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.
So. How do you feel?
My brother-in-law and I were exchanging stunned postgame texts in the moments after South Carolina shook up the world in Athens by beating the number three Georgia Bulldogs in double overtime.
He claimed to be feeling more relieved than joyful, like an anvil had been plucked off his shoulders. And he wondered how I was feeling.
The truth was, I wasn’t sure I even knew. I also didn’t feel joy – it was too early for that to sink in yet. I didn’t feel relieved, either. I struggled and sputtered to put it into words. “I feel like I just watched my dog stand up on two legs, walk out to the garage and drive one of the cars away,” I finally told him.
And that’s what the moment seemed to summon for me: Magic, confusion, all the weirdness of the Halloween season and the witching hour, the impossible becoming possible.
After all, this was a game South Carolina always loses.
Not sometimes. Not most of the time. Always.
It was a game South Carolina always loses for the obvious reasons – it was on the road, against a No. 3 team, against longtime nemesis and ol’ reliable heartbreaker Georgia. But there was more to the story beyond the obvious reasons.
Georgia also benefited from an astonishing 11 penalties by USC, several of the backbreaking variety (including a veeeeeeeeeeeeeery questionable interference call in the closing minutes of regulation after Georgia failed to convert a fourth down that gave the Dogs the ball back and allowed them to tie the game seconds later). Oh, there’s more, like a host of troubling injuries to crucial Gamecocks. Wait, there’s still more.
South Carolina kicker Parker White missed two crucial field goals late – one a prayer near the end of the game, and another a veritable chip shot that would have won the contest outright in the first overtime. When the latter sailed wide, all of my hopes for an upset drifted upwards into the clouds. Underdogs simply don’t withstand that many disappointments in one game and still find themselves in Victory Lane – and Vegas had declared USC as much as a 24.5-point underdog in this one, which represented a 30-year-high for point spreads in the Georgia-South Carolina series.
I was drained of all emotion, a husk, a carcass, an overgrown piece of taxidermy slumping in my den chair. At that moment, I was so certain of an inevitable South Carolina loss that I could literally feel my heart hardening – a tight pinch in my chest spreading while ESPN’s announcers blathered in the background.
This was going to be one of those blips that a national title-contending team like Georgia faces once a season, one of those games where an upstart underdog hangs around for four quarters, scares the daylights out of a heavyweight…and then quietly falls apart at the end to restore order and preserve the status quo for evermore. It happens all the time – just a couple of weeks ago, North Carolina (of all people) made Clemson fans sweat for awhile before inevitably surrendering, and just days later, we’ve already forgotten that game happened.
And that would be South Carolina’s fate now, I was sure – to be forgotten, a valiant and courageous effort wasted Between the Hedges, an effort we’d all struggle to recall by season’s end and that the national media would dismiss as one of those random anomalies that pop up every now and again.
In the wake of what happened next, I’ve noticed many Gamecock fans crowing about how they never had a doubt, about how they always believed, about how they never, ever gave up on this coaching staff or these players, by God! Gamecock Nation has enjoyed patting itself on the back over the last day or so.
Well, I won’t be patting myself on the back.
I didn’t believe.
I really didn’t. Not after that first kick drifted away in the first overtime, and those red-shirted (and red-faced) Dawg fans convulsed into a frenzy, and Sanford Stadium was rumbling and the Hedges were shaking and Bulldog quarterback Jake Fromm stood smiling and nodding on the sidelines. I knew what was about to happen. I knew because I’ve watched this team for more than three decades, and I’d seen them do this time and time again, sucking me in at bizarre moments only to leave me standing and blinking at the altar like Richard Gere in “Runaway Bride.” Yes, I knew what was about to happen.
And then it didn’t happen.
South Carolina moved the ball, got in position to try another field goal, and this time White’s kick was true. Then Fromm (the Heisman hopeful) led the boys in red and black onto the field…and their all-powerful, almighty offensive line and five-star talent couldn’t get much of anything going against a scrappy Gamecock defense that had denied them big plays throughout the day. Hmm. More overtime?
Now here was Bulldog kicker Rodrigo Blankenship walking towards the field and we know what this guy is all about, right? All he does is come through. Rose Bowl, rivalry games, whatever: He comes through. Then he comes through again. He’s a bespectacled assassin.
