Scott Davis: Whiplash
You're not alone! Like you, Scott Davis is passionate about the Gamecocks and not afraid to admit it. Join him on this wild ride called the 2020 Gamecock Football season by signing up for his new weekly email newsletter.
Scott has followed Gamecock sports for more than 30 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. His columns appear on GamecockCentral.com each Monday during football season and other times throughout the year.
You’ve been there.
You finally slipped free from traffic, started to pull clear, the lane in front of you empties, and there’s nothing but open road. Freedom, at long last.
Time to hit the gas?
Not if you’re the South Carolina football team. No, if you’re South Carolina football, you inexplicably slam the brakes once the road opens wide, the car swerves and lurches, you careen into a ditch and everyone riding in the backseat feels their heads snapping forward and backward and forward and backward.
Ah, that old, familiar whiplash.
Again.
LSU 52, South Carolina 24, under the lights in Baton Rouge. Was that Auburn game only a week ago?
Murdering momentum in cold blood – it’s what South Carolina has done time and again the last few seasons. Any time the program even glimpses something resembling forward progress, there’s a swift, immediate and emphatic foot on the brakes, leaving you with no doubt that the ride has come to a complete stop. It’s just as jarring and bewildering to the senses as those theme park rides that conclude with the train going from 60-to-zero in 0.00003 seconds, leaving you crumpled against the crossbar. After watching these guys, I always wind up rubbing the phantom seatbelt burns on my chest and waist.
Say hello, once more, to the Momentum Murderers.
It sounds like the name of a slasher franchise, but no, it’s just Gamecock football.
How to even explain the cycling of fan emotions during recent years? Hope fades, you resign yourself to change and yet another do-over, followed by slow, flickering signs of life, then short bursts of belief…and then that brake clamps down again, harder this time, and you’re sliding and swerving and stalling in a ditch. Is your neck sore yet? Mine is.
Over the last five years, the program always seems to be most in danger right at those moments when we all start to believe.
You remember 2017, right? That’s when South Carolina started the season with a win over N.C. State and a rout of Missouri to roll back into Williams-Brice Stadium at 2-0 for the now infamous “Blackout Game” against Kentucky. That was going to be the coronation, the moment when the Will Muschamp Era at USC officially left the earth, defied gravity and pulled into the stratosphere as 80,000 black-clad fans hollered in delight.
Nope.
Brakes, swerve, ditch.
In 2018, South Carolina closed the back half of the year with solid wins over Tennessee and Ole Miss, then put up 35 points in a loss to Clemson that somehow left the fan base feeling encouraged, because hey…offense?
Not really. The Gamecocks followed up the Clemson loss by struggling offensively in a dreary win against Akron, then sunk to the bottom of the ocean in an embarrassing 28-0 shutout in the Belk Bowl against Virginia.
Momentum officially and completely dead after that 2018 close, Gamecock fans somehow found a way to claw out of the grave and rally their emotions yet again after the team beat Kentucky for the first time in five years and then unexpectedly shocked Georgia on the road in 2019. Was the program at last turning a corner under Muschamp?
Brakes, swerve, ditch.
The Gamecocks lost five of six to end the year at 4-8, mixing in a dreadful loss to Appalachian State at home for good measure, just to make sure you officially knew the car was no longer moving.
See, you must have forward movement to end up with whiplash in the first place.
That’s why the only thing to fear for a Gamecock fan is momentum itself.
And no matter how many times you feel that brake slam to the floor, you never get used to the abrupt and breathtaking stop, that feeling of your neck snapping and jolting in place.
And you never will.
The Purell Hand Sanitizer Game Balls of the Week
Superlatives, shout-outs and salutations go to the following:
And the “Broken Record” Award Goes To… – Kevin Harris, who walks away with a Game Ball every week and will do so again after he rushed for 126 yards and two touchdowns on a mere 12 carries. It almost feels like he’s playing in a parallel universe where he’s not on a 2-3 football team. Bryan Edwards and Deebo Samuel had their jerseys retired after being All-Americans on the same Parallel Universe team that Harris is currently playing for.
