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.
“Wait, who are we playing tonight?” my wife called out to me while we were getting ready to head to lunch on Saturday.
When I told her it was the Vanderbilt Commodores, she groaned. “Oh no,” she said. “Maybe I’ll go upstairs and iron my clothes during the game. You don’t handle Vandy games well.”
This was news to me. I don’t handle Vandy games well? Me?
It is true that I once stormed out of a Charleston bar years ago when the Gamecocks were briefly losing to Vanderbilt and paced through the Holy City’s historic streets in solitude, leaving her alone, bewildered and contemplating putting her profile on Match.com. That did happen.
Still, wasn’t that, like, almost a decade ago? (And didn’t the Gamecocks come back to win that game and wasn’t I ultimately in a good mood for the rest of the night?) I mean, how long is a person supposed to pay for their past sins?
Considering that South Carolina entered the game riding an 11-game win streak against the Commodores, it’s undeniably embarrassing that I’ve built a reputation for being at my worst during the annual non-rivalry against Vandy. But in my defense, aren’t those the games that hardcore fans struggle with the most – the games that you’re expected to win?
In my case, the answer has always been “yes, yes, YASSSSSSSS.”
If South Carolina’s playing LSU or Auburn, I’m a model citizen. If they’re playing Kentucky or Missouri and I’m expecting them to win? I’m usually a disgrace to humankind, especially if things don’t go 100% perfectly (and believe it or not, they never do when the Gamecocks are involved).
So imagine that you’re me, and that you just watched your team play its worst football game last weekend in a season that had already included some pretty darn bad football, and you’ve apparently built a decades-long reputation for handling Vanderbilt games poorly (Vanderbilt games!), and now you’re sitting in your den watching the Gamecocks fall behind the Commodores on a drive where USC had twice taken the Vanderbilt offense off the field only to bring them right back on the field because of penalties, and you feel like you can’t cry out in agony even though you’d like to very much, and now your offense is driving for a potential tying score, and then…you watch helplessly as one of your of running backs fumbles away the ball to the opponent.
Q: In such a scenario, are you feeling like your internal organs are getting ready to melt and/or start smoking like an overheated truck engine? A: Yes. Yes, you are.
As my wife looked on from her own den chair, monitoring my every fidget, snort, gasp and sigh, I attempted to watch that first quarter unfold with emotionless dispassion. My goal was simply to impersonate a department store mannequin.
Mission accomplished.
I am still married today.
Eventually, the Gamecocks pulled away from the Commodores (just like they always do), and my first quarter flirtations with despair began to seem more and more ridiculous with each passing second, and my wife looked wise and all-knowing and I kind of wanted to scream at her for being right. Again.
But I didn’t.
I just hopped in bed and pretended I’d never been quietly raging inside.
Once a decade or so, Vandy might actually mess around and upset South Carolina. The rest of the time, the script follows this exact format: Our heroes take the field and don’t immediately appear interested in being there. The announcers start talking about a Vandy running back or receiver being one of the best offensive weapons in the SEC, leading me to start fretting about an unexpected offensive explosion from the Commodores despite the fact that they’ve never exploded offensively on anyone anywhere. And for a half or so, the ‘Dores will hang around (and maybe even lead the football game for a minute or two), and I’ll start contemplating what it might feel like inside to actually lose in football to Vanderbilt University, and it seems like it might feel very dark and very terrifying, and I get up and walk aimlessly around the concession area (if I’m at the stadium) or take my dog outside for a walk (if I’m watching at home), and then South Carolina eventually wins by three touchdowns or thereabouts.
Will I ever learn?
History suggests that I will not.
A couple of years back, my wife and I went to Nashville for the South Carolina-Vanderbilt game to celebrate her birthday with a large party of her friends and family. Those friends and family members watched me sulk, fuss, grimace and grumble towards the heavens for four quarters in a football game that South Carolina won by 14 points.
In other words, I’ll be sulking and grumbling this time next year in Nashville.
And I’m looking forward to it.
The Bryan Edwards Game Balls of the Week
South Carolina’s record-setting wide receiver gets one of these every week, so we might as well just go ahead and name the Balls after him for the rest of the year – something we probably should have done about seven or eight weeks ago. Balls out to these Ballers:
Bryan Edwards – Last week, Edwards became South Carolina’s all-time leading receiver in receptions. This week, he merely caught 14 balls for 139 yards and a touchdown if you needed him. While we’re here, he probably (definitely) should have had another touchdown that involved him redirecting his entire body midstride and stretching the football over the top of the pylon while falling out of bounds. For reasons known only to God, the officiating crew reviewed the play and declared that they couldn’t tell whether he did or didn’t get the ball over the pylon. Edwards also delivered a jolt with long punt returns in the contest. There hasn’t been a South Carolina football player since Connor Shaw who has attacked the game with the fire-breathing fierceness Edwards does.
