Scott Davis has followed Gamecock sports for more than 30 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective.
He writes a weekly newsletter that's emailed each Friday. To sign up for the newsletter, click here. Following is the newsletter for Friday, Jan. 7, 2022.
Scott also writes a weekly column that appears on Gamecock Central during football season.
I feel better already, don’t you?
I can feel it: This 2022 thing is going to come through for us. It has to. These last two years have been so ridiculous, so insane and so downright outrageous that I’m counting on the universe to turn the needle back in the direction of “Boooooring.”
True, there’s still some weird stuff happening out there. I mean, Omicron’s raging, it was 78 degrees one day this week and 33 degrees the next, and South Carolina’s men’s basketball team remains more unpredictable than a 13-year-old boy who just started puberty. Weird stuff never dies.
But the way 2021 ended has to hint at better days around the corner, doesn’t it? You remember that 38-21 thrashing South Carolina handed North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, right? I’m taking it as an official sign that things are finally looking up. We don’t have a choice – there’s nowhere else for us to look but up.
It’s an annual tradition for me to make New Year’s resolutions in this space whenever we turn the page on the yearly calendar, and we won’t break the streak now. That would be bad luck. And we all know we don’t need any more of that. Let’s go improve our lives and become better people just because it’s January instead of December, everybody!
I RESOLVE to attend a South Carolina sporting event in-person in 2022. I know, I know: I made this exact same resolution this time last year and I didn’t get it done. In my defense, I was planning to attend the 2021 Florida game at Williams-Brice Stadium and had even secured a ticket for it before a chain of events caused me to remain in Atlanta to watch the SEC Network broadcast of it in my basement. And, you know, a once-in-a-lifetime worldwide pandemic was still making the rounds, and I don’t live in the state anymore, and…you know what? These are excuses. Like a third-string QB hoping to crack the starting lineup, I’ve got to get better, got to get more consistent, got to start conducting myself with a little more poise and confidence. While we’re here…
I RESOLVE to try to stop thinking about how unbelievable it was that I had a ticket to the Florida game, ended up not going and wasn’t remotely worried about not going because I didn’t have any expectations at all regarding my team’s success in a contest the Gamecocks entered as 20-point underdogs…and then watched in disbelief as South Carolina hung 40 points on the Gators and won by more than three touchdowns as the Williams-Brice crowd turned in its most electric performance since 2013. If that doesn’t sum up my last few years as a fan, I don’t know what does. I’m not gonna lie, it’s been hard to let that one go and move on. Got to find a way to put that behind me in 2022 and start fresh as the fan I know I can be.
I RESOLVE to refresh my Gamecock wardrobe this year. You might say this is long overdue. In fact, it was overdue in 1999. Folks, I still own South Carolina T-shirts that date back to when I was actually a student at South Carolina (NOTE: I have not been a South Carolina student since “Friends” was still on the air). And while I’ve received a few Gamecock shirts and hats as birthday and Christmas gifts over the last couple of years, I need to admit to you publicly that I do not, in fact, recall the last time I personally walked into a store and purchased an item that had a University of South Carolina logo on it. That needs to change in 2022.
I RESOLVE to try not to lose my mind about minor Gamecock-related nuisances that don’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but that for whatever reason absolutely threaten my continued sanity, and may very well someday cause me to disappear into the mountains and never be seen or heard from again. Those nuisances include: South Carolina baseball’s consistently early exits from the SEC Tournament, South Carolina men’s basketball’s consistently early exits from the SEC Tournament, South Carolina football’s ongoing struggles against Texas A&M, and South Carolina men’s basketball’s habit of crushing my dreams by losing games they should win, followed by resurrecting those dreams by winning games they should lose, followed by officially and finally crushing those dreams again. I am also driven crazy by South Carolina’s baffling fetish for scheduling the East Carolina Pirates in football, but I glanced at the upcoming schedule recently, and I’m not going to have to worry about that one in 2022 (thank God). I resolve to worry about it at a later date, though.
I RESOLVE to eventually stop watching highlights from the 2021 Duke’s Mayo Bowl, at least in time to pay attention to spring practice.
I RESOLVE to eventually stop watching highlights from the Atlanta Braves’ World Series-clinching win, at least in time to pay attention to spring practice.
I RESOLVE to not write my 15th straight “Can anybody comprehend the ridiculously strange way this team starts the season every single year?” column about the men’s basketball team this coming December, when they inevitably start the 2022-23 season in ridiculously strange fashion. I’m not sure what else any of us can add at this point.
I RESOLVE to never take Dawn Staley for granted. Not in 2022. Or ever.
I RESOLVE to try not to place unattainable expectations upon the shoulders of Shane Beamer, who, I need to remember, is still entering just his second season as a head coach. But, I mean…that Auburn win was fun. And who can forget that Florida spanking (that I was supposed to attend)? And let’s not overlook the absolute steamrolling of North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. And…
Come to think of it, maybe I should go cue up those Duke’s Mayo highlights. It’s been at least an hour since I last watched them. Happy New Year to us, indeed.
Tell me your Gamecock New Year’s resolutions by writing me at scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com.
