Scott Davis: Are you not entertained?

Scott Davis has followed Gamecock sports for more than 30 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. You can reach Scott at scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com.

At some point in the second quarter of South Carolina’s frustrating, mystifying and ultimately terrifying loss to an undermanned UNC on Saturday, I happened to glance over at the couch where several members of my family were watching the game.

That’s where I saw my mother, sister, my nephew and my father…all sound asleep.

Welcome to the 2019 Gamecock football season, everybody.

The first half of the first game wasn’t even in the books yet, and South Carolina had already put its fans into a deep, everlasting slumber.

If you happened to wake up in the middle of this one, you might have smelled something, but it wasn’t coffee.

The USC offense was in the midst of what felt like its 25th consecutive three-and-out (was it me, or did the Gamecock offense appear intent on setting single-game records for the number of runs-up-the-middle and one-yard screen passes?) Watching the offense operate with the tentative uncertainty of a high school freshman asking a cheerleader to Homecoming, all the sudden that couch started looking like the perfect place to close your eyes and drift away.

We’d waited all off-season, through the long, sweaty months of humidity and angry thunderstorms, through all the numbingly similar reports from the practice fields, through all the droning press conferences and sports radio hot takes, through the media days and photo days and Fan Appreciation Days, for this.

This.

And what was this, exactly?

This was a team in the fourth year of a coaching regime, with experienced upperclassmen in key positions all across the field, with established coordinators and “the most quality depth yet under Will Muschamp,” that conducted itself for four quarters as though it was terrified of making mistakes and utterly unconvinced of its ability to successfully attack an opponent that went 2-9 last year.

Across the field, North Carolina actually was breaking in a new coach and a true freshman quarterback who’d never started a game at the college level…and yet by the second half, the Heels looked perfectly happy to seize the moment and take control of a game South Carolina had no interest in controlling.

If you could stay awake for all four quarters of this debacle, you’d have watched a Gamecock team that struggled both offensively and defensively (and just to keep up with their teammates, South Carolina’s kicking unit even chipped in a missed field goal). But watching South Carolina struggle on a football field isn’t anything out of the ordinary for most of us.

No, what was downright strange was the spectacular lack of urgency on the Gamecock sidelines, from the coaches and players to everyone on down the line. A spectacular lack of urgency, in other words, from the folks who presided over a two-game stretch entering this game that South Carolina had lost by a combined score of 84-35. The folks who had been willing participants in the Belk Bowl just nine months ago on this very field, where USC had been embarrassed by Virginia (Virginia? Virginia!) to the tune of 28-0.

Yet here we were, absolutely and positively needing to show something resembling progress and momentum, with an offensive game plan in place that seemed designed to protect fragile young players from embarrassing themselves rather than to showcase the experienced talent we kept hearing was finally on-hand in garnet and black.

With senior starters at quarterback, running back and wide receiver, South Carolina’s offense seemed unwilling to engage the Tar Heel defense at any time, contenting themselves with an almost hypnotic “run, run, pass” approach that stalled before it even got started. All off-season, we’d heard that the Gamecocks would lean on the Run-Pass Option (RPO), giving the quarterback the opportunity to look at the opponent and decide on the fly whether to run the ball, keep it or pass it.

Apparently, those options were limited to two or three plays, chief among them running the football directly into North Carolina’s defensive front, or taking the snap, turning and firing to running backs Tavien Feaster or Rico Dowdle standing three feet away.

When the Gamecocks had no choice but to try opening it up and throwing downfield late in the contest, quarterback Jake Bentley overthrew his targets or slung the ball into traffic (or ran around the field trying to escape Tar Heel defenders that were essentially unblocked for minutes at a time).

And yet there was no need to snap awake to watch South Carolina’s defense perform, either. North Carolina ran the ball again and again in an effort to keep true freshman QB Sam Howell protected, and despite loading the box, the Gamecocks made it fairly easy for the Heels to grind up yardage and clock. Tackling was clearly not mandatory.

Football fans crave passion above all from the teams they love. And passion seemed to be the one thing that was entirely absent from South Carolina’s sideline and its huddles on Saturday.

I hopped up from the easy chair in my den and took a long walk through my neighborhood when the fourth quarter slipped away, drifting along in one of those weird, unsettled trances you find yourself in after an unexpected loss. For some reason, my mind kept wandering back to that scene from the movie “Gladiator,” where Russell Crowe screams at the crowd of Romans after he’s killed yet another foe who was expected to crush him in the arena.

“Are you not entertained?” he shouts. “Are you not entertained?”

As in, you wanted violence, right? You were bloodthirsty for me to kill, right? Well, you got what you wanted.

Whether we like it or not, we want the football teams we root for to be bloodthirsty for the kill. But these Gamecocks (the anti-Crowes!) weren’t bloodthirsty for anything, unless it was crushing the hopes and dreams of their fans. Again.

Are you not entertained?

No.

I was not.

Neither were the Gamecock fans sleeping soundly on my couch.

And neither were you.

