Scott Davis: Dialing Up a Win Streak
GamecockCentral.com columnist Scott Davis, who has followed USC sports for more than 30 years, provides commentary from the perspective of a Gamecocks fan. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @scdonfire.
Alone in a Wisconsin hotel room, I was watching the South Carolina Gamecocks.
On an iPhone.
It wasn’t my first choice.
When my wife and I decided to make a pilgrimage up to Lambeau Field this weekend for a Green Bay Packers game (she is a lifelong Packer Backer), I started scrambling to figure out how I’d be able to settle in for Gamecocks-Tigers. Yes, folks, instead of researching local restaurants or thinking about what I was going to wear or how much to pack, my first thought was, “How am I going to watch the USC game?” Priorities, people.
I downloaded the Watch ESPN app to my phone and decided that would be my last resort, if every other option fell apart.
Every other option fell apart.
The hotel had literally every sports channel in America on television (including a few I’d never heard of) – every channel EXCEPT the SEC Network. I wandered down to the hotel bar to check out the scene, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 flat screens were locked on the Clemson-Syracuse game.
Clemson-Syracuse? In Wisconsin???? You mean I can’t even escape those clowns in the Cheese State? Somebody tell me how far I need to travel to get Clemson out of my life. I’ll go wherever that is – Thailand, Uzbekistan, the moon, whatever. Obviously the bar wasn’t going to work.
So I huddled in the room by myself, hovering over a tiny phone and listening to the golden tones of the SEC Network’s Tom Hart and Andre Ware. Do you know how hard it is to watch football on an iPhone? Look, I know these are first world problems and that I shouldn’t be complaining, and that just 10 years ago I wouldn’t have been able to watch the game at all.
But still. When you’re used to widescreens and surround sound, seeing tiny dudes run around holding an even tinier football is an unsettling situation. And for a confirmed weirdo like me, having to hold the phone made it more difficult to throw inanimate objects when things went wrong, or to shake my fists at the heavens and scream Not-Safe-For-Work words out loud.
I need to be able to act like an insane person when I watch South Carolina football, and the simple responsibility of holding an iPhone in your hands makes that harder than it needs to be.
By halftime, my stomach was tied into so many knots that an Eagle Scout couldn’t have unraveled it. I needed to get out of the room and partake in humanity again. So I unenthusiastically returned to the hotel bar and placed the phone on top of the bar, with the sound turned off.
Since no one around me had any idea what I was watching and couldn’t hear the sound, they were understandably alarmed when I occasionally flailed about in my seat, muttered words I shouldn’t have muttered in public, and unleashed long, exasperating sighs. If the Gamecocks hadn’t started pulling away, I might eventually have been politely asked to leave.
Fortunately for all of us, that didn’t become necessary, because South Carolina did something we hadn’t seen them do very often in recent seasons: They finished strong.
Every time Missouri threatened to creep back into the football game, the Gamecocks denied them with a critical stop here, a forced turnover there. Just about every time I mumbled “We really need to pick up a first down right here to keep their offense off the field,” Jake Bentley and the Youth Brigade would find a way to grind out enough yards to keep the chains moving.
In 2015, the defense would give up a few big plays and then slowly wilt into submission. Now, the D gives up big plays and then tries to make one of their own to turn the tide (and often enough, they do).
Last year, if you faced a third-and-5 late in the game and knew you needed a first down to survive, you felt like just turning off the TV and wandering in traffic, because it wasn’t going to happen, ever. But these guys? They pick up those first downs.
You can feel it – they believe. They believe in their coaches and they believe in themselves.
And at 5-4 and with bowl eligibility still unthinkably possible for a group whose key contributors are largely freshmen and sophomores, most of us are starting to believe in them, too.
The “Andre Ware Really, REALLY Likes Jake Bentley” Game Balls of the Week
For the second time in a mere three weeks, SEC Network analyst Andre Ware will be receiving a Game Ball from me. Can you imagine the celebration and champagne spraying that is going on in the Ware household right now? Two Game Balls in the same season? Big day for the Ware family. Let’s hand out some Wares to the following winners:
Andre Ware’s Ongoing Infatuation with Bentley, Our Young Players, Our Coaching Staff and Columbia’s California Dreaming – If you watched the game from home, you had the pleasure of enjoying the SEC Network’s Ware doing color commentary. It’s always a pleasure to hear Ware announce the games, and he spent the bulk of the broadcast raving about Bentley’s ability, leadership and decision-making (“Enjoy him for three years, folks, because that’s as long as you’re going to have him”), bragging on our young players and talking up our coaching staff’s work ethic (“Look at all the recruits they’ve brought in today, Tom. Look at all of those recruits!”). He even spent an extended segment talking about how much he enjoys eating at California Dreaming, a stone’s throw away from Williams-Brice. So many of these guys project a superior, condescending tone in the booth. Ware just seems like a fun guy to hang out with – who also happened to win a Heisman Trophy and knows a lot about football. Can we make him our permanent TV color guy somehow?
