Scott Davis: Can't fight the feeling

Scott Davis has followed the South Carolina football program for more than 40 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective each Monday during the season. Scott also writes a weekly newsletter that’s emailed each Friday; sign up here to receive it.

I had a feeling. And it wasn’t a good one.

Sometimes you just know.

If you follow a college football team long enough, you’ll reach a point where your antenna gets sharp enough and your internal radar becomes efficient enough that you can glance at the schedule, see an opponent on the board and think to yourself, “You know what? I just don’t see that one happening.”

You’ve been there, too. You have that gruesome, familiar feeling about a particular game, and it might come days, or even weeks, ahead of time. The opposing team’s name flashes in your head over and over, and something just doesn’t feel right in your stomach, and you know that you’re going to be in for a long day when this one comes around.

For football fans, it’s startling how often that feeling becomes a prophecy. That’s why trusting your gut is often a troubling experience, because your gut is wise even when your hopes are high.

When you know, you know.

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For me, the feeling happened about six weeks ago, when I sat down to write my weekly newsletter for Gamecock Central and glanced at the 2022 football schedule beforehand. There it was, in bold letters, right there in Week Two: At Arkansas.

At Arkansas? How had I missed that one?

“My God, I don’t like a single, solitary thing about that game,” I thought then, contemplating the Hogs’ experienced returning starters, their rushing prowess, their multitalented quarterback KJ Jefferson (one of those infuriating QBs who simply refuses to be tackled), and the sad reality that Fayetteville has largely been a City of Heartbreak through the years for Gamecock fans.

I wrote as much in the newsletter that week. Then I started telling friends things like, “You know what I don’t love at all? Going on the road to play Arkansas in Week Two.”

I’m part of a weekly group text chat that comes to life each Saturday morning during football season, giving all of its participants an opportunity to throw out score predictions for that day’s South Carolina game. Sometimes I just send a score without much in the way of context or wider thought.

On Saturday morning, I inexplicably felt the need to include a screens-long analysis of why I just wasn’t wild about this Arkansas matchup, before predicting a final score that may or may not have prophesied a Gamecock loss (perhaps even one by multiple touchdowns).

As I watched the first quarter unfold, I kept hoping and hoping that my gut had been mistaken. I’ve been spectacularly wrong about South Carolina football enough times in my life that you’d think I’d simply give up on having feelings, period. Maybe, if I was lucky, I’d be spectacularly wrong again.

I wasn’t.

But I wish I had been.

Win a framed picture of The Hit (Jadeveon Clowney)

Just as I’d feared, Arkansas’ vaunted rushing attack was as terrifying as I had suspected it would be, and Jefferson delivered one of those vintage “we just can’t get this human being on the ground no matter how many arms and legs we wrap around him” performances that mobile quarterbacks have been tormenting Gamecock fans with for decades.

The score was 21-3 before I’d even gotten my chair warm, and pretty soon my eyes started rolling into the back of my head, my body became numb and cold to the touch, and the only way I could revive myself was by thinking about things I could do later in the afternoon to distract myself from the loss.

Few experiences in life are more frustrating than that of watching an opposing team run the ball at will through your team’s defense. And that was the sight I couldn’t escape for much of the first half Saturday afternoon. (Here’s one of the great questions I can’t answer: Why is it more frustrating to watch an opponent run the ball down your throat than it is to watch an opponent throw the football all over you? I don’t know and will never know – I just know that it is.)

One final mystery I can’t solve is this.

No matter how many times you get The Feeling in your life, and no matter how many times The Feeling is right, it doesn’t make the loss sting any less. You know it’s coming, you’ve prepared your mind and your heart and your soul for it…and it still feels like you’ve just poured acid all over your body.

As for me, the next time I feel The Feeling, I’m just going to keep my mouth shut about it.

There’s nothing to gain by talking about The Feeling.

Now if I could only figure out a way not to feel The Feeling in the first place.

The (Fill in the Blank) Game Balls of the Week

After South Carolina’s special teams unit almost single-handedly defeated the Georgia State Panthers last week, we named the weekly Game Balls after Special Teams Coordinator Pete Lembo and vowed to keep him as the namesake for these awards for as long as the special teams were special.

