Scott Davis: Gather round for the Halfway Hurrah Awards

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.

Is it really possible?

Is this thing really halfway over? Already?

It seems like this happens to me every college football season. I patiently wait through the chilly weeks of February, through the soggy mornings of April, through the blast furnace of July and August, through all the recruiting battles and spring practices and press conferences, waiting and waiting for a football season that always seems to linger ahead just out of my reach.

Then it finally gets here. And before I’ve had time to settle into a rhythm as a fan, I look around and notice the season’s halfway gone.

That’s why it’s important for us to take a deep breath and get our bearings before we take another step forward. As we embark on the second half of a suddenly intriguing 2022 season, let’s take a second during the annual Bye Week and commemorate the Best and Worst of the year thus far by handing out some Halfway Hurrah Awards. Our goal here at the Hurrah Awards is to hail the memorable moments and stand in awe-inspired amazement before the ugliest developments we’ve seen here at the halfway point.

It doesn’t hurt at all that my wife loves awards shows of any kind, and I’m always looking for ways to get her to read this column.

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So without further ado, let’s heave some Halfway Hurrahs in the direction of the following worthy winners:

Most Enjoyable Victory for the Part of Me That Delights in the Suffering of My Enemies – South Carolina’s 24-14 Win Over the Then-13^th Ranked Kentucky Wildcats. Folks, I simply haven’t enjoyed Kentucky’s steady ascent to decency as a football program since Mark Stoops took over the reins a decade ago. Not at all. What I did enjoy was counting on a win against the Wildcats each year when I took a glance at the schedule before the season and tried to guess how many games we’d win.

Multiple things about Stoops rub me the wrong way, including his perpetual smirk, the way he pretends to be nonchalant and stoic during interviews while secretly being as competitive as a young John McEnroe, and the fact that he’d won seven of eight games against South Carolina during a stretch when the Wildcats were better than they’d typically been, but still not that good. By the time Stoops inexplicably took a shot at South Carolina coach Shane Beamer during the preseason, I’d just about raised this year’s Kentucky contest to Clemson/Georgia levels on my Rivalry Meter.

As I watched Shane Beamer and the Gamecocks dancing in the Kentucky visitor’s locker room after they defeated the Wildcats, the petty and spiteful side of the Fan Me absolutely vibrated with glee as much as it had at any time since Steve Spurrier said “They just don’t play well against us” in reference to Clemson after his team had beaten the Tigers again. While we’re here…

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Best and Worst Dance Moves – South Carolina Head Coach Shane Beamer. Beamer’s dancing technique after the Kentucky game probably will not draw him any scholarship offers from Julliard or put him on a path towards becoming a TikTok influencer, but fortunately, dancing excellence wasn’t the point. Reminding Stoops to stay in his lane was. In fact, the more ridiculous the dancing – and the stupider the sunglasses – the better for driving a dagger in the hearts of Kentucky fans everywhere. Hurrah indeed.

Most Impressive Vertical Leap – MarShawn Lloyd’s Insane High-Hurdle Over a Helpless Charlotte Defender. Gamecock fans who had been waiting for Lloyd to break out since the highly recruited running back arrived in Columbia have been rewarded with his potent 2022 season thus far. Lloyd has been the best player in garnet and black through the first half of the season, and that fact was never more emphatically affirmed than during his “leaping tall buildings in a single bound” moment against the Charlotte 49ers.

Best Performance By a Cliché – BEAMER BALL 2.0!!!!! After a year-and-a-half of the Shane Beamer Era at South Carolina, we now know that we should plan on hearing the phrase “Beamer Ball” used immediately after the Gamecocks do anything remotely positive on special teams (in deference to the decades-long special teams’ excellence of Shane’s father Frank Beamer’s Virginia Tech program). Under coordinator Pete Lembo, South Carolina has displayed an impressive ability to change the course of a game through special teams play – we’ve seen blocked punts, fake field goals and other fun stuff in six games. As a lifelong cliché fan, I even incorporated Beamer Ball into a column headline this year.

Worst Officiating Moment – Intentional Grounding, at Arkansas. Remember when the referees flagged South Carolina for intentional grounding as the Gamecocks tried to mount a comeback on the road against Arkansas (despite the ball being thrown in the direction of an eligible receiver)? Look, the Hogs were going to win that game regardless – I’ll be the first to admit it. But that was one of the strangest flags I’ve ever seen thrown in four decades of watching football. While we’re here…

Worst Penalty Trend – South Carolina’s Love Affair with Pass Interference Flags on Defense. This has been troubling indeed in 2022 (the Gamecocks garnered four pass interference flags in a single game this year). But maybe not quite as troubling as…

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Worst Acting – The Ongoing Fad Where Pass Defenders Engage in a Tangled Exchange with a Receiver, Then Immediately Turn to the Refs With Upraised Arms as Though to Say “I Didn’t Do Anything”…Causing the Officials to Immediately Drop a Flag for Interference – South Carolina defenders have certainly participated in this trend during the first half of the season, much to the detriment of my blood pressure levels. Even the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide’s defensive backs did it repeatedly this past weekend in a devastating loss to Tennessee. Why don’t coaches everywhere make this a point of emphasis every couple of practices? Do not turn to referees with upraised arms, ever, for any reason. Speaking of Tennessee…

Worst SEC East Development – Tennessee’s Reemergence as a Conference Power. If you’re like me, you delighted in Tennessee’s descent to the SEC’s middle class during the last 15 years or so. After the soaring highs of the Peyton Manning ‘90s, the Vols in the post-Phil Fulmer Era seemed to have permanently drifted into that “sometimes decent, sometimes average, sometimes surprisingly bad” tier of teams alongside South Carolina, Missouri and other competitors in the SEC. I thought I was done living in terror of seeing them on the schedule every year alongside Georgia and Florida, and that I could count on the Gamecocks to win nearly as many as they lost against UT, perhaps for the rest of eternity. But under Josh Heupel, the Vols and their fans are partying like it’s 1999 again, and that’s not a good thing for programs like South Carolina who are already struggling to get over the hump in competition against so many other SEC powers. I’d forgotten just how much I loathe the sound of 100,000 Tennesseans singing “Rocky Top” with the full force of their entire bodies.

Best Seasonal Treat I’ve Repeatedly Abused While Nervously Watching Games – Pumpkin Spice Oreos. Have you tasted these Pumpkin Spice Oreo cookies yet (available only for a limited time this fall)? Holy cow. I ate an entire package of them at halftime of the Kentucky game while trying to settle my nauseous stomach. Honorable Mention: Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Coffee, and speaking of caffeine…

Best Opportunity for a Program-Defining Victory – South Carolina vs. Texas A&M, at Night, at Williams-Brice Stadium, This Weekend. I need not remind you of the Gamecocks’ struggles against A&M since the Aggies joined the SEC in the early ‘10s. After a monumental road victory against Kentucky last weekend, South Carolina has a powerful chance this weekend to loudly and clearly serve notice that the Shane Beamer Era has officially arrived. The old ballpark on George Rogers Boulevard is going to be caffeinated, adrenalized and jacked with the force of a case of Red Bulls chased by a dozen espressos on Saturday night. If the Gamecocks can pull off a win against a genuine nemesis inside a psychotic Williams-Brice this weekend, look out.

At the halfway point in an interesting 2022 season, this edition of the South Carolina Gamecocks still has plenty to play for.

Warm up the coffee – we’re not done yet.

Tell me your candidates for the Halfway Hurrah Awards by writing me at [email protected].

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