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.
My wife was standing up.
“I can’t sit for this,” she said, hopping off the couch and standing directly in front of the widescreen, where she fidgeted like a two-year-old needing to tinkle.
The Tennessee placekicker was jogging on to the field to attempt a 58-yard field goal that would have sent the game into overtime. I would have been standing with her, but I’d blacked out minutes earlier, overwhelmed by emotion, and was floating somewhere in space and humming “Amazing Grace” to myself.
This was going to be a program-changing moment.
If the kick was somehow good, you and I and even members of the Will Muschamp family know that the Vols would have won in overtime, and the media storyline that emerged would have been the same old song: This Tennessee team just finds ways to win! It doesn’t matter how far behind they get – THEY FIND WAYS TO WIN! Same old South Carolina! They hang around just long enough to get beat! They’re going nowhere under Will Muschamp, which is what we all said would happen, you idiots! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
I didn’t want to hear that bulljunk from sportswriters, columnists, radio dudes and other extremely intelligent people who have never actually played football.
I didn’t want to write yet another “I’m frustrated, and I don’t know where this thing’s headed, but I’m hanging in there and you should, too” column.
That’s not what this team deserved.
Not after the way this ragtag band of freshmen and sophomores and journeymen had fought and battled and bled out there on that field for four quarters against the team most had predicted would win the SEC East.
Not after they’d been handed an outrageous buffet of adversity they could barely control (a touchdown taken off the board for a ticky-tack penalty, the refs deciding to decimate the USC defensive secondary and more fun stuff).
I didn’t want to see Tennessee players celebrating on our field after they’d been thoroughly outplayed. I didn’t want to hear the Vol band playing “Rocky Top” into the Columbia night sky for 12 straight hours just because UT had lucked into fluke plays like a 100-yard kick return and a bizarre celebration penalty against the Gamecocks.
I didn’t want to see a somber Will Muschamp walking to the locker room, knowing his team had played as well as it could only to fall short again, and thinking to himself, “When can I get this turned around? Can I get it turned around?”
I didn’t want to see any of that, and now I know why.
Throughout the long, dusty years of Gamecock football, we’ve always had hope.
No one knows where it came from, or why it came to us, this hope.
But it’s always been there.
It was there during all those relentless, non-descript 3-8 campaigns, those years without a bowl game, those embarrassing losses to teams we had no business losing to, through all those times our archrivals made fun of us and called us losers and pretenders.
It was there and I thought it always would be.
But something happened during the last 18 months, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on until Saturday night.
After last year’s 3-9 journey into the abyss, after we all began to realize that Steve Spurrier – the program’s savior – had retreated back to Gator Land and left us with next to nothing to build a new foundation upon, and after we hired a coach many in the national media simply didn’t believe in, the tides begin to shift.
Our hope – our only real identity as a fan base – was in danger. You could feel it: A sense that we’d tried everything and this was who we were always going to be, now and forever, no matter what.
So that’s all that was at stake there on that final kick: The hopes and dreams of an entire state, the legacy of an entire fan base, and the future of the South Carolina football program. No biggie.
I pulled out of my emotional coma, glanced over at my wife hopping around, saw my dog curled up in terror on the floor, contemplated vomiting all over myself, and watched the Vols line up.
“Please, Lord,” I thought, praying even though I know God doesn’t care about the outcome of football games, nor should He. “We deserve this. After everything we’ve been through, we deserve this. These players deserve it. These coaches deserve it. These fans wearing all black everything to pull for a 3-4 team deserve it. Please don’t take away our hope. It’s all we have. It’s all we’ve ever had. Please don’t take away our hope.”
And then the ball was skittering into the end zone, no good, and the fans in all black were hugging and crying, and our players poured into the stands to join them, and my wife and I were hugging so hard I pulled a muscle and Muschamp was beaming in front of the ESPN cameras.
We were still alive, right now, today in 2016.
We could still scratch and claw our way into a bowl, this year.
We still had hope.
We had still hope.
And that’s the only thing we’ll ever need.
The “Jake Bentley is About to Be the Most Popular USC Freshman on Campus Since Marcus Lattimore” Game Balls of the Week
I can’t tell you how good it feels to have an actual name for the Artist Formerly Known as Pharoh Cooper Game Balls, even if it’s just for this week. Let’s hand some out to the following winners:
Jake Bentley – If the ESPN announcers said it once, they said it 10.2 trillion times: “This kid should be attending his high school prom right now, Rod!” (Followed by a full minute of forced cackling). Bentley may not have set the stat sheet on fire, but he showed an astonishing amount of poise as a true freshman in his first start against an SEC opponent. The Vols made the wise decision to blitz the youngster relentlessly, hit him in the mouth and see if he could respond. And despite the full-on beatdown he took, there he was, standing in the pocket, looking for open receivers and often finding them even in the tightest of coverages. He also seemed to know exactly when it was time for him to close up shop and scamper on his own for a first down (shades of the almighty Connor Shaw). He’s going to be swamped on campus this week by well-wishers and fans. It’s going to happen. I was attending USC in 1992 (yes, I’m fully aware this was 17,000 years ago) when true freshman Steve Taneyhill took the reins of an 0-5 team and led them to five wins in six games. He became an instant celebrity, then felt a bit of a backlash when the team struggled the following year. The same emotional drama happened with Todd Ellis and the fan base, too – a storyline that oddly continues to play itself out today with Ellis’ tenure as play-by-play announcer. We’ll see how Bentley handles it all. I think I already know how he will, and I’m excited to see it.
