Scott Davis: Refreshed, Relaxed and Ready for More

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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 GamecockCentral.com each Monday during football season and other times throughout the year. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @scdonfire.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again.

Open dates and bye weeks have magical powers for football fans. Especially after an ugly loss.

Now, I know that this was not technically a bye week. I know that we cancelled our scheduled football game against Marshall on Saturday because of monumental rainstorms and hurricane winds. And as always, my thoughts are with anyone who suffered damage to their homes or faced inconveniences due to Hurricane Florence. If there's one thing I've learned about the people of South Carolina in my handful (or more) years on earth, it's that they are always resilient when hurricanes come calling.

But I'd be less than honest if I didn't admit it was refreshing to sit down on my comfortable den chair on Saturday and watch college football for uninterrupted hours without the weight of worrying about whether we'd look good, bad, ugly, indifferent or even fantastic during our own game. Sometimes it's just fun to watch football without any strings attached or emotions in play.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I was happy about it all - not seeing our boys, not hearing "Sandstorm" or "2001", not feeling that surge of life coming from inside Williams-Brice Stadium. But I am saying it can be a lot of fun to watch football when you have absolutely nothing invested in the outcome.

Watching the drama unfold in the epic Auburn-LSU game, I was reminded for the 47-trillionth time why I fell in love with this game in the first place. It featured the two best fan bases in the Southeastern Conference (which means in all of the United States, which means in all of the world). That can't be debated, no matter how much some folks may not like hearing it. I've been to almost every stadium in the league, and those two fan bases consistently strike me as the most passionate, the most over-the-top, the most ridiculous, the most enjoyable, the most enjoyably obnoxious (rather than just straight-up obnoxious, like Clemson and Georgia) and the best examples I've found of what the Southern obsession with football actually feels like. What's not to love about watching a football game like that?

There was excruciating passion literally dripping from my television set. Auburn appeared to be an infinitely better team...then found itself watching and praying as LSU's kicker lined up for a field goal in the closing seconds (which he made as time expired). Then you had the inevitable and enjoyable Ed Orgeron post-game interview, and who doesn't love the "Ed Orgeron at LSU" Era (other than perhaps LSU fans)?

I love, love, LOVE SEC football.

And...sometimes it's a relief when it doesn't involve us. There, I admitted it.

But you know what else happened? I found myself thinking about our next game against Vandy and wanting it to be here immediately. The 'Dores went up to South Bend, Indiana, and almost defeated No. 8 Notre Dame, sending shockwaves into that segment of the Gamecock fan base that insisted after last week that we were absolutely, positively going 9-3 despite getting outclassed by Georgia.

I found myself wanting to drive to Nashville next Saturday and sit in a nondescript and often lifeless Vandy Stadium where I've attended a half-dozen or so contests in the past. I wanted to cheer for our guys and make fun of Vandy students wearing ties and khakis. At the end of the day, I'm easy. Give me a week to watch some "no-strings-attached" football, and I'm ready to go back into the eye of the storm again.

I'm rested, I'm rejuvenated, and I'm ready to see the Gamecocks rebound in 2018.

I know you are, too.

I've asked friends, family members, co-workers and just about anyone I've had a conversation with the following question since I first started caring about sports:

Do you think it's better to be blown out and utterly humiliated and made to appear completely pitiful, or to lose at the end of the game in excruciating fashion?

I think you can make a reasonable case for both sides. Remember Clemson and a dorky and incompetent Tommy Bowden running you out of Williams-Brice Stadium to the tune of 63-17 in 2003? I was there, and I'll never forget it. It was, quite literally, one of the worst experiences of my life, and perhaps the most obnoxious, annoying and despicable that I've ever been as a human being on this planet.

And yet...when I think about actual, hardcore pain, I think more about us losing to Clemson in 2000 when we scored with 50-odd seconds remaining to take the lead, only to watch the Tigers complete a 25,000-yard pass (aided by a push-off that inexplicably wasn't called) and kick a field goal as time expired (which was held by the son of the man we'd just fired for being terrible at coaching football). That, to me, was the definition of despair. I think I listened to sad '80s music for six months after that happened.

As much as I hated getting routed at home last week by Georgia (and yes, we were indeed blown out in that game, and yes, I did indeed write a plaintive "woe is me" column in its aftermath), I have to admit that I find those games easier to move on from than agonizing losses like the one Auburn just experienced.

What do y'all think? Is it easier for you to take complete, utter beatdowns or last-second defeats? I think it's a question we may never be able to answer. Send me your thoughts and we'll continue to ponder the topic. My email is scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com.

* Auburn's Fan Base - Always appreciate their passion. There are several ingredients that need to be in play for a fan base to really take it to the next level. Their team needs to be at least somewhat good and have at least a semblance of a tradition enough that there are a lot of people who care...but they also need to be a little hungry and desperate for excellence. That's why Auburn fits this category so superbly. They won a national title as recently as 2010, and played for another one a couple of years later. Yet, they're overshadowed by what the other team in their state has been doing since the mid-2000s, so there's a degree of almost psychotic desperation in play for their fans. I've been to Jordan-Hare several times and I think the world of their fans. Same for LSU's (who have the "we had Nick Saban, then we lost him" factor going for them, despite some recent national titles). Auburn-LSU is as good as it gets for an SEC Saturday.

* My Wife for Remaining the Greatest Hostess of All-Time - My cousin came down from Greenville for the weekend and we attended back-to-back Braves games on Friday and Saturday and in general acted like middle-aged imbeciles, and my wife cheerfully kept things afloat even when work duties called me away for a period. I think my cousin enjoyed hanging out with her more than he did with me, and absolutely no one could blame him.

* Vandy Unexpectedly Competing Against a National Power the Week Before We Play Them, Ensuring There's Absolutely No Possibility of Us Overlooking them Saturday - We will be ready to play on September 22.

* College Football - It's...just...so...fun.

See you next Saturday. Go Gamecocks.

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