Scott Davis: Closing time on another regular season

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Scott has followed Gamecock sports for more than 30 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. His columns appear on Gamecock Central each Monday during football season and other times throughout the year.

You ever been at a bar in the last quiet moments before it shuts down for the night?

A spooky, gloomy vibe settles in. Overhead lights blast on from the ceiling, shocking you out of the warm glow. The bartenders, hunched over dirty glassware and empty plates, turn their backs on you. A few dazed patrons shuffle towards the door. The music abruptly stops. All of the ecstatic chatter and frenzied hustle that filled the place just a few short minutes ago vanishes.

The message is clear: Fun is over. The real world awaits. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.

It’s closing time.

South Carolina’s sloppy, turnover-fueled finale against Akron on Saturday had all the hallmarks of closing time. It signified the end of the fun part (playing the games). It signaled the beginning of getting back to work (recruiting, practicing, studying film). And it was a little anticlimactic, a little dreary and occasionally a little depressing.

The Gamecocks won 28-3 and were never really threatened at any point during four long quarters at Williams-Brice Stadium, but the game felt more like a post-Clemson hangover than an actual football contest with touchdowns, punts, referees, fans and cheerleaders.

Quarterback Jake Bentley threw a couple of touchdown passes and almost as many interceptions. The Gamecock running back corps broke off a few thrilling runs and also fumbled away the football. The handful of fans who made it to Columbia seemed unsure of whether they should cheer, complain or flee the driving storms.

I’ve seen a lot during my decades as a Carolina fan, but that may have been the weirdest game I’ve ever watched USC play.

Nothing much seemed to be at stake. Seven wins sounded better than six, but the Gamecocks were already assured of playing in a mid-tier bowl game no matter what happened. They’d already lost to their archrival the week before, so gearing up for the Clemson game wasn’t a factor.

Temperatures settled in the 50s – neither uncomfortably hot nor bone-rattlingly cold – and rain clouds hovered for most of the afternoon. And they were playing the Akron Zips, who registered somewhere between Louisiana Tech and “Wait, who are we playing again?” on the rivalry scale.

Also see: South Carolina football recruiting: Flip season

The whole thing was oddly unsatisfying, like watching one of those goofy YouTube videos of dogs dancing or cats tapping on a keyboard. For whatever reason, you couldn’t look away, but you weren’t getting much out of the experience, either.

Let’s put it this way: The SEC Network, always desperate for live programming, chose to air South Carolina-Akron on its alternate channel while showcasing the highlight/discussion show SEC Now on the main channel.

And despite it all, I still felt that familiar pang of sadness when it was all over.

Yet another college football regular season was in the books. After all the talking and all the agonizing and all of the fretting and the grumbling and the joyful fist pumps and the tight hugs after touchdowns, it was over.

What started with such promise seemingly a few moments ago in the suffocating September sun against Coastal Carolina ended in the cold rain of December against the Akron Zips.

It was closing time.

Again.

You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.

Deebo Samuel – Deebo went out like Deebo in his curtain call in Columbia, with four catches and two touchdowns. Always possessing a flair for the dramatic, Samuel recovered a fumble in the end zone while playing special teams, of all things. Whatever he does, he does well. To say I’m going to miss him is like saying America has an obesity problem. It’s obvious, but still unfortunate.

Any South Carolina Fan Who Actually Attended This Game at Williams-Brice Stadium – No, the W-B was not packed to the rafters on Saturday. Yes, the scene looked like the opposite of intimidating and intense. But I have love for any human being who actually got up on Saturday morning, took a shower and drove to the stadium for a football game pitting 6-5 South Carolina against 4-7 Akron in a pounding rain on the first day of December and a week after the Gamecocks lost by three touchdowns to their archrivals.

Also see: Gamecock football weekend recruiting scoop

I’m fine with inducting every single attendee of this game into the University of South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame right this second, no questions asked. As for me, I watched on the SEC Network Alternate Channel from the cozy comforts of my den, occasionally looking out the window at the dark, rainy haze and feeling extremely wonderful about my decision to support the team from 200 miles away in Atlanta.

Applying Pressure on Defense – The battered, beleaguered Gamecock defense (at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the university has applied to officially change that unit’s name to “The Battered, Beleaguered Gamecock Defense”) actually managed to put pressure on Akron QB Kato Nelson throughout the game.

After closing up the season near the bottom in sacks for SEC teams, the Gamecocks delivered a whopping five sacks in the finale to give USC fans hope for better days on defense in the future.

Akron’s Mascot – Akron’s athletic teams are called the Zips. For some reason, a kangaroo roams the Akron sidelines. I don’t get any of it, but I like it. At least it’s not yet another team called the Tigers or Wildcats.

SEC Network Announcers Repeatedly Mentioning That Will Muschamp is the Winningest South Carolina Coach for the First Three Seasons of His Tenure – Steve Spurrier won 21 games in his first three seasons at the helm in Columbia. Joe Morrison won 20 in his first three. And…those are just about the only two coaches worth mentioning in USC’s football history.

Muschamp surpassed both by notching his 22nd win as the Gamecocks’ head man on Saturday, and while that particular number isn’t wildly impressive and I’m not exactly sure why someone’s “first three-season win total at a single university” means a whole lot, I decided to be excited about it anyway. Can’t hurt.

Turnovers – It’s possible the Gamecocks could have threatened the 60-point barrier against Akron had they not continued to give the Zips the football. Bentley has had an undeniably strong second half of the season in 2018 and his presence gives Gamecock fans every reason to feel good about the USC offense next year.

But his two picks in the game – both with the Gamecocks driving a few yards from the end zone – had the effect of taking the life out of an already comatose crowd. While we’re here, let’s hand a Deflator to…

The Entire Third Quarter – It seemed to last for decades, the rain picked up to the point that I started looking for Noah’s dove to fly into the East Upper Deck, and the Gamecocks repeatedly declined to put away a Zips team that was lying on the turf with their hands in the air, begging to be put out of their misery.

Meanwhile, South Carolina kept murdering promising drives with turnovers.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, one of USC’s top offensive lineman – senior Zack Bailey – suffered a season-ending broken leg with literal seconds remaining in the quarter. I’m not sure I’ve ever been happier to see a fifteen-minute block of football end.

South Carolina’s Offensive Starters Remaining In the Game for All of the Fourth Quarter Despite There Being Zero Chance of a Zips Comeback – I’m still not sure what happened here. Forget the fact that it was dangerous to have the Gamecocks’ starters running around a sloppy, rain-soaked field in the final moments of a meaningless, out-of-reach football game with a bowl still out there in the coming weeks.

Also see: The latest on four-star DB Johnny Dixon

More importantly, the little-used seniors, walk-ons and others who have contributed hours of their time to the program deserved a shot at a little glory during 2018’s swan song. Would it really have been that difficult to get those guys a series or two in front of the home fans? I have to admit, this decision completely mystified me.

USC’s Offense Failing to Convert a Fourth-and-Two-Inches Against the Akron Zips – Late in the game, South Carolina faced fourth down with roughly the length of an average-sized ant separating them from a first down. They went for it, deep in Akron territory, which was 100% the right call.

What was strange, though, was that instead of having Bentley fall forward for a certain first down, the Gamecocks opted to hand the ball to a running back four or five yards into the backfield.

Akron swarmed through the line, stuffed the play and took over the football. If you’re looking for bruising, raw Southeastern Conference football power, this play was the exact opposite of it.

Yes, it was a weird, weird day at Williams-Brice – cold, rainy, sort of boring, never completely satisfying.

I’m just sad there won’t be another day like it for the next nine months.