In South Carolina, the verdict is published by the Clerk of Court. In other words, when a jury has reached a verdict, the Clerk of Court, not a member of the jury, announces the verdict to the courtroom.

But in every jury trial – whether criminal or civil – there is no mistaking that the jury, and only the jury, is the finder of all facts.

Starting in August and running throughout the season, I will be writing a weekly column called The Verdict - presented by the Goings Law Firm. And much like a jury, I will try to base my findings and opinions on facts. But unlike a jury, I want to hear from the gallery, both what I got right and what I got wrong.

Gamecock Nation, this week’s Verdict is simple: Gamecock fans should no longer trust the national college football media about their team.

Here’s why.

Last Friday afternoon, Auburn’s new head football coach, Bryan Harsin, tested positive for COVID-19. Obviously, I hate that for him, and I was happy to read he was asymptomatic.

But let me be clear – Bryan Harsin testing positive for COVID-19 should never have happened. The NCAA rules and guidelines state that if you are vaccinated for COVID-19, you do not need to be tested unless you were directly exposed. The SEC rules state that once a roster reaches 85% vaccination rate, that program (including the coaches) does not need to be tested for COVID-19 moving forward.

I am not a doctor. I am not a scientist. I am not a politician. This post is not about advocating for the vaccine or the benefits of getting vaccinated. I am vaccinated, but this post is not about me trying to persuade unvaccinated readers to get vaccinated. Questions and talking points for or against the vaccine are above my paygrade. This is about football. And this is about putting your program in the best position possible to win this September.

Bryan Harsin let his team down. By testing positive, Harsin now must be isolated for at least 10 days. Meaning that the earliest possible date that Auburn’s head coach can get back to his team is August 30 – the Monday before Auburn’s first game. Harsin knew the benefits of having his program vaccinated. Primarily that his team didn’t have to be tested moving forward. You can’t test positive if you aren’t tested at all.

This is an important fall camp for the Tigers. And sources close to the program have relayed to Auburn Undercover that multiple players are quarantining, as well. This is a tough blow. Instead of focusing on football, Auburn must still talk about and suffer the effects of COVID-19. It was announced on Monday that Alabama’s athletic department is over 90% vaccinated. Ole Miss’s football team is at 100%. They don’t have to talk about COVID-19. All they have to worry about is football.

Just like Beamer at Carolina, Harsin is trying to put his mark on his Auburn program while also preparing the Tigers for the season. And it’s this comparison – Beamer vs. Harsin – that I want to address in this Verdict.

When Shane Beamer was hired by Carolina back in December, the national media was unimpressed. On his daily radio show, Chuck Oliver in Atlanta – one of my favorite talk show hosts in college football – was critical of the hire the moment it happened. Back on July 8, 2021, Josh Kendall from The Athletic was on the Paul Finebaum Show. It was a blood bath. Finebaum delivered shot after shot against Beamer calling his hire an emotional hire, saying Carolina was stuck at the bottom, and that Beamer was not a legitimate head coach. Finebaum then offered the ultimate dig – why didn’t Carolina go out and hire a legitimate coach like Bryan Harsin?

Why would Carolina go get a guy like Bryan Harsin? Harsin was a successful head coach – in Idaho. The only time he spent in the South was at Arkansas State for a single year. He doesn’t know the culture of the SEC. He doesn’t know the difference between Alabama white sauce and South Carolina mustard sauce. He doesn’t know the difference between Valdosta High and Hoover High. And it’s showing on the recruiting trail. Auburn currently ranks 13th in the SEC in Rivals’ recruiting rankings, even with SEC veteran coaches littered throughout his staff (see: Mike Bobo, Will Friend, Derek Mason).

Now, with the recent news of Harsin missing a significant portion of fall camp due to the positive COVID-19 test, local Alabama media is starting to question the hire. AL.com’s Joseph Goodman wrote on Sunday that “Harsin’s mismanagement of Auburn football [was] infuriating.” Doesn’t sound like a hire that was graded out as an A by Athlon Sports (who graded Beamer as a B-). And it certainly doesn’t sound like the third-best hire in the country, which is where 247 Sports ranked the Harsin hire back on March 1, 2021. (In the same ranking, 247 Sports ranked Beamer second to last, only ahead of Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea.)

The national media, for the most part, is out of touch. CBS’s Dennis Dodd on Dec. 13 said the reason Carolina landed on Beamer was because Hugh Freeze turned down the head coaching job. The only problem with that statement is, of course, the fact that Carolina never legitimately considered Freeze and never offered him the job. As expected, a few months later on April 30, Dodd ranked Beamer as the worst head coaching hire in college football.

And look, I get it. Throughout most of Paul Finebaum’s incredible career, Carolina has a plethora of crushing defeats and horrific seasons. If Carolina has always been a horrible program, why would this hire change anything? The evidence is stacked against the Gamecocks, isn’t it? Not necessarily. Especially when following the Rules of Evidence. In particular, the rule against character evidence states that “evidence of a person’s character…is not admissible to prove that on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with the character.” In other words, subject to a few exceptions, you are not allowed to say, “Once a thief, always a thief” in court.

That rule would go a long way, not only for the national media, but also for certain members of this fanbase. “Once a loser, always a loser” simply isn’t good enough anymore. Carolina Football has one of the 25-largest college football stadiums in the country. Carolina Football consistently ranks around the top 20 every year in revenue generated. Carolina Football for years has ranked in the top 20 in number of active players in the NFL. Carolina Football currently has some of the best facilities in the entire country. This isn’t a poverty program. This is a program poised to make a big step forward with the right man as head coach.

Of course, right now, Shane Beamer hasn’t coached a game. Neither has Bryan Harsin. Nobody knows, including me, how those hires will pan out and how many wins either coach will have in the SEC. But don’t listen to the national media. (Listen to Wes and Chris and Collyn and all the great members of the Gamecock Central team.) The Dennis Dodds of the world had no idea what was needed in Columbia at the time Beamer was hired. All they knew were the worn out, over played, and tired talking points. Regurgitating “once a loser, always a loser” doesn’t address legitimate concerns about Beamer, of which they have very few.

If things start to go well, don’t let the national media convince you they knew this was a great hire. They didn’t. And they shouldn’t be trusted moving forward.

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