I was in the process of standing up to walk over to the kitchen to grab a drink out of the fridge and hydrate myself for the rest of overtime when I saw South Carolina’s players gyrating and hugging on my television screen. Wait…what? No good? Game over? Really?
The cameras cut to a fan in a Georgia cap who was smiling one of those angry, sarcastic “I can’t believe how much I hate sports” smiles (that I have also smiled 100,000 times in my life). He looked like someone who’d just watched a dog stand up, hop into a car and drive it away.
So did I.
I was alone (my wife was out West on a business trip), so I had nowhere to go with my emotions, no one to hug or scream with or fist bump or do dorky moonwalks across the kitchen floor with.
So I just stood there in stunned silence, occasionally looking over at my dog and expecting her to start singing or deliver a standup comedy routine. Finally, I walked outside and strolled around my neighborhood for 20 breathless minutes, more to make sure I was still alive than to enjoy a victory lap.
It was cool in the Atlanta suburbs and leaves circled and thudded to the ground around me. Autumn was finally here. I walked past house after house with Georgia banners and flags flying from the silent front porches.
At last, I smiled. For the first time all day.
I smiled because I loved my team and their courage and their unwavering effort. I smiled because I knew what the victory meant to Gamecock fans everywhere – the ones who keep watching week after week waiting for miracles like these that almost never come. And, I smiled, looking into the face of those limp Bulldog flags, because I am petty and delight in the suffering of my enemies.
Later in the day, I took my wife’s car for a spin to the grocery store, wearing a Script Carolina cap just like the one Joe Morrison made popular in the 1980s (because I knew there would be sad Georgia fans at the Roswell Publix and I am petty and delight in the suffering of my enemies). When I turned the car on, I noticed my wife had left the radio on “‘80s on 8” – her favorite SiriusXM channel.
Olivia Newton-John’s soothing voice rolled through the speakers, an old groove from 1980, a forgotten song from a movie soundtrack of my childhood.
You have to believe we are magic, nothing can stand in our way…
I did.
Finally, for the first time all day, I did. I believed in magic.
Because it was real.
The Olivia Newton-John Game Balls of the Week
When my team goes on the road and defeats the number three team in the nation in double overtime, and that team is a longstanding archenemy and league rival and the favorite team of almost every human being who lives around me in the Atlanta suburbs, then I celebrate by handing out a few Game Balls. Let’s get physical!
Signature Wins – We’ve been talking for the last four years about coach Will Muschamp and signature wins, and how they always seem to elude him. The Gamecock program has consistently hung around the six-to-seven-win range under Muschamp, with postseason berths in lower-to-middle-tier bowls a regularity. What’s been missing, though, have been program-defining wins over elite opponents – the kinds of wins that make the rest of the world take notice and give quality recruits a reason to consider South Carolina. Under Muschamp, you could count on South Carolina to defeat an Ole Miss or a Missouri or a Tennessee or a Vandy, but not a Clemson or a Georgia or an Alabama. That changes after Saturday, when Muschamp’s team went on the road and beat an undefeated, third-ranked UGA that was legitimately gunning for a national championship, and they did it without benefiting from fluky plays or goofy good fortune. South Carolina simply outplayed Georgia on Saturday, shutting the Dog offense down repeatedly, harassing Jake Fromm from beginning to end and doing just enough on offense to get a victory. The only way to make this more of a Signature Win would be to change our mascot nickname to the South Carolina John Hancocks.
Battling Quarterbacks – True freshman Ryan Hilinski was putting together one of the gutsiest performances by a South Carolina quarterback this side of Stephen Garcia’s 2010 Alabama game when he limped off the field with a knee injury. He was 15-for-20 for 116 yards and a touchdown before departing and giving way to redshirt freshman Dakereon Joyner (who started the season as South Carolina’s third-string QB). Joyner protected the ball the rest of the way and picked up some critical first downs when the Gamecocks desperately needed to keep the clock moving and their defense on the sidelines, and he showed the crafty slipperiness that makes watching mobile quarterbacks so much fun.
Israel Mukuamu – All the sophomore defensive back did was compile three interceptions of the Artist Formerly Known as a Heisman Hopeful Jake Fromm, pick up the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week award, and single-handedly win the football game for South Carolina, if you needed him. By the end of the game, ESPN’s announcers were repeatedly saying things like, “If I’m Jake Fromm, I’m looking anywhere but the side of the field where Mukuamu is right now.” They’d said his name so many times by game’s end that I now feel comfortable I officially know how to pronounce “Mukuamu.”
