The Verdict: South Carolina can't lose belief
South Carolina football superfan Chris Paschal writes a weekly column during the season for GamecockCentral called “The Verdict.” Chris is a lawyer at Goings Law Firm in Columbia.
My sister is a student at the University of Alabama. My two brothers and I decided over the summer that the best time to visit her would be the third Saturday in October. By doing so, we were able to take in one of the great rivalries in all of college football, Alabama vs. Tennessee. While I was watching a second-half collapse by the Volunteers that put a big ole smile on my face, Carolina was being treated like a plate of Waffle House hashbrowns, getting smothered, covered, diced, chunked, and ultimately topped by the Missouri Tigers.
It was same song, new verse for this 2023 Gamecock football team. The trip to Missouri was much like the trip to Athens, or the trip to Knoxville, or the trip to Charlotte. It was yet another piece of evidence of where this South Carolina football team is compared to our foes in nearby states (and whatever Missouri is – which is neither Southern nor Eastern). Carolina doesn’t have the horses needed to win football games in the Southeastern Conference. At least it doesn’t look like it to this point in the season.
Missouri passed the football when they wanted to pass. They rushed the football when they wanted to rush. They generated a pass rush on defense when they wanted to generate a pass rush. And they stymied Carolina in the red zone on multiple trips. Missouri further illustrated the frustrating reality that this team is imperfect.
And there are five more games to get through. And while it is easy for me to say this from the comfort of my office, Carolina cannot mail it in to finish out the 2023 season. The Gamecocks must still believe in one another and in Coach Shane Beamer.
In the SEC, things can change on you so quickly. This summer, there was a lot of hype around this team and its head coach. Recruiting was on-fire, preseason expectations were through the roof, and most South Carolina fans I talked to expected the Gamecocks to beat the Tar Heels in week one.
Less than two months into the season and a lot of fans have soured to not only this season, but to the overall health of the program. The SEC is a very “now” league. Besides Vanderbilt on the bottom and Alabama and Georgia at the top, the SEC is volatile. Roughly two years ago, Arkansas was entering Athens, Ga. as the No. 8 team in the country with College Gameday in town. This week, head coach Sam Pittman fired his offensive coordinator in the middle of a borderline disastrous season.
There is no time like the present, especially in the SEC. Coach Beamer and this roster must understand the importance of the present moment. Mailing it in for next season is not an option in the SEC. In the Big Ten West? Sure. In the Big 12 or ACC, absolutely. But not in the SEC where you are surrounded by goliath recruiters and multi-million-dollar enterprises.
When you fall in the SEC, you are left behind. Iowa and Minnesota and Illinois and Wisconsin all recruit the same type of players. They all have good coaches. They all play in decent stadiums. And if you slip up one year in the Big Ten West, it’s not that big of a deal because you didn’t fall that far behind the rest of your opponents. Northwestern went 3-9 in 2019 and then won the Big Ten West in 2020.
Besides 2013 Auburn, that really doesn’t happen in the SEC. Should Carolina finish this season 3-9, we won’t be in the SEC Title game next season. Once the descent starts, things can spiral out of control quickly and it is tough to get back up off the mat. A&M peaked in 2020 and two seasons later missed a bowl game. You cannot lose footing in the SEC, or the moment will pass you and you wind up looking around wondering what just happened.
So, what needs to be done? South Carolina needs to fight their butts off to conclude the 2023 season. Our most recent opponent, the Missouri Tigers, are a perfect example of just how important it is to continue to fight even when things look bleak. Last season, Missouri was at 4-6 having just come off a 66-24 loss to Tennessee. To many Tiger fans, the season was over and Drinkwitz needed to be fired. Instead of listening to the outside negativity and instead of doubting themselves, Missouri bounced back with a “get-right” game against New Mexico State and then squeezed out a two-point win over Arkansas.
Missouri could have folded it in at 4-6 (heck, they could have called it quits after starting 2-4), but they didn’t. Instead of an offseason of misery, Drinkwitz got an extension, Missouri’s NIL collective flourished, and the Tigers are just a few wins away from a New Year’s Day Bowl just a year later. If Missouri had thrown in the towel and gone 4-8, I am not so sure this 2023 season would have been possible.
South Carolina cannot roll over. The Gamecocks need to believe that the man next to them is still fighting. They need to have their coaches building them up and pouring their support and energy into them. I have previously written about my senior year of high school football. For those that either don’t know or who have forgotten, the varsity football program of my high school had a very proud tradition. It had been well over a decade since the last losing season. My junior year we won a lot of games and the highlight of the season for me was being named Offensive Player of the Week (as an offensive tackle) following the win over our long-time rival. I was on cloud nine.
Fast forward about 10 months later and I was excited for my senior year. I was voted one of the team captains and we started out 4-0. But then we hit stiffer competition. Competition that didn’t have a future attorney putting on pads but instead future Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, and North Carolina Tar Heels.
In the middle of the season, we got whipped by superior, more talented teams. I lost confidence as both a player and a leader. The coaches lost confidence in the seniors. And by the end of the season, we had a team full of guys convinced we were going to lose before we even stepped on the field. Just a year prior, I was a confident football player. Heck, just a few weeks earlier I was a confident football player. All it took was a few butt whippings for me and my teammates to start doubting ourselves and our teammates.
I know what it feels like to walk off a football field following a pistol whipping. It’s a horrible feeling. The only difference is that hundreds of people watched my games, not thousands. The only difference is our game would be on the local news on the Friday Night recap show for maybe 90 seconds. I didn’t have media members asking me questions afterwards. I didn’t have HD cameras capturing my every failure. I didn’t have the entire game uploaded to YouTube for people to watch again later.
My high school football team lost confidence with almost nobody watching. I can’t even imagine how tough this season has been for our guys donning the Garnet and Black. I know it’s easy for me to say, but these players cannot give up. A complete collapse of this season isn’t just left in a vacuum. It would leave most likely permanent damage.
The good news is that in the last three losses, Carolina has come out swinging in the third quarter. It may not have ended in wins, but Tennessee and Missouri could have been a lot uglier had our guys decided to back down.
I know the power of belief in the locker room. Even more so, I know the detriment losing belief can have on a locker room. This is not the time for this program to lose belief. After this road trip to College Station, South Carolina finishes the season at home, much like Missouri did in 2022. As fans, let’s promise to believe in our guys if they show to still believe in themselves.
