Scott Davis: In 2024, next year finally arrived

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 (see below) and a column during football season that’s published each Monday on GamecockCentral.com.

What do South Carolina fans usually do at this time of the year?

Oh, you know: We look forward. We make resolutions about what we need to be doing in the year ahead. We discuss changes that we think ought to be made (and sometimes, changes that already have been made).

We talk, as we often have for more than a century, about the future – about hopes, dreams, what might happen, what could happen, what should happen.

We wonder if the year that’s getting ready to start will finally be that ever elusive Next Year we’ve always waited for. But that’s not what we’re doing today as we wind down an eventful and extremely enjoyable Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-Four.

For once in our lives, we’re not talking about what might happen. We’re talking about what did happen.

We’re done with maybes, with probablys, with hopefullys.

The Gamecock fan’s summary of 2024 is a simple one: Got ‘r done.

Everywhere we look, we find accomplishments and achievements. We find not just small reasons to believe, but undeniable facts. For once, the past is just as exciting as the future.

The year unfolded from an uncertain beginning to arrive at an early springtime surprise, and it kept surprising us through all four seasons.

And now, as New Year’s Eve approaches and the South Carolina football team prepares to play in the Citrus Bowl on the final day of 2024, this remarkable year might just go out with a bang, too.

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Springtime Salvation

As hard as it may be to remember now, 2024 kicked off amidst a wave of uncertainty and concern.

South Carolina had just concluded one of its more disappointing football seasons in recent memory, at least when you factor in the overwhelming expectations and high hopes that greeted it. After a dreadful beginning, the Gamecocks limped home to a 5-7 record that kept them out of the postseason and inaugurated a gloomy offseason that seemed filled with more questions than answers.

Was freshman LaNorris Sellers ready to take over from Spencer Rattler at quarterback? And on that note, exactly what was the plan for South Carolina’s offense moving forward? Just days into the offseason, Juice Wells – who many believed to be the most talented player remaining on the Gamecock roster – announced he’d be taking his talents to Oxford via the Transfer Portal, leaving the unit short on difference-makers.

Though head coach Shane Beamer retained a special place in the hearts of Gamecock Nation, it was difficult for a snake-bitten fan base to keep itself from wondering if the program’s future was as bright as we all believed it was at the close of 2022. It looked like we were gearing up for a long, lonely winter.

As always, Dawn Staley came to the rescue and erased any and all bad vibes.

After losing an astonishing five players to the WNBA Draft following a disappointing defeat to Iowa in the 2023 Final Four, South Carolina was not expected to seriously compete for another national championship in 2024. Most of us knew the Gamecocks would be good – a Dawn Staley team always is.

But we certainly weren’t expecting perfection.

Perfection is exactly what we wound up getting. With a completely overhauled starting lineup, South Carolina ripped through the SEC without a loss, then won the SEC Tournament in thrilling fashion, and then survived a gauntlet of formidable March Madness opponents (including Iowa and Caitlin Clark) to complete one of the most dramatic and unforgettable championship seasons ever.

The moment seemed to be a catalyst for the entire university community: Suddenly all things felt possible again.

The Gamecock men’s basketball team – picked in the preseason to finish last in the SEC –instead nearly won the league outright and returned to the NCAA Tournament in coach Lamont Paris’ second season.

Even a baseball season that ended with disappointment and the firing of coach of Mark Kingston somehow received a redemption arc when athletics director Ray Tanner managed to coax former LSU coach Paul Mainieri out of retirement to come to Columbia and helm the program.

By summer, everything seemed to be coming up roses.

Then football season started.

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This Is Next Year

Can you even remember South Carolina’s first football game against Old Dominion? It was a sloppy affair that the Gamecocks barely survived, and it seemed to have all the characteristics of a performance that might capsize the season.

When the Gamecocks lost a gut-punching heartbreaker to LSU that included some of the most egregious refereeing shenanigans in SEC history, then lost another heartbreaker on the road to defending SEC champion Alabama, it looked to most of us like South Carolina was in the middle of one of those infernal seasons that would end with all of us saying to one another yet again, “Wait ‘til next year!”

Instead, this year became Next Year.

South Carolina hasn’t lost since, and the team carries nine wins and a full tank of momentum into its season finale with Illinois in the Citrus Bowl. Many national analysts believe the Gamecocks should be playing in something with even higher stakes – the College Football Playoff.

LaNorris Sellers answered all questions about his readiness by electrifying the fan base and delivering some of the most exhilarating moments by anyone ever to wear a Gamecock uniform, including a game-clinching touchdown run in the archrivalry game that left a machete in the hearts of Clemson fans everywhere. He’ll enter 2025 as a legitimate Heisman candidate.

And Shane Beamer? The most popular South Carolina football coach in history is now the program’s winningest after four seasons (besting none other than Steve Spurrier’s four-year record). We’re on the Shane Train, and the only question now is how fast it can get us to where we’ve always been hoping to go.

Fans love to obsess over things like recruiting and which head coaching candidates might arrive to deliver salvation, for the simple reason that the future – what might happen – is usually more tantalizing than what is happening.

That’s certainly been true for South Carolina athletics for much of its history.

Not anymore. Not right now.

Right now, this past year of 2024 feels like it might go down as the greatest year in South Carolina sports history. The present feels blissful. And the future looks brighter than ever.

Past, present and future are all blending together into one deep wave of happiness for a fan base that deserves it.

For once, it’s OK for us to reflect rather than look forward as we close the books on another year.

Because for us, 2024 was Next Year. May Next Year last forever.

Tell me how you feel about the year that was by writing me at [email protected].

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