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.

It’s 2019. Do you know where your football program is?

Remember that famous public service announcement from the ‘70s and ‘80s? You’d be watching something like “Diff’rent Strokes” or “Hill Street Blues,” and all the sudden a title card would pop up that would say, “It’s 10 pm…Do you know where your children are?”

Those ominous few words were a nightly statement of urgency for the parents of America, a reminder each day to step away from television’s grand distractions and take stock of what’s important. And for South Carolina football, if ever there was a time to feel a sense of urgency and take stock of what’s important, now would be the time.

Do you know where your football program is?

How could you?

How could you even hope to understand the state of a program where it’s possible to beat Georgia on the road but lose at home to Appalachian State (or lose anywhere to North Carolina…or get absolutely crushed by mediocrities like Missouri and Tennessee)?

How could you even begin to know who this team is and who it wants to be?

Urgency? Oh yeah. The urgency is powerful because the program is deep into the fourth year of the Will Muschamp Era at South Carolina, and the Gamecock offense still appears to be very much a work in progress…which just so happened to be the very reason Muschamp was let go after four years at Florida, only to arrive in Columbia promising to fix what ailed him in Gainesville.

Does this offense look or feel fixed?

Now in Muschamp’s eighth year as a head coach in the SEC, it’s exceedingly clear what kind of program he would like to oversee. He wants – desperately – an offense that runs the ball, moves the chains, chews up clock, controls the line of scrimmage and keeps his defense refreshed. And for whatever reason, he simply has not been able to produce one, either here or in Florida.

He’s tried a multitude of offensive coordinators at both stops. None, to this point, have come remotely close to establishing an identity on the offensive side of the ball – despite the head coach’s obvious desire for a ball-control, chains-moving, clock-chewing unit.

Time after time this year, no matter how much the Gamecocks may have started the game wanting to establish the run, they’ve been forced to turn to the pass almost by default. Opponents – time and again – have simply stacked the box and declined to let South Carolina do what it so desperately wants to do, and when South Carolina can’t do what it wants to do, general mayhem usually takes hold. Then you look up at the stat sheet at the end of the game and realize the Gamecocks have thrown the ball a half-hundred times or more (despite not wanting to and not appearing to have any reliable playmakers at receiver beyond Bryan Edwards).

It’s a full-blown identity crisis, and it’s one that has plagued almost every Will Muschamp team from Gainesville to Columbia.

I’ve written throughout the season about the spectacular frustration that settles in when you watch a team that delivers such wild mood swings and unyielding inconsistency as the 2019 South Carolina Gamecocks. But the 2019 Gamecocks aren’t the only Will Muschamp-coached team to take its fans for such a ride (the kind of team you give up on a thousand different times and a thousand different ways, somehow get sucked back into and then get sucker-punched by again and again).

Remember Muschamp’s last Florida team in 2014? That schizophrenic squad lost at home to Missouri by nearly 30 points, then went to Jacksonville the next week as a heavy underdog to Georgia and inexplicably piled up over 400 rushing yards to absolutely dismantle the Bulldogs by a score of 38-20. Then what did they do? They lost to a fading Steve Spurrier’s .500-ish South Carolina team at home.

How about the 2013 Gators? They started strong at 4-1…then lost seven straight. Huh? While we’re here, Muschamp also mixed in an improbable SEC East championship amidst all that chaos in Gainesville. Confused? Of course you are.

Identity crises seem to follow this regime.

And it usually comes back to an offense that doesn’t know who it is or what its weekly mission is. That’s because the mission seems to change not just from week-to-week but from quarter-to-quarter within each game.

We heard again and again when Kurt Roper was the Gamecocks’ offensive coordinator that the unit was going to be an up-tempo, unpredictable offense. When Roper wandered out to pasture and was replaced by Bryan McClendon, the word we kept honing in on was…tempo. Now the squad was really going to move up and down the field in a fast-motion frenzy.

Except they don’t.

Well, occasionally they do. Only not all the time. Sometimes it’s almost enjoyable to watch them sprint out to the field – when it’s obvious they’re briefly fired up about doing the up-tempo thing – and they’ll run a few plays in lightning-fast succession, rattling them off one after the other. And then they stop and turn back into themselves again minutes later for reasons that are never clear.

And that’s when in-season developments like “Hey, maybe moving Bryan McClendon from the sidelines to the press box is the answer!” start passing for breaking news. Those are the kinds of comical non-news stories that seem to stalk programs who are grasping for something – anything – to break the bad luck.

