The Verdict: We have entered Talkin’ Season

South Carolina football superfan and lawyer Chris Paschal writes a column for Gamecock Central called “The Verdict.”

In the state of 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.

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. So weigh in on The Insiders Forum!

The Verdict: we have entered Talkin’ Season. 

Almost a year ago in June of 2021, the American Psychiatric Association released a post stating that extreme summer heat had significant impacts on mental health. Their research determined that heat was associated with “a range of mental health impacts” including irritability, aggression, alcohol use, stress, and memory issues. If you’re from South Carolina (or the South in general), you didn’t need the American Psychiatric Association to inform you that the dog days of summer mess with your mind a little bit. We say and do dumb things when we are hot and tired. 

And that’s what makes Talkin’ Season, as the Head Ball Coach coined it, so dangerous. Talkin’ Season starts when that Southern summer heat sets in. There aren’t any practices. There aren’t any games. All you have time to do is sweat and talk. Talkin’ Season (to the best of my knowledge and crude research) never was given a definitive schedule. It’s not like National Signing Day or gamedays or fall camp. Every outdoorsman knows the first day of deer season. There is no first day of Talkin’ Season. Instead, one day you’re sitting at your desk trying to get work done and find your phone blowing up with texts and Twitter notifications. 

The week of May 15-21 was the first week throughout much of the South that we were hit with summer temperatures. (It hit 97 degrees twice in Columbia.) And right on schedule (as unofficial as that schedule may be), Talkin’ Season went into full bloom. By now, many of y’all know about the back and forth between Alabama’s Nick Saban and Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher. It was petty and it was epic. Chuck Oliver put it best when he said on his Thursday radio show that this was the college football version of two Southern neighbors yelling at each other on the front lawn. 

We have officially entered Talkin’ Season. And while most of the attention is given to the coaches and players during this summer pastime, Talkin’ Season is just as applicable to fans. Many of us don’t have massive platforms to spout our trash talk. Almost all of us can’t call a press conference to throw a couple of shots at our opposition. But that doesn’t stop many of us from channeling our inner-Steve Spurrier and offering a dig or two at a rival fan. 

Allow this post to be your guide of things to say and things not to say the next time you run into that Kentucky fan at a cabana bar on Hilton Head or that Georgia fan on Lake Hartwell or that Tennessee fan the next time you are scrolling through Twitter on a quiet summer night with a Braves game on in the background. (Yes, these are oddly specific examples. I offer no further comments on those examples at this time.) 

• Shane Beamer: June ‘should be a great month for’ South Carolina football
• South Carolina tight end Jaheim Bell lands NIL deal with car dealership
• Subscribe to Gamecock Central today with a 7-day FREE trial!

The Number 1 Thing Not to Say: “We’re gonna win at least (fill in the blank) games this fall.”

I broke my own rule last summer when I looked at my Clemson buddy and told him (after he had insisted that we would only win two or three games) that the Cocks were winning seven games in 2021. Things worked out, right?  Yes, but I also had no idea Tennessee was going to be up by a million points at halftime or that the scoreboard operator was going to bully the officials in the Auburn game. I am not making that same mistake this fall. Yes, it is year two of the Shane Beamer era. Yes, the roster looks to be much improved entering 2022. And yes, we do have a former Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback. This is a good South Carolina football team who can win just about every game on the schedule.

But you don’t win football games just by showing up with an improved roster. And just because Carolina has improved doesn’t mean our opponents have worsened. Georgia is still the reigning champions with a reloaded defense and offensive weapons in Brock Bowers, Arik Gilbert, Darnell Washington, and Kendall Milton that make the Dawgs clear pre-season favorites to win the East. Arkansas (27^th) and Tennessee (9^th) have offenses that were two of the best in the nation last season. Both teams return their quarterback.

Florida and Kentucky, while not as celebrated as other programs in the SEC, have two dynamic playmakers at quarterback that will stress any defense they come against. Missouri and Georgia State come to Williams-Brice Stadium with coaches that would love nothing more than to beat our brains in. And then there is Clemson and A&M who have recruited exceptionally on the defensive side of the ball, as we all saw last season when they gave up a combined 14 points to the Gamecocks. 

Do you see how saying “South Carolina is winning 10 football games this season” is preposterous? With this schedule, if Carolina were to win 10 games, it would be flat out the greatest season in Carolina history. Do you see how winning eight games would still be very impressive? Do you see how fighting for six wins is very much in the realm of possibility?  

Don’t put a minimum win total on this season. You’re setting yourself up for failure. 

Things You Should Say

Here are some facts/opinions that you can incorporate into your next verbal throwdown. 

1. Every SEC program (besides Vanderbilt) has had a double-digit win season more recently than Tennessee. I love the tradition of SEC football. I honor, study, and revere the past of the SEC. But Tennessee has not had a double-digit win season since 2007. Yes, historically, Tennessee is one of the great Southern football powers. But don’t let Vol fans convince you they were any better than Carolina in the past couple of decades. They were not. This isn’t the 1990s. Tennessee is a peer not a bully.  
2. Clemson was not Clemson before Dabo. When Dabo took over in the middle of the 2008 season, Clemson was 16 and a half seasons removed from their last ACC Title. Clemson’s winning percentage during that period was roughly 58%. When Shane Beamer was hired at Carolina, the Gamecocks’ winning percentage over the previous 16 and a half season was roughly 58% — almost identical. Don’t let Clemson fans convince you they were leaps and bounds ahead of 2020 Carolina when they hired Dabo. They were not.  And while Carolina has a tougher conference road to hoe, Tiger fan notions that Clemson was a much stronger program in 2008 than Carolina was in 2020 are just false. 
3. Carolina has only lost once in the 21^st Century to North Carolina and has not lost to NC State in the 21^st Century. I really don’t have much on this other than if you run into a trash-talking Tar Heel or State fan at a shrimp house in Calabash or Little River.

So, there you have it. As it continues to heat up in the South, and as we go deeper and deeper into Talkin’ Season, just remember, it’s easy to run your mouth after a few cold beers and with the sun leaning on you (as Steve Harvey would put it), but eventually pads and helmets will be put on. Don’t write a check you can’t cash. 

Discuss South Carolina football on The Insiders Forum!