If I felt truly generous and wanted to toss a Game Ball to someone – anyone – in a South Carolina uniform after Saturday’s descent into the void, I could probably talk myself into giving one to Gamecock punter Joseph Charlton, who pinned the Tar Heels deep on multiple occasions in the fourth quarter. Then again, it’s debatable whether Charlton should have even been out there punting in those situations in the first place. So let’s hand our lone Game Ball to…

South Carolina Fans – Imagine this. Imagine that in the span of a few weeks, you watched your team get pasted in the Belk Bowl by Virginia in a game where your offense didn’t score a point and didn’t appear terribly interested in being there. A short time later, your archrival won its second national championship in less than five years. After more than a quarter-century in the SEC, your team was still no closer to winning the conference than it was upon joining it decades ago. Still, you trudged on through the long off-season, dutifully keeping up with recruiting and spring practice, laboring through the endless summer heat to get to August, where you lapped up reports from the practice fields like a thirsty traveler finding an oasis in the desert. For your troubles, you were rewarded with this flaming stinkbomb – yet another inept offensive performance against an ACC team in Charlotte. Despite 125 years of mediocrity or outright ineptitude, you still support a program that continues to drift towards nowhere in particular, and yet you’ll nonetheless probably be called “negative” this week because you’re deeply displeased to be disappointed by this group again. Sound familiar? If you’re a South Carolina Gamecock fan, it certainly does. Following this team inevitably leads you back to that feeling you had when you were eight years old or so, when you first realized that you were alive and a human being moving through a cruel and harsh world, and you started asking yourself: Who am I, why am I here, how did I get here and what is my purpose in life? Every South Carolina fan asks those questions at some point. Today is one of those days to ask them again. I wish I could tell you it gets better. Hang on, let’s give out one more Game Ball to…

Deebo Samuel – Apparently South Carolina’s offense began and ended with Samuel, whose absence in the Belk Bowl paved the way to a scoreless four quarters in that contest, and whose ascension to the NFL left the Gamecocks with nonexistent playmaking ability in 2019. I knew Deebo was talented. I did not know that deleting him from the offense would render it completely impotent. Congrats, Deebo – you were USC’s Viagra.

Why, yes, we do have a few Deflated Balls to hand out, like these, for instance:

South Carolina Fans Thinking They Follow a Program That is Superior to the ACC’s Football Teams – Wait, didn’t I just give a Game Ball to these same fans? I did. But look, this is a confusing time for all of us. And I’ve got to hand a Deflator to many of these same fans, who continue to pretend that Clemson and its ACC colleagues are spending their autumns frolicking through a weak, pitiful schedule filled with also-rans. Well, friends, South Carolina’s last three opponents, in order, are members of that very conference. The Gamecocks are 0-3 against those opponents (and one of those opponents went 2-9 last year). It might be time to stop worrying about schedules, opposing conferences, or anything other than fielding a football team that wants to compete at the highest level.

USC Stumbling Its Way Into a Quarterback Controversy Despite Having a Fourth-Year Senior QB on the Roster – Jake Bentley has been the Gamecock starter since somewhere around 1955, and yet despite starting roughly 10,000 games in his career, he somehow doesn’t have the starting job firmly in his grasp heading into Week 2 of his senior season. We heard all summer how the 2019 Gamecocks were “Jake Bentley’s team” for the duration…and that rock-solid conviction lasted about a half or so before vanishing into the Charlotte air. Most reasonable fans admire Bentley’s work ethic and long-term commitment to the program. And yet in his fourth year at the controls, it’s hard to overlook the fact that he’s yet to oversee a truly meaningful, program-defining win at South Carolina, and his last two starts have been his worst two in a Gamecock uniform. Which is exactly why many fans will clamor for true freshman Ryan Hilinski to seize playing time in the near future. For a team already facing the most difficult slate in college football, the last thing you could have ever hoped to see was a quarterback controversy. But you’ve got one.

The Offensive Line Being Described as “Struggling” for the 9,000th Consecutive Year – What does it take to fix an offensive line? Does anyone know? South Carolina’s been trying to fix theirs since the late 1800s. It doesn’t matter who coaches the unit or plays for it – it’s struggling.

ESPN’s Television Cameras For Spending Approximately 65% of the Game Broadcast Focused on Shots of Sam Howell’s Mom in the Stands – What was that all about? I can’t imagine that even UNC fans were that concerned about how Howell’s Mom was faring during the game.

Anyone Who Repeated the Words “This is Will Muschamp’s Deepest and Most Talented Team at South Carolina” Throughout the Off-season – I was one of those people. In fact, I need to give myself multiple Deflated Balls right now.

Me, for Wistfully Looking With Jealousy at Other College Football Fans Whose Seasons Are Still Filled with Hope and Promise – As I drove into Atlanta on Sunday afternoon, I happened to glance over at a car beside in traffic that was emblazoned with Nebraska Cornhusker logos. The car was flying flags that screamed “Frost Warning!” in honor of Nebraska coach (and native hero) Scott Frost. And Nebraska had merely beaten South Alabama in a fairly sloppy football game the day before. Still, that fan had something to play for in 2019. His season was just beginning.

Mine?

Mine felt like it had ended a mere three hours or so after it had begun. Assuming the Gamecocks take L’s against Alabama, Clemson and Georgia, I’m essentially starting the season with four losses now (and that’s before I even get to Texas A&M in College Station, or Florida or….whatever).

You wait all year for this – month after month after month. The calendar creeps by.

I know you’re like me. You’ll sometimes catch yourself thinking “Wait, it’s already June 30? Football’s only two months away!”

Then you sit around counting two more months-worth of days.

All so you get to watch something like this.

Now we’re barely into the month of September and it seems like we’re already playing for an Independence Bowl berth.

No, we are not entertained.

But for some crazy reason, we always keep coming back for more.