Scott Davis: Sucker Punch
GamecockCentral.com columnist Scott Davis, who has followed USC sports for more than 30 years, provides commentary from the perspective of a Gamecocks fan. You can follow Scott on Twitter at @scdonfire.
I spent the morning before South Carolina’s bowl game doing something I shouldn’t have been doing, something that’s most definitely on the short list for “Worst Vices that Scott Davis Engages In on a Daily Basis.”
I went on YouTube and watched a bunch of World Star HipHop videos of people fighting. These videos are always captured shakily, with someone holding an iPhone in the background as two people wrestle each other to the ground. They usually occur outside a bar or in the vicinity of one, and it’s always amazing to see folks who just don’t care about being filmed while iPhone cameras are rolling.
There’s something extremely satisfying about a lot of these videos, because they usually involve someone bullying another person and then just getting straight-up served. That’s how we hope the world resets itself. We want bullies to get punished and underdogs to thrive.
But sometimes we have to admit that it just doesn’t work that way, not in this world and not in this lifetime.
Sometimes a South Carolina team that just simply isn’t very good can battle its A____ off and still finish 6-7 and lose the Birmingham Bowl to South Florida while also losing by 7 touchdowns to its archrival just weeks earlier. There might be players that you felt did everything they could do (maybe Deebo Samuel comes to mind?) and you still got beat and wonder how you were able to do it.
That’s when you start to wonder: Are we the guys who always get their A____’s kicked in these videos? Why do people keep punching us in the face when we’re down and asking for mercy? Will it ever stop?
I don’t know.
Earlier this month, my wife and I took an awesome Christmas trip up to the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia. Listen, there is no place in America that is better than the Greenbrier, especially at Christmas. I felt privileged to be there. I wish I was there right now.
And…when I was on a private tour there (without my wife) I met someone from my hometown of Greenville, S.C., and he exclaimed, “Oh man, I’m sorry you pull for South Carolina. Those guys suck” before admitting that he also went to South Carolina, but that his daughter went to Clemson and that she pulled for a team that was actually good at football.
You just can’t escape this stuff. Not if you care about this team.
This thing is a lifetime commitment, and you better be ready to get it done if you’re gonna do this. You thought a couple of 11-win seasons meant you were ready to roll? Wrong. This thing never stops punishing you.
It’s just like the sucker punches the unsuspecting folks take in these dumb videos that I can’t stop watching. You don’t see it coming – but it’s coming. It’s always coming.
Can you go out and finish 6-7 and lose to South Florida in the m_______ing Birmingham Bowl and then congratulate yourself about the fact that Jake Bentley and Deebo Samuel had nice days? You can? Congratulate yourself, my brother, because you are now a University of South Carolina football fan.
If you’re one of those people, I love you even though I don’t know you, because you’ve just been sucker punched like the rest of us have.
God bless you. This is what it is. This is what it’s always been. I’m sorry. But you can do this. I promise you can do this.
The All Deflated Ball Bowl Game Edition! Yes, Let’s Do This!!!!
I’ve threatened to do an all-Deflated Ball column before, but have never actually been able to pull the trigger. You know what? It’s happening right now, America. Deflators go to the following:
Mobile Quarterbacks – We haven’t been able to stop them since I was born, don’t look like we intend to stop them any time soon, and unfortunately have a bunch of them on the schedule next year and beyond. Other than that, we’re right back in this thing.
South Carolina Losing to Clemson in Basketball Even Though They’re Better Than Clemson in Basketball – Sigh. This was definitely a moment where you asked God why He hates us. There’s no doubt you’re a good basketball team, and your school definitely needs a win of any kind over your archrival, and you would absolutely beat them under any circumstances…except your best player is suspended for the month of December for reasons no one is able to fathom, and you find a way to lose a ballgame your fans really, REALLY needed in the final seconds. Other than that, it’s been an amazing few weeks for South Carolina athletics. I went downstairs, laid on the couch and looked at the ceiling after this.
Clemson Fans Somehow Finding a Way to Find You at Christmas Parties -- I was nonchalantly minding my business at a recent Christmas party when someone said, “Hey, this guy writes for Gamecock Central. Let me introduce you to this guy who went to Clemson!” This kind of bullbleep isn’t supposed to happen in Atlanta (the city where I live), where fortunately almost no one cares about Clemson. But I spent the next hour listening to this: “Man, you have to hate what’s happening, right? As a Gamecock Central guy, what do you think about us getting the top three recruits in the country? I mean, how do you feel about that?” It actually got worse. After awhile, he went in on the “You know, I tell all my Clemson friends that I want South Carolina to get good again, because it’s just not bleeping fun to beat them them 56-7. I need y’all to be good so it’ll be fun to beat you again.” HOW FUN IS IT TO PULL FOR SOUTH CAROLINA????!!!!
Me, for Falling Into the Siren Song That is Gamecock Twitter – I’ve got to know better and act better, for the love of God. I should be ashamed of myself, and you know what? I am. After the Gamecocks lost to Clemson in that godforsaken basketball game I just mentioned, I inexplicably went on Twitter for like five seconds. That was dumb. I certainly deserved anything that happened to me after that. I don’t follow that many people who make up what we would call Gamecock Twitter, but I do see them re-tweeted and liked by some folks I do follow. And these guys have infinitely more followers than I do. I mean, whatever it is I’m trying to do on social media, I need to apologize to them. I’ve never thought about having the number of followers some of these folks do. But when South Carolina lost to Clemson, I unfortunately scrolled Twitter, saw that some of these guys were re-tweeted into infinity, and felt sad because it sure seemed like they were more concerned about producing a funny/clever Tweet than that South Carolina lost a game in a major sport to its archrival that they absolutely had to have. I didn’t get it. Don’t you want this team to win, or is it just about producing a funny quip? I was waaaaay disappointed by this….and then I went out and did exactly the same thing when the Gamecocks lost to South Florida. My wife described my Twitter feed as “the rantings of an insane person.” No one would argue. I don’t know who I was trying to impress, but I feel bad about it and I shouldn’t have done it. I may actually unfollow myself.
Gamecock Fans Going Wild Because Jake Bentley and Deebo Samuel Set Birmingham Bowl Records – We’re probably not going to remember these in 2022 or 2037. Or, you know, tomorrow. But hey, if getting excited about this makes you feel better about how the season ended, I can’t be mad at you.
Look, we’re going to get through this. We always do.
Like the guy at the Greenbrier said to me: “F____, it’s amazing how y’all don’t stop pulling for this team.”
It is.
But we don’t.