An Exuberant Bobby Bentley for Trying to Stay Calm on the Sidelines While His Son Plays Quarterback – I’ll give running backs coach Bobby Bentley credit. He tries to keep it professional while watching his 18-year-old son – his baby boy! – lead an SEC team against the likes of Tennessee. But you can tell he wants to do somersaults and celebration dances on the sidelines when Jake plays well. I probably would do those things if it was me. But that’s why he’s an employed SEC football coach and I’m a guy who watches a lot of football.
Young Receivers All Over the Place – Bryan Edwards and Deebo Samuel came to play on Saturday, making tough catches despite being blanketed by Vol DBs. Does anyone else see all the young guys at the skill positions and start thinking crazy things like, “Can the 2017 season start tomorrow?” Or is that just me?
Rico Dowdle Going Straight-up Dowdle on the Vols – He can grind out tough 2- or 3-yard runs. He can break ankles and juke defenders out of their shoes. He has speed. He’s strong. He compiled over 100 yards. Did I mention he’s also a true freshman? Does anyone else see all the young guys at the skill positions and start thinking crazy things like, “Can the 2017 season start tomorrow?” Or is that just me?
Coach Muschamp Officially Becoming Our Guy on Saturday – Unlike many, I liked the Muschamp hire. I appreciated how much he wanted to be here. I enjoyed the fact that he not only tries to recruit, he does it very well – especially under the circumstances. I think most of Gamecock Nation embraced him, too. But he needed a signature win this season. He needed a moment where we all took a look at him and thought to ourselves, “That’s my m_______g GUY right there!” He has one now, especially after he was interviewed following the game and told the ESPN cameraman, “Turn that camera around and capture all these fans! That’s who helped us get this win!” Coaches, I’m going to give you a tip. Fans love this kind of stuff. It only takes a second. I know it may be silly, I know it may be juvenile, but we need it. Will Muschamp has his signature win. And now his team and his fans have hope.
The Defensive Rejuvenation – I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I don’t care what the stats say at the end of the year. This unit is several thousand galaxies better than they were the last few years. They’ve been a revelation. And on Saturday, the stats even loved us. The Gamecocks held a high-powered Tennessee offense to a meager 297 total yards and rendered former Heisman Trophy candidate Josh Dobbs into a meaningless also-ran. Time and time again, the Vols had the ball late with an opportunity to turn the game around, and Carolina forced them into punts or made plays to create turnovers. And that was even with half of an already thin secondary missing. I’m always a pessimist watching USC play defense, and even I was thinking, “I really don’t think the Vols can do anything here.” Coach Muschamp, T-Rob, Lance Thompson – y’all keep doing you, my brothers.
Me for Following the Exact Pre-Game Script I Followed Before Our Heart-stopping Win Over Vandy – If you read this column each week, you know that I ate an absurd amount of pizza, drank a bunch of beer and contemplated throwing up all over myself before the season-opening Vandy game. You’ll also remember that my wife stood up from the couch and hovered in front of the television hopping around before a game-deciding field goal kick, while I cowered in a chair and talked to myself. You’ll remember that we won both of those games in dramatic fashion. I guess what I’m saying is, if you don’t think I’m eating pizza, drinking beer and contemplating throwing up all over myself before every game for the rest of the season, then you don’t know me.
Night Games – God, I’ve missed those. Williams-Brice was freaking Electric Avenue on Saturday. The passion of those fans bled through my television screen. I really wish I’d been there.
Enjoying the Media’s Attempt to Spin this Win as “Not Being That Big of a Deal” – It’s going to happen. We’re going to hear that Tennessee “wasn’t at full strength because of injuries.” We’ll hear that the Vols “aren’t THAT good, and don’t you remember that they got served by Bama a few weeks ago?” We’ll hear it’s too soon to embrace Bentley, because “it’s not like he threw for 400 yards or something.” Sorry haters, but this is the same Tennessee team you picked to win the SEC East. It’s the same team that you told us was filled with four- and five-star athletes in your yearly recruiting rankings. It’s the same team quarterbacked by a guy you told us was a Heisman candidate. They were coming off a bye and needed the win to stay in control of the East. And they got denied in Williams-Brice Stadium by a ragtag bunch of freshmen and sophomores and a coach you thought was the wrong hire. It can’t be spun: This was a huge step forward for South Carolina. Period. As for the Vols, do me a favor and try humming “Goodbye, Tennessee” to the tune of Elton John’s “Goodbye, Norma Jean.” It’s catchy!
We’re not going to win the SEC East this year.
We certainly won’t be favored to win it next year.
And yet, this has a chance to be a program-defining win. Maybe it will be. Maybe it won’t be.
But this team now has an identity. The Will Muschamp Era now has an identity.
And as for you and me? We now have hope, for the first time in a long while.
Welcome back, old friend.
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