Scott Davis: Uncertain journey takes a wrong turn

Scott Davis has followed South Carolina athletics for over 40 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. He writes a weekly newsletter year-round (sign up here) and a column during football season that’s published each Monday on GamecockCentral.com.

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I felt it when I woke up on Saturday morning, hours before South Carolina kicked things off against Ole Miss at Williams-Brice Stadium.

It was a familiar feeling, one I’ve felt many times across my many decades as a South Carolina fan. I’d like to say it was something else, something better. But we can call it exactly what it was: I didn’t believe.

I was not expecting a successful Saturday for the Gamecocks. There was a gnawing chasm of nervousness at the pit of my stomach. I felt sweaty, faint, wired. I did not feel serene. Hours before kickoff, I made a final score prediction on the Gamecock Group Text chain that I maintain with other South Carolina friends. It was not for a South Carolina victory. And interestingly, I wasn’t alone in having doubts – most of the other members of the group liked the Mississippians, too, many by wide margins.

It seemed, in fact, that many of us had dark forebodings about this particular matchup. The question is, why?

Ole Miss – which had looked so dominant in its early season contests along the way to rising as high as Number 6 in the country – was coming off an unthinkable loss at home to Mark Stoops and Kentucky.

Yes, the very same Kentucky Wildcats that South Carolina had punched, pounded and punished just weeks earlier in Lexington. The Rebels limped into Columbia after a crushing, end-of-game defeat that took the air out of their College Football Playoff balloon. Meanwhile, the Gamecocks were coming off a restful bye week, and before that, a finely tuned domination of Akron.

Shouldn’t we have been feeling those feelgood vibes? Shouldn’t we have at least expected South Carolina to put up a fight, hang around, show up? Why was I having so many conversations with other fans in the days leading up to this contest that ended up with someone saying something like, “I just don’t love this game for us, I really don’t.”

I’m not sure.

What I do know – after an almost inevitable final score of Ole Miss 27, South Carolina 3 – is that South Carolina football in the Shane Beamer Era remains one of the most unpredictable, up-and-down, zig-zagging organizations in sports. We just don’t know what we’re getting from week to week from this team. We’ve called it the Roller Coaster, and I even nicknamed the phenomenon The Shane Beamer Experience – an always interesting, often entertaining, occasionally maddening and absolutely all over the place ride that never quite ends where you think it will.

[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-Texas A&M football game]

The mood swings that Gamecock fans feel on an almost daily basis from following this program over the last few years have all the hallmarks of a tearjerker romance that includes love, sadness, comedy, hope and despair at the same time.

Call it what you will, but the only thing we know for sure about Gamecock football right now is that we aren’t sure about anything. Anything’s possible, nothing’s possible, everything’s possible.

Would it absolutely shock me if South Carolina won in Tuscaloosa or Norman in the next two weeks, then used the momentum to wind up in a mid-tier bowl game? It wouldn’t. It also wouldn’t shock me if this team ended up going 4-8. It’s all happening on the Roller Coaster.

I wrote in my newsletter this week that the Ole Miss game represented the ultimate Fork in the Road Game – the kind of revelatory matchup that would tell us which way this particular season would be headed. And after the Gamecocks were rather easily and curtly dismissed by the Rebels (inside Williams-Brice, no less), it would seem that the 2024 season had taken a wrong turn at the fork, and that we can all adjust our expectations accordingly.

But can we?

Every time I’ve been ready to count out a Shane Beamer team over the last four years, they’ve emerged zombie-like from the bowels of a mass grave and started plundering the remaining opponents on the schedule.

South Carolina’s listless offensive performance on Saturday – one of many that we’ve seen from the team in recent years, stretching back to the Will Muschamp Era – would seem to leave us little to look forward to as we contemplate a schedule that still includes the likes of Bama, Oklahoma, Missouri, Clemson, Texas A&M and (gulp) Vanderbilt.

In every respect, it feels like the season took a wrong turn on Saturday.

Did it, though?

Who knows? I don’t, you don’t, and no one else does, either (no matter who might be offering their expertise). Just days ago, articles were actually appearing with headlines like “National Analyst Sees Road to CFP for South Carolina.”

