have another chance to see them try.

I’m thankful I will, too.

And I am thankful for you. Happy Thanksgiving.

Let me know what you’re thankful for by writing me at scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com.