Listen, it was a great one-week run. In Fayetteville, the Gamecocks shanked a punt, botched an extra point and failed on an onside kick that the Razorbacks returned to the 9-yard line, effectively burying South Carolina’s chances for good and all. Still, this one was a total team effort: The Gamecocks struggled in each phase of the game. On a more positive note, let’s fire a few Blanks to the following:

Antwane Wells – Junior receiver Wells, who transferred in from James Madison during the offseason, carried the torch for an inconsistent South Carolina offense on Saturday, compiling an otherworldly 185 yards on eight catches. God bless the Transfer Portal.

Battling – After the Razorbacks jumped out to that commanding 21-3 lead, I must admit that I expected the Gamecocks to slowly but surely wilt during the remaining part of the game – and who could have blamed them?

Instead, the team showed enough intermittent signs of life on offense to keep the proceedings interesting into the fourth quarter, and even the South Carolina defense made some second-half plays to force Arkansas to work for a hard-fought SEC victory.

While fighting to the end may seem like the bare minimum for SEC football, the reality is that quite a few South Carolina teams in recent years have struggled to maintain effort for four quarters. That wasn’t in question Saturday, and we can only hope it’s a continuing sign of the cultural foundation that Shane Beamer and his coaches are building.

The Hog Callers – Considering that the house wasn’t quite full and that they were required to be in their seats at the ungodly hour of 11 a.m. their time, Arkansas fans delivered a solid SEC home-field advantage for their squad. That was a confident, boisterous group in the stands on Saturday. They expected to see their team win and showered them with approval when they did.

Deflated Balls

Time to get this over with. Let’s pass out a few of these and limp back to Columbia to get ready for the Georgia Bulldogs this Saturday.

The Ground – You don’t need me to tell you that the South Carolina rushing attack is struggling mightily right now. I just don’t feel confident when I see a football being handed off when the Gamecocks are on offense. Apparently, neither do the South Carolina offensive coaches – they eventually abandoned all pretense of running the football in this game, and no one could blame them for doing so.

The Gamecocks compiled just 91 yards on the ground a week after finding it near-impossible to move the chains against Georgia State. Anyone looking forward to facing the national champions and their defense this Saturday? Meanwhile, the South Carolina defense allowed Arkansas to run for nearly 5 yards per carry. Just a tough day all around for The Ground.

The Unfortunate Injuries on Defense – Key contributors are falling all over the South Carolina defensive roster. It’s always painful to see this happen to athletes who have worked so hard to put themselves in a position to shine, especially this early in the season. Football is a cruel sport sometimes.

The Road – Does it feel like decades have passed since South Carolina won a crucial road game in the SEC? As a matter of fact, it does. After falling lifeless on the road during the final few years of the Will Muschamp Era, the Gamecocks are now just 1-5 away from home under Shane Beamer.

That Intentional Grounding Call Against South Carolina Near the End of the Game – I can’t even go here without my body bursting into flames, so let’s keep this thing moving.

Me, for Driving to the North Georgia Mountains to Pick Apples in an Effort to Find Peace After South Carolina Lost Another Crucial SEC Road Contest Saturday – Not only did I make the hour’s drive through country roads to Ellijay, Georgia, on Saturday in an effort to find Zen, and not only did I stop at not one, but two apple orchards in Georgia’s Apple Capital, and not only did I gorge upon a fried apple pie while staring listlessly at a drizzly sky in an orchard parking lot, but I then returned home and baked an apple crostata using a recipe from none other than Martha Stewart…all in a bizarre attempt to calm my spirits in the wake of Arkansas 44, South Carolina 30. Was that a desperate, maniacal effort to find an emotional equilibrium or what?

If you were able to find an emotional equilibrium after Saturday’s game, I have unfortunate news. The Southeastern Conference does not grant the weary traveler an opportunity to rest.

Coming up Saturday in Columbia…your national champion Georgia Bulldogs.

All I can tell you is this: If I have a feeling about this game, I’m keeping it to myself.

Tell me your feelings after South Carolina’s loss to Arkansas by writing me at [email protected].

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