The coots are so demoralized (long article)

Jan 3, 2019, 10:19 PM

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Nowhere Near?
Scott Davis, Gamecock Central columnist
Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019

When I was a budding young sports fan growing up in the 1980s, I cut my teeth on the WTBS Superstation broadcasts of Atlanta Braves games. Like many kids my age, I quickly fell under the spell of Braves play-by-play man Skip Caray, perhaps the most acquired taste in the history of sports announcing.

Part sarcastic know-it-all, part world-weary doomsayer, and part cheerleader, Caray's broadcasts sounded like what was going on inside my head when I watched the Braves. He was smug, condescending, terrified, overjoyed and worn-out, all at the same time.

Many fans hated him. I loved him.

One of his pet phrases was "nowhere near," and you could always count on him to utter it with profound resignation when a pitcher threw ball after ball after ball with not a strike in sight.

"Nowhere nearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr," he'd groan as a Braves pitcher threw yet another ball or walked the bases loaded (which were things that happened to Braves pitchers pretty much every game in the 1980s).

The phrase ultimately took up permanent residence in my skull at some point around 1987 or so, so that I now will occasionally blurt it in my daily life some three-plus decades later (for example, when another driver speeds up beside me on I-285 here in Atlanta in attempt to skirt in front of me just before they have to brake for the drivers in front of them, I'll speed up, send a Caray-like smug glance their way as I drive by them, and think "Nowhere nearrrrrrrrr.").

Oddly enough, I found myself thinking about that phrase as I watched South Carolina's lifeless performance in the Belk Bowl, one that saw them getting run out of Charlotte by a 7-5 Virginia team who shut out the Gamecocks with as much as ease as I have polishing off an entire bag of Lay's.

Nowhere near.

That's what I was thinking in the wake of what was arguably South Carolina's most embarrassing performance in the three-year-old Will Muschamp Era. As in, this program is nowhere near -- not even close -- to contention for an SEC championship, much less an appearance in the College Football Playoff or an actual bowl game like the Rose or Sugar.

There are two ways to look at this, I think.

One is that the USC program is closer to competing for a league title than they were when Will Muschamp and company arrived. I don't see any way you could argue this point. The Gamecocks were coming off a 3-9 season at the time, lost the winningest coach in school history at midseason, and had less than zero momentum heading to the following season.

Recruiting was in complete disarray. Morale was nonexistent.

All Muschamp has done since is take his program to a bowl game every season, deliver a product that is almost always competitive regardless of the competition and revitalize the recruiting operation.

So yes, South Carolina is indeed closer to excellence than they were three years ago at this time.

But being closer is not the same thing as being close.

And we all know it.

Searching for a Breakthrough
The question most Gamecock fans seem to be asking right now is: How close should the program be to elite status after three seasons under this regime? Where is this thing headed, exactly, after what we all saw in Charlotte?

My very unscientific, very non-statistically-sound overview of the Gamecock fans I'm regularly in contact with appears to be that most believe USC should have more momentum heading into 2019 -- perhaps significantly more.

If I were to write one sentence that I think describes the current Gamecock fan mood right now, it would be this: I thought we'd be landing more difference-makers and elite talents in recruiting by now.

Again, every Gamecock fan may not feel this way. But I feel comfortable -- quite comfortable, in fact -- saying that a large number do. Most of us feel like USC has the strongest recruiting staff we've ever had here, as well as innovative new approaches in branding the program, plus a staff that quite simply works harder than any of the ones who roamed the Columbia campus in decades past.

I think all of those things are unequivocally true.

I also think that despite all that, the recruiting classes we've landed under Coach Muschamp are relatively similar to the ones we landed under Steve Spurrier. Essentially, there are enough quality athletes to keep you competitive and respectable. You'll probably win as many as you lose, maybe even upset a powerhouse once in awhile.

But seriously compete for an SEC title? We aren't there.

The question is whether we're getting there.

Nowhere near? I don't know.

I'm just not sure we're near enough.

The Recommendation
I picked up a copy of the late David Foster Wallace's collection of 1990s essays, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," at the library the other day.

Back in the mid-90s, I had a midnight-to-6 a.m. shift at a Columbia radio station while I was a student at USC. Not a single living soul was listening to me at that hour. So I largely passed the time by playing absolutely any song I wanted to play at any time, and reading dense, brainy magazine articles written by Wallace, who was beginning to make a name for himself as a deeply interesting, always entertaining and undeniable talent.

His first-hand tales of spending a few days at the Illinois State Fair, on board a cruise ship or on the set of a David Lynch movie may not sound scintillating at first blush, but I couldn't put the book down. As weird as this may sound, I feel like a better human being for having read it. I also laughed out loud throughout my read, and that, quite honestly, never happens.

Check it out: https://www.amazon.com/Supposedly-Fun-Thing-Never-Again/dp/0316925284. You'll thank me.

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