Parker White, Game-Winning Field Goal Kicker – White nailed a 24-yard field goal in the second overtime, and those three points proved to be the difference in South Carolina’s 20-17 win over Georgia. Whatever else he may or may not have been involved in during this game…I mean, who can remember everything that happens in a three-hour football game, man?
Hedge Clippings – South Carolina’s players took a few pieces of the famed Georgia hedges with them to the locker room to celebrate the win. I had absolutely no problem with this. You want to know why? Because I was sitting in the end zone at Williams-Brice Stadium after the Gamecocks lost a gut-wrenching home game to Georgia in 2002, and watched as Georgia quarterback David Greene and other victorious Bulldogs pulled off pieces of the hedges surrounding South Carolina’s field and waved them at the crowd. So you might say I’ve been waiting 17 years for this moment. And on that note, let’s hand a Newton-John to…
Condescending Victory Memes – I haven’t missed social media for one single second since I deleted my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts last winter, but for a brief moment on Saturday, I wished I still had access to those maligned platforms, because the only thing I ever enjoyed about them was seeing Gamecock fans celebrate together online after a big victory (whenever one came). Fortunately, friends and family members passed along photos, memes and other good stuff along to me after the win. My favorite was a meme using the Dos Equis Guy (always a reliable standard-bearer for enjoyable memes) that read: “I Don’t Always Beat a Top 5 Team in Their Own House…But When I Do, I Use 2nd and 3rd String QB’s.” Winning’s fun.
Bryan Edwards Stopping on a Dime in Midstride, Changing Direction and Freezing a Georgia Defender Like a TV Dinner On a Touchdown Bomb – We may not realize just how much we’re going to miss Edwards until he’s gone next year, likely after holding every significant record for wide receivers at South Carolina.
Deflated Balls
When my team goes on the road and beats a No. 3 team, and that team is an archenemy and border rival, then I hate to even hand out Deflated Balls. But I’m compelled to recognize…
High Noon – South Carolina’s reward for upsetting Georgia is….to play in another game at noon this coming week against Florida. Meanwhile, Georgia and Kentucky (Kentucky?) are slotted for the night game. Huh? TV networks do not love this team.
Injuries – Hilinski, Edwards and starting left tackle Sadarius Hutcherson all left the game with injuries. So, essentially, some of the most important Gamecocks on the offensive side of the ball spent significant stretches of the game on the sidelines. That’s not usually a recipe for upsetting the number three team on the road.
Penalties – USC was flagged for 11 penalties to just six for Georgia, and the yellow flags always seemed to be flying at the very worst times. It remains difficult for me to fathom how South Carolina overcame the amount of adversity it did to win a game on the road against a 25-point favorite. Speaking of overcoming adversity…
Me for Eating Most of a Skillet Full of Apple Pie After the Game in a Silent Daze – What was that all about? While we’re here…
Me for Going to a Mid-Morning Movie on Saturday and Missing the Live Broadcast of the First Half – I know, I know. I thought about keeping this information from you. But now the whole truth can finally be told: I taped the game and opted for an early morning showing of “Joker” on Saturday at the movie theater by my house. I agree with you that it’s indefensible, but let me throw out these mitigating circumstances: A) My wife had left that morning for work, and it was my one chance to see the movie since I would’ve needed to kidnap her at knifepoint, hold her hostage for several days and break her will completely to get her to see “Joker” with me; and B) I straight up was not expecting anything resembling a South Carolina victory over Georgia in Athens, so what’s the harm in catching up late, right? Right. So, I turned off my phone (to keep pesky friends from texting and letting me know what was happening), then frantically watched my DVR recording of the first half in speed-fast-forward after rushing home so that I could catch up to watch the second half in real time. While fast-forwarding, I noticed something odd: South Carolina was ahead and staying ahead. Let’s pretend I never admitted this (which is exactly what I did for awhile on Saturday before coming clean in shame. Also, catch my “Joker” review in my Wednesday newsletter!).
I know – you always believed. You’re a rock and you’re going to heaven someday while sinners like me struggle to put the pieces back together down here. God bless you.
But at least today, I do believe in magic.
After that game, how could you not?