Interceptions – They won the game for South Carolina last week despite a sluggish Gamecock offense, and Israel Mukuamu’s pick and long return against LSU kept the team’s hopes afloat when the contest was in danger of slipping out of hand. Unfortunately, had South Carolina recorded three Pick Sixes in this game, they still would have lost by a touchdown.
Tight Ends! On Offense! – Gamecock fans love them some tight ends, so you had to feel encouraged by Keveon Mullins’ day on Saturday. The freshman tight end only caught two balls, but used those two catches to compile a staggering 101 yards for an obscene 50.5 yards per catch average. With a couple more weeks like this, he can join Kevin Harris and Shi Smith on the Parallel Universe team. It’s a tantalizing thought.
Deflated Balls
The Complete and Total Inability to Create Something Out of Nothing on Offense – Remember Connor Shaw? I know, I know. Making comparisons to the ultimate winner in South Carolina history isn’t wise. But I couldn’t help but think back wistfully to the Shaw years when I watched the Gamecock offense Saturday night. Among many things ailing this team at the moment is its startling inability to turn bad plays into good ones on offense. Shaw was a master at transforming a random 3rd-and-11 that broke down into a mad dash for a first down, or a scrambling pass to an open running back that wiggled free, or something – anything – positive. It’s not a skill that can be tracked by statistics, and advanced metrics and analytics can’t isolate “makes something out of nothing” players for us. But the Gamecocks don’t seem to have one right now. Football is a game of chaos, and good teams find a way to thrive amidst it. Sadly, South Carolina’s offense can’t freelance spontaneously, so it inevitably wilts when the chaos comes – and the chaos always comes. When Plan A doesn’t work, there’s no Plan B or C, much less a player like Shaw who could find a way to make Plan Z succeed. All too often, this offense just stands by quietly as the ship sinks. And those individual moments end up creeping over to the game as a whole – over the last few seasons, when games start to go badly for this team, they tend to keep going badly. If there’s an Efficiency Rating for “Turning Bad Plays Around Into Good Ones,” this squad would be in negative numbers.
Interceptions – Live by ‘em, die by ‘em. South Carolina QB Collin Hill tossed a Pick Six to give LSU a non-offensive touchdown on a night when the defense didn’t really need any help giving up touchdowns. Speaking of non-offensive touchdowns…
The Ultimate Momentum Murderer – Would you like the Merriam Webster definition of “Murdering Momentum”? It’s when you score a touchdown to claw back within two touchdowns in the third quarter, and then immediately give up a kickoff return for a touchdown in which the returner drops the football, scrambles around trying to pick it up, scoops it and breaks 142 tackles along the way to LSU’s first home kickoff TD return in 40 years. Now THAT’S how you slam the brakes down, right there. Whiplash for everybody!
The Bizarre Fetish for Kicking Field Goals When You’re Losing By Three Touchdowns – On multiple occasions, South Carolina brought out Parker White for a field goal try despite losing by three touchdowns with the clock ticking away on the football game. I wish I could have been surprised by this frantic “keep the score semi-close-ish” gambit…but I’d already seen South Carolina kick a field goal against Tennessee in a game they were losing by a touchdown with three minutes remaining. What can I tell you – this team really, really likes to kick field goals, man. Speaking of field goals…
Me, for Flipping Over to an Episode of “Broadchurch” on Netflix after Parker White Missed His Third Field Goal Try of the Night – This may have actually happened in real life. Indeed, it was an odd night at the Davis household. The evening also included a spirited performance from my wife, who typically handles Gamecock losses by poking fun at me for pouting and screaming. But she managed to out-sigh and out-grumble me when USC allowed that ridiculous kickoff return to happen. That might be the most frustrated I’ve ever seen her get during a South Carolina football game. Congratulations, fellas. You finally broke her.
Hey, it happens to the best of us.
Who among us will ever get used to the chilling jolt of whiplash?
Let me know your recovery plans for the Bye Week by writing me at scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com.