Scott Davis: Meat Sweats, Humble Pie & Bluegrass Blues
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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 Gamecock Central each Monday during football season and other times throughout the year. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @scdonfire.
Still dripping with the meat sweats after a whirlwind few days in Austin, Texas, I sat down in my trusty den chair on Saturday night with a powerful case of indigestion. But the heartburn wasn’t because I was concerned South Carolina would lose to Kentucky in football for the fifth year in a row.
It was merely the buildup of day after relentless day of brisket, smoked sausage and ribeye steaks.
No, I was confident. I knew Kentucky had played well thus far in 2018, beating Florida and drilling Mississippi State to start 2-0 in the SEC for the first time in 40 years. And I knew there was the matter of that confounding, mystifying four-game losing streak to UK hanging over the proceedings.
But that was all part of my bravado. After all, streaks eventually end. Saturday was the night. South Carolina had better players. The Gamecocks were motivated and ready after pounding Vandy into the ground. Kentucky had been strutting a little too hard after that Miss State win.
Remember the old VH-1 series “Behind the Music” from the late ‘90s, which chronicled the rise and fall of popular musicians? At some point in every episode, there would be a sequence where a band would have just risen to the top, charting hit after hit, selling out stadiums and in general living the lives we all dream about, when a grim narrator would slowly remark, “Little did the band realize that everything was about to change.”
Cut to commercial.
I’d convinced myself that would be Kentucky’s fate on Saturday night.
Instead it was South Carolina’s. And mine.
Except in our case, I can hear that “Behind the Music” narrator saying: “Little did South Carolina fans realize that absolutely nothing was about to change.”
I can fondly remember the days when even bad South Carolina teams routinely beat Kentucky in football.
Beginning in 2000, the Gamecocks won 10 straight over the Wildcats, and 13 of 14. No matter how mediocre USC’s season was going, you could always count on them to step onto a football field with Kentucky and methodically dismantle the undermanned Wildcats.
Well, you can expect otherwise now, in case you’ve somehow been sleeping through the last five years.
- Also see: Redshirt Tracker | Scholarship Breakdown | Schedule
How did we get here?
To be honest, I don’t know. I noticed a few fans dusting off that old chestnut, “Look, they’ve just got better players than we do right now,” when grasping for answers after UK’s 24-10 beatdown Saturday.
Except it’s just not true. Just for laughs, I went back and looked at the final Rivals rankings for every football recruiting class going all the way back to 2010. Do you know how many times Kentucky finished ahead of South Carolina in recruiting rankings from 2010-2018?
Zero.
That’s right – even when the Gamecocks went 3-9 during Steve Spurrier’s surrender, they still finished ahead of the Wildcats in recruiting quality athletes (at least according to Rivals). Look, I know recruiting rankings aren’t the be-all, end-all in telling the tale of what actually happens in the games.
Teams with better athletes lose to teams with lesser athletes all the time. Does anyone really think Old Dominion has better players than Virginia Tech? Did anyone really think The Citadel had better players than South Carolina in 2015? Of course not. You can lose to anybody once, or even twice.
But you can’t lose to someone five years in a row when by just about every account, you have more talented players than they do.
It simply can’t happen.
Kentucky finished 16 spots behind South Carolina in 2015 recruiting, 10 spots behind them in 2017 and 12 spots behind them in 2018.
Adding to the absurdity, some Gamecock fans have started convincing themselves that perhaps it’s Kentucky coach Mark Stoops who provides the answer. Maybe he’s the new Nick Saban or something? The evidence overwhelmingly suggests the opposite.
Even with this year’s 5-0 start, the Wildcats are 31-36 under Stoops, and 15-28 in the SEC. His best season was 7-6. He has never won a bowl game as a head coach. Now in his sixth year in Lexington, Stoops has won just 15 conference games – and five have been against your South Carolina Gamecocks.
Explain it to me.
- Also see: Grading the Gamecocks vs. Kentucky
True, Kentucky looks legitimate in 2018. They’ve been impressive in every single one of their wins, and they’ll be a scary opponent the rest of the way. But still – this isn’t a program that has been hurling top-15 recruiting classes on the board year after year. There isn’t any rhyme or reason to this losing streak other than what you saw the Gamecocks do to themselves on Saturday night.
Turnovers and penalties galore, ghastly missed tackles, dropped passes upon dropped passes, spectacular special teams miscues and everything else that helps to ensure that you walk out of the stadium with an “L” hanging over your head.
As I fussed, fidgeted, cursed (and sweated) in that den chair, my wife told me I’d turned back into “Scary Fan” – her least favorite incarnation of me as a human being.
Well, it’s October and Halloween’s on the horizon, and with frightening-looking games with Missouri and Texas A&M looming that will absolutely make or break this entire season, Scary Fan might just be here to stay for quite awhile.