If you watched South Carolina-Appalachian State at your house on ESPN 2 after tuning in to the epic LSU-Alabama fireworks show, the juxtaposition was breathtaking. You just watched two heavyweights slugging it out for four quarters, both poised and powerfully confident in themselves and what they do for a living.

Then you flipped over to watch the “I’d like to be running the ball…but I can’t…so I guess I’m throwing…but who am I throwing to?” offense. It was a startling and unflattering contrast. And it was happening against an Appalachian State team that may have some nice players and a decent collection of wins this season, but that simply should not be able to utterly throttle and manhandle a Southeastern Conference opponent.

And just as if it were written in a screenplay before the start of the game, the Gamecocks lulled their fans right back into that dark place for most of four quarters, right back into “I’ve finally, officially given up on these guys” mode…only to pull them back in by threatening to put a winning touchdown on the board in the final seconds.

Which, of course, they did not.

You knew they wouldn’t.

Or did you?

You don’t know much of anything about this team, do you?

And in the tenth game of the fourth year of a coaching regime, that’s not a good place to be.

The “Bryan Edwards is Heading to the NFL After This Season…And He’s the Only Current Playmaker on a Struggling Gamecock Offense” Bryan Edwards Game Balls of the Week

Let’s perhaps hand one of these to…

Bryan Edwards – Nine catches, 90 yards, a touchdown and yet another school record (this time Alshon Jeffery’s record for receiving yards). In addition, after he was banged up and missed a long stretch of the game, we got a glimpse of what a 2020 Gamecock offense could look like...and it was terrifying. (Honorable Mention: Ryan Hilinski, whose non-Edwards receivers just didn’t look terribly interested in catching footballs on Saturday night – with double-digit drops marring what might have been an impressive performance from the freshman quarterback – and whose offensive line and running backs defined the “They Just Can’t Get Anything Going” category).

Not Being on Social Media or Living in the State of South Carolina Right Now – I’ve got both of those boxes blissfully checked at the moment after moving to Atlanta five years ago and deleting my social media accounts in a life-changing frenzy last winter. In other words, I’m in full retreat mode from thinking about, hearing about or fretting about this team (or watching and listening to others fret about this team). Sticking my head entirely in the sand has been such a precious gift when it comes to the 2019 Gamecocks. I’m occasionally (kinda sorta) able to pretend none of this is happening – and ignoring reality is so glorious. I encourage you to at least consider full retreat mode for a few days. In fact, stop reading this column right now. Really, stop. I’ll catch up with you next week.

Deflated Balls

Penalties, Dropped Passes, Dropped Passes That Lead to Pick-Sixes, and Other Hallmarks of a Team That Is the Opposite of a Well-Oiled Machine – Is there such a thing as a poorly-oiled machine? This is one. Can somebody go to Costco and grab an industrial-sized bottle of Valvoline?

Press Boxes and Sidelines Representing the Kind of Radical Change That Would Presumably Turn South Carolina’s Offense Into a Well-Oiled Machine – Well, that didn’t work.

Losing as a Favorite for the Third Time This Season – This team can lose as a favorite. They can lose as an underdog. They can win as a favorite or an underdog. There’s a lot this team can do.

Me, Having to Attend a Wedding on Saturday Night and Endlessly Clicking “Refresh” on My Phone to Keep Up with a 4-5 South Carolina Team Playing Appalachian State – If ever there was a person who might need to take a break from following sports, it’s yours truly. Why was I sitting in a banquet hall as multi-colored lights flashed and wedding reception classics like “The Electric Slide” and “The Wobble” blared, hovering over an iPhone to keep up with a South Carolina team that isn’t going to a bowl game this season and doesn’t appear to be heading anywhere in particular for the future? Who knows? That’s a person whose priorities don’t appear to be in the right place (or even to make sense).

Having Two Games Left in an Endless 2019 Season – And those two games are against a team the Gamecocks have never beaten since they joined the SEC, and against an archrival that will likely play for the national championship again. Sigh. I’d been clinging to the absurd hope that South Carolina could go 6-6 and find themselves in a hideous mid-December bowl game…which would have accomplished, what, exactly? Let’s just get this over with and move on.

How about you? You burning all your Gamecock memorabilia or holding on to some vague, undefined belief that some sort of corner somewhere is being turned? Let me know at scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com. We’re all in this together. We may absolutely hate each other at times, but we are all in this together.

Why we’re in this together, of course, is anyone’s guess.