Jake Bentley Officially Becoming “The Man” – We’ve seen enough. He’s our guy now. After the UMass game, I felt encouraged by his performance but didn’t think the offensive game plan had allowed him to completely show us what he had in his arsenal. After the Tennessee game, I was giddy about his leadership in a tight SEC game, but still didn’t know if I’d seen enough to give my whole heart over to this thing. After Mizzou? Yep, that’s our guy. Sure, there are still plenty of things to work on, and yes, he is going to eventually throw an interception, make some mistakes and perhaps even play subpar football for four quarters. But when given the opportunity, he’s making some throws right now that we haven’t seen around here in a long time. The best of the bunch on Saturday (when he went 22-28 for 254 yards) might have come on a play that didn’t even end up counting. Bentley tossed a touchdown pass to K.C. Crosby that was ruled to be out of bounds even though Ware was sitting in the booth repeatedly saying things like “That’s a touchdown. This call’s gotta get reversed.” The ball was placed in a spot that no defender could have reached – only his targeted man could get to it, and he did (even though it was inexplicably ruled to be out of bounds).
K.C. Crosby Slowly Turning Into a Touchdown Machine – You get the feeling the previous staff wasn’t quite sure what to do with Crosby, a highly-touted in-state recruit who was projected to play either offense or defense. But the tight end is getting his number called often in 2016, and he’s made the most of it. A week after breaking Tennessee’s spirit with a touchdown grab, he caught another one at a critical moment in the game, after USC had first-and-goal at the 1 and then had gone backwards for two plays. Having to call on the field-goal unit there would have let doubt creep back into the contest, but Crosby squirted free and clamped down on a Bentley dart for the touchdown.
Deebo Doing Deebo Things – The coaches raved about receiver Deebo Samuel during the entire off-season. Now we know why. Nine catches, 125 yards. He’s proving that he can make tough catches, leaping grabs, sideline tiptoe receptions and whatever else you need him to do. He also seems to have a knack for making a big play at the exact moment that the Gamecocks need a first down to maintain momentum.
A Whiff of Bowl Eligibility in the Air – It’s close. I can smell it. Heck, I can even taste it. I’m not popping champagne bottles until a sixth win is officially in the books. But it’s close.
Winning the Columbia Cup – I don’t know who came up with the idea for a Columbia Cup trophy for the winner of this game, but congratulations to that person. I enjoy all college football battles for a piece of hardware, whether it’s cups, bowls, axes, bells, whatever. We need more trophy games.
My Wife, for Being the Kind of Wife Who Says Things Like, “You Know What Would Be a Fun Trip for Us? Going to Lambeau Field for a Green Bay Game.” – Now THAT’S a wife!
Deflated Balls
What goes up must come down, and with Game Balls, there must come a few Deflated Balls, which go to the following:
College Referees Officially Just Deciding, “You Know What? We Don’t Really Know What Constitutes Targeting, Either” – In the first half, a Missouri defensive player was kicked out of the contest for targeting, as Ware was saying things like “I just don’t think that was targeting – there didn’t seem to be an intent to target.” The call was upheld. Later, USC’s Chris Lammons was booted for targeting, then in the fourth quarter, South Carolina was again flagged for targeting…only to have that call reversed. Can we all just hold hands and admit that it’s impossible to determine in the heat of the moment whether a defensive player “intended” to target a player? Sometimes helmets collide on a football field, and sometimes it’s unavoidable. If you feel like you need to call unsportsmanlike conduct, knock yourself out. But why are we kicking kids out for full games when absolutely no one has any idea whether there was an “intent” to target, and when the referees clearly have no idea how to make these decisions and there’s no rhyme or reason to why calls get upheld or reversed? This is hurting college football.
Me, for Wondering in a Column a Few Weeks Ago Whether Deebo Samuel’s Hamstring Pull Would Last Throughout the Season – Thanks for shutting me down, Deebo, and I’m enjoying this delicious plate of roasted crow.
The “We’re Running Every Time on First Down, and Probably Second Down, Too, and We Don’t Mind Telling You That” Offense – I get it. Kentucky had two separate backs run for over 180 yards the previous week against Mizzou. The Muschamp regime desperately wants to build a bruising, physical offense that establishes the run, wears down opponents over four quarters and keeps the opposing offense off the field. And Rico Dowdle eventually ran for 149 yards. So, yes. I get it. But is it possible to be a little less predictable on offense? Is it possible? I’m just asking if it’s possible, that’s all.
This modest three-game win streak has been special for me. I’m sure you feel the same way.
It’s special because it’s being generated by 18- and 19-year-old kids.
It’s special because these coaches have worked their A’s off since they got to Columbia and they deserve good things to happen to them.
It’s special because we hadn’t had much reason to believe the last few years, and now we do.
I know they’re heading to Gainesville next week. I know they rarely win in The Swamp. I know the Gators will be bloodthirsty for a win to keep their SEC East hopes alive after getting drilled by Arkansas.
But I’ve seen enough from these young kids to know I shouldn’t count them out. They’ll be there next Saturday, walking into The Swamp on a mission.
And they will be ready to play.
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