The Salt Lick BBQ Meat Sweats Game Balls of the Week
Salt Lick BBQ – My wife and I spent a few days in Austin last week to celebrate her birthday, and made the expected and necessary pilgrimage about 40 miles out into the dusty Texas countryside to Salt Lick BBQ for brisket, ribs and sausage. I ate half a steer at that place – I might have even been willing to eat the horns and hooves if they’d cooked them over that slow-burning fire. And I still have meat hangover today. Speaking of hangovers, let’s give our only other Game Ball to…
The Game Ending – That was the most positive thing that happened to South Carolina football on Saturday night.
Deflated Balls
You may want to sit down for this, but as shocking as it sounds, there are a couple.
Me for Writing a Newsletter Essay Last Week Suggesting that Kentucky Was in Grave Danger for this Game Because “They Felt Too Good About Themselves” – Now THAT’S what you come to Gamecock Central for right there – penetrating analysis and insight. By the way, you can sign up to receive my weekly email newsletter right here!
Me for Sending Roughly 45,000 Angry, Psychotic Texts to Friends and Relatives Saturday Night – If your phone starts blowing up on a Saturday night, chances are South Carolina isn’t playing very well.
The “Jake Bentley Just Doesn’t Play Well in Big Games” Narrative Reaching a Fever Pitch – I wrote about this after the Georgia game, but sadly, the storyline will only gather strength after Bentley turned in a 13-for-28, 148-yard, three-interception effort in Lexington.
There were an overwhelming number of things to choose from in determining how the Gamecocks lost this game, and many of those things didn’t involve Bentley: Dropped passes, ridiculous penalties, a flimsy first-half defense and much more.
South Carolina could have inserted Tua Tagavailoa at QB and still found multiple ways to lose this game. And Kentucky has an experienced defense that has made life difficult for a lot of people this year.
But still: 13-for-28 and three picks. Bentley threw for a stunning 9 yards – 9 – in the first half. When you’re QB1 in this league, you’re going to hear the noise when games like this keep happening. That’s just the way it works, and there’s only one way to silence it.
The “Will Muschamp Just Can’t Find a Way to Compete in Big Games” Narrative Quietly Gaining Almost as Much Steam as the Bentley Narrative – The Gamecocks are now 1-8 against ranked opponents under Muschamp. You can’t expect to win all, or even most, of those games in the SEC. But still: 1-8. Yikes. And the reality is, it goes without saying that you’re going to face quite a few ranked teams when you compete in the Southeastern Conference.
The Strange Disappearance of Playmakers – Coming into the 2018 campaign, most analysts and experts (and non-experts like me) felt exceedingly good about the Gamecock receiving and running back units. Both were brimming with experienced talent. You heard the refrain just about everywhere: As long as the offensive line gives Bentley time, this offense has a chance to really turn it on.
- Also see: Five Takeaways - Big games still too much
And yet, four games in, we’re still waiting to be turned on. Deebo Samuel and Bryan Edwards did some good things against Georgia, but were largely held in check during that game. The duo outright struggled against Kentucky – both dropped critical (and catchable) passes that could have changed momentum, and in general found it difficult to create separation beyond Samuel’s 58-yard reception. Workhorse running back Rico Dowdle continues to be plagued by turnovers – early in the game, he fumbled in the shadow of the end zone, setting up a Kentucky field goal. If those guys don’t get going soon, it’s going to be the longest of years for this offense. Speaking of…
The Offense in Search of an Identity – After a four-game sample size, here’s what I know about the South Carolina offense: next to nothing. I’m not sure who they are or who they want to be right now, and I’m not sure they do, either. All off-season, we heard talk of a breathless, hurry-up attack and saw glimpses of it in the opening game against Coastal. After going pass-happy against Georgia, coach Muschamp vowed to rededicate strategies to the running game, opening the door to a 273-yard rushing effort against Vandy. Against Kentucky, bits and pieces of all of those various strategies came into play. At times, the Gamecocks employed wild, never-before-seen formations. Other times they appeared more conservative than Sean Hannity. There just isn’t any kind of rhythm to what they do at the moment.
Missed Tackles – The Gamecock defense shored up and turned in a strong performance in the second half, but the game’s opening 30 minutes were ugly, and it seemed like tens of thousands of missed tackles kept Kentucky drives alive when the Wildcats should have been punting.
I Can’t Even Talk About that Punt That Should Have Been Downed at the One and Wound Up Being a Touchback – So I’m not going to.
Clemson Needing a Miracle to Stay Undefeated Against Syracuse…And Inevitably Getting It – Why do I allow something I have no control over (like college football) to determine my overall happiness in life? It’s unclear why I follow this sport.
We’re four games in, and I still have no idea what to expect when South Carolina faces Missouri this week. I know you don’t, either.
But I do know this: this is a game that could very well define what kind of season it’s going to be. I’ll be sweating all week.
Which way do we go?
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