It is easy to be consumed by regret. Consumed with the what-ifs. Heck, there’s probably a few folks out there this week thinking about if they hadn’t sold Bitcoin a few years back. What would life be like if only…?
That is South Carolina football this week. Amid all the joy, it is impossible to not think about the what-ifs.
What if the refs didn’t make some bad calls againstSouth Carolina in the LSU game? What if the Gamecocks pulled out that game? Or what if they just held on to their fourth-quarter lead at Alabama?
The answer: In all likelihood, if No. 21 South Carolina (6-3, 3-4 SEC) beat either LSU or Alabama — games USC lost by a combined five points — the Gamecocks are a top 15 team and might have an inside track to the College Football Playoff.
Heck, when ESPN host Rece Davis was revealing that South Carolina — which hadn’t been ranked in two years — came in at No. 21 during Tuesday’s CFB poll, he couldn’t even express joy without mentioning the regret.
“South Carolina has been one of the great stories of the season,” he said on the broadcast. “They are so close to having a better record than 6-3.”
To listen to national pundits before the season, the consensus seemed to be that if the Gamecocks could just make a bowl, maybe win seven games, 2024 would be a success. Expectations were low.
And now? A lot of people think South Carolina would be one of the scariest teams in America if it made the playoff. CBS Sports’ Josh Pate even put the Gamecocks at No. 11 in his rankings.
Tweeted ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky on Tuesday night: “South Carolina would beat everyone from where they are up at least the 12 spot.”
In a way, it feels like we’re back in the old BCS era. Well, Team X might be one of the best squads in America, but they won’t get a shot. Have fun in the Gator Bowl!
If you’re South Carolina, it stinks. But in getting caught up in the what-ifs and the LSU game officiating and the two-point conversion against Alabama and thinking about South Carolina playing in the playoff, it’s easy to overlook a very real possibility.
The Gamecocks probably aren’t in the spot they are, playing as well as they are, if they didn’t go through the adversity of September and October. After all, the butterfly effect can affect progress.
Offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains was talking Wednesday about his offense — especially his redshirt freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers and young offensive line — finally beginning to gel and come together. That is an awesome sentiment. It is also something you want to hear in September or early October — not Nov. 13.
But asked about this, Loggains shook his head.
“We don’t get preseason games. They’ve got to go play together,” Loggains said. “That’s the only way to fix it. It’s the only way.”
“We started figuring (things) out against LSU in the first half and then we couldn’t close the game out,” Loggains added. “We had some moments (vs. Alabama) like, ‘Hey, we can be pretty good.’ ”
A week after the Alabama loss, South Carolina beat Oklahoma by nearly four touchdowns. It takes time to learn how to win. But once it happens, Loggains said, guys build confidence and keep finding ways to win and then build more confidence.
It’s a cycle that has South Carolina on a three-game winning streak, with victories over OU, then-No. 10 Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. If the Gamecocks win out, then win their bowl game, they’d be just the fourth team in school history to reach double-digit wins.
Even then, the what-if game would dominate the conversation around South Carolina — much like it did after undefeated Florida State missed the playoff last year.
The thing is: The what-ifs are earned. People don’t play the what-if game about lousy teams.
But this what-if game could go two ways. What if South Carolina never gelled this year? What if the offense never figured things out? What if Sellers continued to struggle? What then?
