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, Aug. 13, 2021.

Scott also writes a weekly column that appears on Gamecock Central during football season.

Let’s face it: Much of what I do as a fan during the preseason is dumb.

It’s ridiculous in every way. It defies rationality, good sense, sound logic. It is magical thinking of the first order.

So why do I do it?

Because it’s fun.

What can I tell you? River rafting is fun, even though you might die. Haunted houses are fun. And spending an inordinate amount of my free time speculating on an upcoming South Carolina football season is fun, too.

In fact, I would argue that the last couple of weeks before a football season begins might even be the high-water mark for being a sports fan. Unless your team goes undefeated or wins a championship, it’s the last time you’ll feel completely happy for the foreseeable future. Might as well double down on the feeling and indulge in the silliness. As the late Frank Sinatra once said, “I’m for whatever gets you through the night.”

And what gets me through these last few steamy, humid August nights before that September 4 date with Eastern Illinois in Williams-Brice Stadium is thinking about a category of things that I have labeled Dumb Stuff I Have Absolutely No Control Over.

What’s an example of Dumb Stuff I Have Absolutely No Control Over (or DSIHANCO)? I’m so glad you asked.

When I was a student at South Carolina, I spent large chunks of the month of August lying on the bed in my apartment near Five Points, staring at a schedule of the upcoming season, tallying up potential Gamecock wins and losses and settling on a projected final record.

I would like for you to know that that record always included 11 wins for South Carolina (and the only reason it didn’t include 12 wins was that the schedule at that time only totaled 11 games).

Now, this annual habit of mine was very, very dumb – diabolically dumb.

For example, trying to project in August what type of team South Carolina would be in Week 10 when they played Tennessee was about like buying a lottery ticket and expecting it to cash in. What if the Gamecocks’ starting quarterback was lost for the season with a blown ACL in the opening game? What if a fourth-string running back emerged from nowhere on Tennessee’s roster and carried the Vols to an unexpectedly strong campaign (something that seemed to happen with frightening frequency?)

What if a worldwide pandemic dropped out of the sky and kept fans from entering the stadium at any time? What if your head coach suddenly seemed 12,000 years old by midseason (something that actually happened during the final Lou Holtz year)?

In the Age of Analytics, when sports fans are encouraged to focus only on facts, on the here and now, and to banish rumor and hearsay and “gut feelings,” speculating on the future is the Unpardonable Sin.

But it’s so much freaking fun.

The great news is that the supply of things we can speculate upon this preseason is almost infinite. It doesn’t just cover the schedule and wins and losses. We can speculate upon individual performances, the scheming tendencies of the new coordinators and so much more.

A Dumb Thing I Have Absolutely No Control Over that I enjoy contemplating from time to time is this: Which South Carolina Gamecock will have a breakout season that I positively did not see coming?

Because somebody will. And somebody will even if the team ends up going 2-10 this year.

Last August, while I was deep into my DSIHANCO meditations, I did not at any moment think to myself, “You know what – I feel like Kevin Harris will be one of the best running backs in the SEC this season, and what’s more, he’ll provide the best season any Gamecock running back has had since the Marcus Lattimore glory years.”

I’d love to say I thought it. But I didn’t.

Instead of taking this as proof that I shouldn’t bother to speculate on DSIHANCO at all, I instead find myself trying to improve my skills, to think about dumb things even harder.

The thoughts keep flying in from all over: What if the situation in the Gamecock secondary isn’t actually terrifying? What if one of those lesser-known wide receivers steps into the void and starts putting some muscular numbers on the stat sheet?

And yeah, I know that the What If Game can be played from the glass-half-empty perspective, too (see “Yikes, My Coach Just Turned 12,000 Years Old!” above). But that’s not fun, right?

Not in August.

We are now officially fully immersed in preseason practices, and if you’re like me, you can’t get enough of the write-ups, summaries, analyses and video snippets emanating from the football facilities off Bluff Road. Engulf me with practice reports, please.

As someone who is old enough to remember those dark days before the advent of Gamecock Central, when information-starved fans like myself had to subsist on practice updates of a paragraph or two in a local newspaper, I do not take for granted all that we now have at our fingertips.

Do you want to know what type of music is favored during Gamecock practice sessions? So do I. And after watching these clips of drills from earlier in the week (Sights and sounds from practice), I am encouraged to report that old-school tunes from the ‘90s and 2000s seem to be prevalent (I felt right at home hearing “O.P.P.” blaring during practice – that was part of the soundtrack of my own years at South Carolina).

Are you hoping to do your own speculation about which receivers might step into the void this season? Articles like this one (Brooks 'back in my element' after tough junior season) can give you something to think about.

In fact, after spending most of the week on Gamecock Central mainlining every single practice story and video directly into my veins, I may go ahead and start thinking about the 2022 and 2023 seasons, too.

It’ll be fun and dumb. And I can’t wait.

Tell me what fun dumb stuff you’re thinking about as the season draws near by writing me at scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com.

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