Scott Davis: The Sixth Sense

Scott Davis has followed Gamecock sports for more than 30 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. He writes a weekly column that appears on Gamecock Central each Monday during football season.

In addition, Scott writes a weekly newsletter that's emailed each Friday year-round. To sign up for the newsletter, click here.

Most of us didn’t allow ourselves to think about it until two weeks ago.

It seemed like a bridge too far, a hill too steep, a valley too wide to cross.

A bowl game? In 2021? With a team operating under a first-year head coach, a team that won just twice last year, a team with youngsters and journeymen up-and-down the two-deep?

I didn’t see it, couldn’t let myself go there. Neither did Vegas, which pinned the Gamecocks as a four-win team this season in the very best of circumstances.

No, the goal was merely to survive 2021, live to tell about it, use it as fuel to set the future on fire. That’s it: Survive and go forth. Surviving valiantly would be enough.

Then South Carolina unexpectedly and emphatically routed Florida, and suddenly you could sense it in the air: Six.

Six wins.

It was tangible. It was real. The team – a vibrant and likable bunch that had already exceeded expectations with five wins – would have three looks at six, starting with a game against an underperforming Missouri team on the road. We all knew what six meant.

Six meant a bowl game. A chance to keep playing. And most importantly, it meant the beginning of something. For head coach Shane Beamer, for his staff, and for his players, six meant that the future was now.

Did we dare let us ourselves entertain the possibility? Hadn’t this same team gotten embarrassed, overwhelmed and humiliated by Tennessee and Texas A&M? Were they really on the cusp of six? This soon?

You could almost taste the letdown coming.

And when it happened last week to the tune of 31-28, Missouri, I’ll be the first to admit I deflated like a sagging balloon at a child’s birthday party. I spent last Monday morning in a wistful daze, as depressed as it’s possible for a middle-aged man to be about a five-win college football team that was not playing for a championship or anything resembling one.

Did I expect this team to wilt into November, to humbly submit to the remaining Tigers on the schedule and fade into the offseason forever stuck on five? Reader, I did.

After the Auburn Tigers opened up a 14-0 first-quarter lead at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night, it looked like my gut had been telling me the truth all along.

The Gamecocks hung around, though. They hung around like they did last week in a loss to Missouri in a game that looked like it was slipping into oblivion. They showed the same resolve to stand and fight that they’d shown against Georgia in Athens, when they kept battling in a contest that had been over since early in the first half.

On a fourth down try that felt like it just might be the football game, South Carolina running back ZaQuandre White pulled in a short floater from quarterback Jason Brown and took it to the house to drag things back to 14-7.

You know the rest. The Gamecocks tied things up by halftime, inched ahead early in the second half, and then held on for dear life and kept holding on. Having watched this program for nearly four decades, I’m accustomed to watching Gamecock teams lose games like this in excruciating fashion, usually through some sort of self-inflicted miscue or an astonishing wave of bad luck.

Instead, I found myself staring at the surreal scene of a Gatorade-drenched Shane Beamer fighting back tears during a postgame ESPN interview. In Year One, he had secured six.

He knew what it meant. We knew what it meant.

As towels waved and fans bounced behind him, showcasing a Williams-Brice crowd that was as electrified as it had been in years, we all knew what it meant.

If it’s possible for six wins to feel like a mini-championship for a Southeastern Conference football team, these six wins do feel like that.

Yes, maybe we’d have scoffed at this back in 2013, all this excitement for six, this excitement for a bowl game that will likely be ignored by the rest of the United States of America and forgotten by just about everyone as soon as the clock runs out on it. We might have scoffed in 2013.

But that was nearly a decade ago. That was when Steve Spurrier still roamed the sidelines. That was when the program still seemed to be in ascent, when anything still seemed possible.

For us now, in 2021, we’re on the other side of a long war, a scarred and weary platoon who had survived on gallows humor and a grim willingness to simply keep going and see what happened.

That’s why many of us found ourselves in the same position as coach Beamer did on Saturday night, blinking back tears in disbelief.

After everything over the last few years, every new rock bottom we reached, every disappointment, every gut punch…had we really gotten to six this soon?

Yes, we had. Yes, we did. Not only is it OK to celebrate the moment, we must.

We must because six gives us the sense that something is now happening, for the first time in a long time.

And it is something good.

Shane Beamer – He wanted to be here. And he convinced the people who could make it happen that he should be here. All of us wished him well, and it was easy to like the coach personally – he made that so with his positive words at press conferences, his passion for recruiting, his establishment of a family atmosphere and his willingness to inject some color and life and intrigue into a program that had spent the last five years in a dreary gray fog. But most of us knew it wasn’t a slam dunk. Shane Beamer had never been a head coach or even a coordinator. He hadn’t run his own program. He was not annually named on those “Top 10 Assistants Who Are Destined to Become Head Coaches” lists that the sports media likes to compile every winter. Indeed, the most important attribute he had for getting the job appeared to be that he really, truly wanted it, and that he loved South Carolina and the community surrounding it. Was that enough to build a program? We’re beginning to get the answers to that question. Regardless of what happens next year or the year after that, this win officially moved the 2021 season into the “Exceeded All Possible Expectations” category. It happened because the head coach set the tone way back in December of last year, and keep pressing forward despite a long run of obstacles.