Today it feels like we’re wandering in a dark, lonely forest after taking a spectacularly wrong turn.

But no one knows where this journey’s ending.

Maybe we end up meandering back home by November’s end. Maybe we fall into a pit.

It’s all possible. And the Roller Coaster roars on.

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The South Carolina Gamecock Fans Game Balls of the Week

When no particular player steps forward to claim the mantle of the Game Ball namesake, we know we can always honor South Carolina Gamecock fans. Let’s hand out a Ball or two to…

South Carolina Gamecock Fans – Who sold out Williams-Brice Stadium again for the Ole Miss game. The crowd never had a reason to get going on Saturday, and for the most part it didn’t. But these fans never stop never stopping.

Shane Beamer’s “Probably the Most Disappointed that I Have Ever Been as a Head Football Coach” Postgame Comment – We needed to hear this after this lackluster effort. Postgame commentary from coaches can’t change the results, but sometimes you just want to hear your leader recognize the reality and admit that he feels just as lousy as you do.

My Decision to Not Read Any Articles Regarding Juice Wells’ Return to Columbia, Either Before or After the Game – Was a wise one for my emotional well-being.

The South Carolina Penalty Party Deflated Balls of the Week

It’s been a full-blown penalty free-for-all in 2024 for the Gamecocks, who can’t seem to stop aiding and abetting their opponents. Let’s toss out several Deflated Balls to…

Unrelieved Sloppiness – No one could make the case that South Carolina football is a buttoned-up, ship-shape operation at the moment. The 2024 season has thus far been an unending parade of sloppiness for the Gamecocks – a Mardi Gras party of penalties (eight more of them on Saturday), fumbles, dropped passes, missed blocks, wrong routes and an overall vibe of confusion. Remember that old NFL Films clip of an enraged Vince Lombardi screaming “What the hell’s going on out here?!” Exactly. Which is why we’ve got to Deflate…

Any Player Ever Pantomiming Shooting an Opponent, for Any Reason, Ever – Oy. Along those lines…

Live by Beamer Ball, Die by Beamer Ball – I don’t think the Gamecocks’ going for a fake punt early in the game made the difference in winning or losing for South Carolina, or even for keeping the game competitive. Ole Miss looked like a better football team on Saturday. But the failed decision was certainly of the type that leads an uneasy fan base to kickstart a week of griping and grumbling. Speaking of griping and grumbling…

South Carolina’s Lost Decade on Offense – Does it seem like it’s been a decade since South Carolina football fielded a dynamic, consistent, potent offense that was enjoyable and entertaining to watch on a regular basis? It does? Perhaps that’s because it’s actually been a decade since that was the case. If the Shane Beamer Experience is ever going to take us on the joyride we keep hoping for, this program is going to have to figure out how to revitalize the offense. There have been quite a few playcallers, schemes, approaches and coaching adjustments since Steve Spurrier hung up the visor. What there hasn’t been is anything resembling an offensive identity for Gamecock football.

South Carolina’s Opponents Desperately Needing a Win Whenever They Play the Gamecocks – Earlier this season, LSU was in dire need of a great performance as they entered Williams-Brice Stadium after an unexpected loss to Southern Cal and a sluggish win over Nicholls. Then Ole Miss came to town needing to right the ship after a stunning loss at home to Kentucky. And speaking of stunning, Alabama will now be almost psychotically focused on rolling up South Carolina after the Tide did the unthinkable and lost to Vanderbilt on Saturday. Is anyone else looking forward to playing Oklahoma in two weeks after the Sooners lose to Texas this weekend?

As for the rest of the 2024 season, I wish I knew what to think, and you probably do, too.

We’ve seen this team dismantle Kentucky. We’ve seen them blowout LSU for a half, then lose to the Tigers. We’ve seen them dominate Akron and barely escape Old Dominion. We’ve seen them struggle to compete with Ole Miss.

We’ve just about seen it all, in fact.

It felt like we took a wrong turn at the fork in the road on Saturday.

But none of us can ever be sure, can we? Tuscaloosa here we come.

Tell me how you’re feeling after a deflating loss to Ole Miss by writing me at [email protected].

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