Scott Davis: Should Gamecock fans dare to dream big?

Scott Davis has followed the South Carolina Gamecocks for more than 30 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. He writes a weekly newsletter that’s emailed each Friday. To sign up for the newsletter, click here. Following is the newsletter for Friday, Jan. 4, 2022. Scott also writes a weekly column that appears on Gamecock Central during football season.

Every once in a while, I’ll get a note from a reader who suggests that I’m forgetting something important about University of South Carolina athletics.

Aren’t you aware of our history? they’ll ask. Don’t you know what we’re up against?

The implication is always the same: Fans like me sometimes fail to comprehend the full scope of the challenge that faces almost every South Carolina coach, administrator and athletic department employee. These notes sometimes make me feel like I’m one of those Very Impatient Fans, buzzing around like a gnat, with unreasonable expectations hovering somewhere in outer space, far beyond the reach of gravity.

After all, these readers will point out, the Gamecocks have never won the SEC in football across 30 years of competition. The men’s basketball team has been to just nine NCAA Tournaments in more than a century of play. The disheartening facts fall out of the sky with the thud of an anvil.

They’ll remind me that the lost decades of South Carolina sports are littered with a rogue’s gallery of coaches who didn’t pan out, with dreams that never came true, with hopes that withered on the vine.

Don’t I get that?

Yeah, I get it. I definitely get it.

That’s because I’ve been in the stands for hundreds of games that were overseen by those coaches who didn’t pan out. I’ve certainly seen hopes wither on the vine, then watched them keep withering, then watched them turn to dust. I’ve been here for every single thing under the sun.

And that’s precisely why I believe it’s more important than ever for all of us to be vigilant against the mindset that South Carolina fans have taught themselves to expect the worst and therefore get what they deserve. I keep my expectations in outer space because at some point I just got tired of hearing people tell me to bring them back to earth.

Why? Because I believe in South Carolina. And I don’t think I’m the only one who does. Maybe I’m insane. But I believe outer space is where this school and its athletic programs belong. I hope we’re not afraid to strap on a spacesuit, hop in a rocket and take a ride for the stars.

Do we dare to allow ourselves to dream big around here?

We should. We can. We must.

Because you and I know something: This university is a special place. Why don’t we start acting like it?

Expect the Exceptional

There have been plenty of South Carolina coaches, administrators and former players – not all, but some – across the lost decades who have implied that Gamecock followers should be satisfied with a status quo of humdrum and forgettable mediocrity, because that’s what we’ve always seen around here anyway. Why should anyone ever expect that to change?

Allowing these kinds of expectations to flourish leads to an atmosphere where some of the school’s leading figures wind up tying themselves in knots trying to convince us both that they are exceeding expectations and that they should not be held to any standards at all. Remember when Will Muschamp started inventing new benchmarks to sell us on the wisdom of continuing with his doomed regime, such as “we’re the winningest first-three-year-coaches ever at South Carolina”?

Such smoke and mirrors were designed to keep us from asking whether the program was moving forwards or backwards. The same is true for those who point out the school’s lack of athletic tradition in whatever sport they’re coaching. The only thing that matters is this: Where are we headed? Forward or backwards?

Unfortunately for the naysayers, there have been some who refused the status quo. There have been others who expected the exceptional.

They didn’t settle, didn’t look under every rock to find excuses. Instead, they found a way. You know them: Staley, Tanner, Spurrier, McGuire. It’s easy for us to call their names because there have been so few like them. And because they thrived, we can no longer insist that excellence is not ours for the taking.

Yes, I am always cognizant of the history here. How can I not be? It hovers and looms like the tallest gravestone in an ancient cemetery. So, I believe in patience. I believe in being aware of the challenges. I believe in understanding what’s in front of us.

But there is always a choice: History or the future.

And whether we know it or not, most of us have already made it.

If we aren’t dreaming big, can we even say we’re dreaming at all?

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Take a trip with me back a couple of decades, back to the turn of the millennium. These were the days when I was working a corporate job in Greenville, just another guy in khakis sitting in a long line of gray cubicles, and I spent most of my hours at the office trying to take my mind to another place.

At some point in the early part of the Lou Holtz Era at South Carolina, I stumbled upon Gamecock Central during one of my office Internet surfing binges. And once I did, I knew I’d always have a place to go whenever I found myself trapped in the cubicle.

That was more than 20 years ago, and I’ve been a devoted Gamecock Central reader since – it’s astonishing to me that the site is now legally old enough to drink. I’m not overstating things when I say that I get all of my South Carolina sports news from the site. I’ve honestly never needed to go anywhere else.

Though I’m not a full-time Gamecock Central employee, as a longtime reader and dedicated fan of the site, I’m excited about what’s in store for it in the future now that it is moving to the On3 network. As part of the move, you can become a member of the site for just $1 a year for a limited time.

If you’re a committed Gamecock fan like me, you’ll want to make sure you get in on the action. With Dawn Staley and the Gamecock women making a run for a national championship, and Shane Beamer pumping new life into the football program, you don’t want to miss any coverage.

The future looks bright for South Carolina sports, and for Gamecock Central, too.

And if the choice is between history and the future, we know which one we want to make.

Let me know what you see in the crystal ball for the future of South Carolina athletics by writing me at [email protected].