Deshaun Fenwick (Denshaun Fenwick? Deshaun Fenwick!) – After struggling to see the field in 2019, Fenwick rose from fifth-string on the running back depth chart to play meaningful minutes against Vanderbilt. He rose to the occasion under the bright lights, rushing for 102 yards on 18 carries, even as many fans were double-checking their programs to figure out who was carrying the ball out there.
Jordan Rodgers (Yes, THAT Jordan Rodgers) – I wasn’t thrilled to learn that Rodgers would handle the SEC Network’s color commentary for South Carolina-Vanderbilt, since Rodgers once served as the quarterback for…Vanderbilt (and also once won ABC’s “The Bachelorette”). But Aaron’s younger brother avoided the obnoxious grandstanding that passes for most color commentary in 2019, and instead focused on doing things like – oh, I don’t know – pointing out the stuff that casual fans probably wouldn’t notice, such as why Vanderbilt’s opening touchdown pass worked so easily, or why South Carolina was having success throwing screen passes on the edge, and how the Gamecock offensive game plan was designed to eliminate mistakes (especially in the second half). Basically, Rodgers did what former players are supposed to be doing when they provide commentary from the booth, which is enhance our understanding of what’s actually happening on the field instead of using the role as a kind of spoken-word Twitter platform for spouting loud, angry opinions.
The Williams-Brice Crowd for a Half or So – It’s a different place at night. It just is.
Interceptions – True, the Gamecocks were facing Vanderbilt’s Plan Z at quarterback in Deuce Wallace (which led my wife to astutely point out that Vandy was “dropping a Deuce”), but the SC defense picked up two interceptions from T.J. Brunson and R.J. Roderick to deny the Commodores any opportunity to make a late-game comeback. Vanderbilt managed less than 200 yards of total offense after rolling down the field for a touchdown on their opening offensive drive. All in all, it was the kind of defensive performance the Gamecocks desperately needed after turning in arguably their most disappointing effort of the season in Knoxville.
Deflated Balls
Penalties/Inconsistent Officiating/I Can’t With This Refereeing Thing Anymore…I Really Can’t – South Carolina compiled an astonishing 11 penalties in this football as compared to just two for Vanderbilt. Now, look. Could you pull out any one of those USC penalties and point out why it was justified? Sure, you probably could. I’m not trying to absolve the Gamecocks for playing out-of-control on occasion. But how is an 11-2 penalty tally even possible? If we stipulate that you can probably call a penalty on every down of a college football game if you chose to do so (and you could), then how do we end up with numbers like 11 penalties for 94 yards for South Carolina and two penalties for 20 yards for Vanderbilt? Is Vanderbilt really that much more fundamentally sound than the Gamecocks are? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: All fans want from these officials is consistency. If you’re going to be super-tight with holding calls, then be super-tight with everybody at all times (not just with one team at critical moments). That’s it. This isn’t impossible to fix. It’s really not. But for the fourth game in a row, South Carolina fans walked away from a game thinking “Did that really just happen?” in regards to the officiating. What’s going on out there?
Vandy’s Derek Mason Still Appearing to Be Unhappy With the Officials as He Walked Off the Field Saturday Night Despite His Team Getting Flagged Twice While His Opponent Was Flagged a Staggering 11 Times – So Mason wasn’t happy about his two calls, either. Just in case you were wondering. The lesson? Absolutely no one likes officials.
The 970th Viewing of That Will Muschamp “Marty & McGee” Commercial During the Broadcast – I didn’t mind the commercial – which features Muschamp singing along and out-of-tune in a pickup truck (for reasons that are never clear) with ESPN Radio personalities Marty and McGee to Alabama’s “In a Hurry,” at least not the first dozen or so times it ran during the SEC Network broadcast. By the 100th showing, I was mildly flustered. By the 400th showing, I was losing my will to live. It got to the point that I was actually excited to see that bizarre commercial advertising a nasal decongesting device featuring a woman screaming “It’s easier than a Neti Pot!!!!”
Failing Twice on 4th-and-Short – The Gamecocks went for it twice on fourth-and-short and got stuffed both times. Fans love to complain when their team goes for it and fails, even though it made all kinds of sense for their offense to take one more crack at it on both occasions. Unfortunately, USC has struggled to convert crucial short-yardage situations since somewhere around the early 1920s. So it didn’t work out. Again (and again).
Theoretically, the University of South Carolina could still play in a bowl game this season (the season that’s happening right now, not one in the future – seriously, I’m not even making this up). To do it, they need to win this Saturday against an Appalachian State team that had been undefeated until losing to Georgia Southern this week. This is the only game that matters. There are no other weeks left to finally bring out your “A Game.”
Now’s the time for the A Game.
It’s a Saturday night at Williams-Brice – the right place and the right time.
Show us what you got, boys.