ZaQuandre White – After a strong showing in the opening game against Eastern Illinois, White had become a bit of a forgotten man in the running back rotation, as Kevin Harris, MarShawn Lloyd and Juju McDowell all enjoyed moments in the spotlight. He made the most of every opportunity Saturday night, essentially accounting for South Carolina’s offensive production against a potent Auburn defensive front. White rushed for 99 yards on 16 carries, and caught three passes (one for a touchdown). Whenever the Gamecocks needed a big play to turn the tide in the game, it seemed like he answered the call.

Fullbacks Catching Touchdown Passes – Few sights are more enjoyable than massive, burly fullbacks catching passes, and Trai Jones’ three-yard touchdown reception had the added benefit of tying the football game at 14 going into halftime.

Winning the Bobo Bowl – Former South Carolina offensive coordinator Mike Bobo returned to Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night, this time wearing Auburn gear as the Tigers OC. You may recall that Bobo agreed to remain with the Gamecocks to continue coordinating the offense under Shane Beamer, then unceremoniously dumped the team to flee to Auburn just days later. Despite Bobo’s reputation as a solid and experienced SEC play-caller, I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t exactly devastated to see him go. Still, I’m as petty and immature a sports fan as any who has ever sat inside the confines of Williams-Brice, and I was rooting passionately for Bobo’s demise upon his return Saturday night. People who flee from my university like it’s some sort of Infectious Disease Factory are people that I want to see get punished. What can I tell you, I’m an 11-year-old boy inside a middle-aged man’s body. Not only did Bobo’s team lose the football game, his play-calling was questioned loudly and often by Auburn fans and even ESPN’s announcers, never more so than when he dialed up a pass play on fourth-and-one near the end of the first half instead of handing it to Auburn running back Tank Bigsby (who averaged roughly 1,700 yards per carry on Saturday night). The Gamecocks tied the game soon after and never looked back. Thanks, Mike!

Announcers Repeatedly Saying “I Just Don’t Think They’re Going to Overturn This Call”…and Then Watching the Call Get Overturned on a Play That Actually Benefited South Carolina – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen ESPN announcers drone on and on about their certainty that a call that has benefited the Gamecocks will not be overturned, only to watch it get overturned as Gamecock players looked on with confusion and anger. This time it happened to Auburn instead of to us, as a punt that may or may not have grazed an Auburn player before being recovered by the Gamecocks was ruled upon an instant replay review to have been touched and forfeited to USC. With just over two minutes remaining in the contest, the decision kept Auburn’s offense from taking a crack at a winning touchdown score and made all “they’re just not going to overturn this call” declarations to look ridiculous. Despite this moment, I’ll still toss a Game Ball to…

The RG III Experience in the ESPN Announcing Booth – Did anyone else catch some Tony Romo vibes from Robert Griffin III’s exuberant presence alongside ESPN play-by-play man Mark Jones? Some fans crave chilly professionalism from their announcing teams, seeking above all the correct pronunciations of last names, clear enunciation, and straightforward reportage. I am not one of those fans. I like guys who are excited and enjoying themselves, who aren’t condescending know-it-alls (like a vast number of ESPN color analysts who shall remain nameless), who have good insights but can deliver them in a relatable manner, and who just make the game of football more fun to watch. Former Heisman Trophy winner Griffin made the South Carolina-Auburn game more fun to watch. At one point, after one of ZaQuandre White’s long runs, Griffin screamed, “You want to talk about physicality? WHOOOOO!” Later, he abruptly said to Jones, “You having fun, Mark? I’m having fun! Seventy thousand people, the SEC, at night!!!” He genuinely seemed to have had a moment where he looked around at the throbbing Williams-Brice crowd, thought to himself, “I’m really glad to be here,” and then expressed that to a nationwide audience. What’s not to like about RG III?

The Hug My Wife Gave Me After Coach Beamer’s Teary Press Conference – It was surprisingly forceful and earnest. You think this fan base was ready for something good to happen?

You know what? I don’t feel like doing this right now. And I’m not going to. It wouldn’t be terribly hard to find a few Deflators if we really wanted to (4th-and-16, anybody? Bigsby’s obscene rushing totals?), but we’re not giving out any except the following…

Me, for Giving Up on the Dream of Six After the Missouri Game – I’d packed it in, guys. I’m not one of these fans who pretends to have always believed come what may. I thought this thing was cooked after last week.

Fortunately, Beamer and the Boys knew better. They knew they still had something to play for.

And they will be playing on into late December.

Perhaps in a few years, we won’t be satisfied with six. Let’s hope that’s true.

Today, let’s enjoy it. Let’s luxuriate in it.

Today, six feels the beginning. I can sense it. And I’m ready to see what’s next.

Tell me how you feel after South Carolina secured bowl eligibility by writing me at scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com.