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Brian Shoemaker
Guest
We sent out Scott Davis's weekly newsletter earlier today. If you didn't receive it, here you go....
Welcome to Scott Davis's weekly email newsletter.
Scott has followed Gamecock sports for more than 30 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. His columns appear on Gamecock Central each Monday during football season and other times throughout the year.
I Want You to Want Me
Scott Davis, Gamecock Central columnist
Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019
It's over.
For real this time.
South Carolina wrapped up its 2019 football recruiting class for the second time on Wednesday, and did so by essentially breakdancing to the finish line. The Gamecocks added four-star defenders Jaquaze Sorrells and Jammie Robinson along with a couple of other signees to close out at No. 17 on the Rivals recruiting rankings (ahead of Southern Cal, Washington and Ohio State, which feels mildly meaningful).
It seems like we just went through this process five seconds ago during the early signing period in December -- all of the emotional roller coasters, the mood swings, the ever-shifting "rock-solid inside info" and all the absurdity and gut-wrenching pageantry that recruiting season brings.
Just a few short years in the past, we only put ourselves through this once a year, on the first Wednesday of February, when high school seniors across the country gathered in dimly lit gymnasiums to sit behind card tables and pick a ball cap out of a crowd.
In more innocent times, Signing Day was a national holiday of sorts for sports nerds and gossip mavens like me, kind of the male equivalent of reading US Weekly. Now? It's part of an exhausting year-long tsunami of football news, opinions, analysis and social media meltdowns. Even plugged-in fans can only pretend to keep up with it all.
The final signing decisions, as always, ricocheted around the world, sending waves of joy to some and destroying the hopes and dreams of others. Why we all agreed to sign up for this twice a year is beyond me, but look, I don't make the rules.
As for what happened to South Carolina on Wednesday: I feel good about it.
I think.
I definitely guess.
I feel better than bad, certainly.
It looks like something vaguely resembling progress for Will Muschamp and his coaching staff, who closed the recruiting cycle with a flourish and (kind of, sort of) helped us forget that our football team just got run out of Charlotte by, uh, Virginia in something apparently called the Belk Bowl.
But I won't know how I feel until September or October of 2021 or so.
Until then, might as well celebrate.
Searching for a Home
My wife and I are in the midst of searching for a new house here in metro Atlanta, and to say it's been fun would be, like, totally false.
I can find all kinds of reasons to dismiss a potential house. The surrounding neighborhood is too weird, or devoid of trees, or near a busy a street, or near a street that's close to a street that's near a busy street. There might not be enough yard to suit me. Or too much yard (who can keep up with all those shrubs, man?). There have been houses too far from the city, and others too close.
I even rejected one townhouse on the basis of its shabby shutters, which is sadly a true story.
In fact, the only time I've actually liked a house that we've looked at has been in the immediate seconds after I've learned that someone else has just claimed the property.
On multiple occasions during the search, I've hemmed and hawed on a particular place, pointing out its myriad deficiencies and gross inadequacies, only to find myself pining for the residence the very moment I learn it's been given over to another buyer. Suddenly all the bad shutters, wacky-looking neighbors and weed-filled yards seem absolutely necessary for residential perfection.
"You know what this reminds me of" I asked my wife the other night after yet another property escaped our indecisive hands. "Recruiting."
And it did.
I can't tell you how many times I've glanced over the resume of a three-star linebacker or offensive line project and thought, "Why did we offer this guy again? He's only got two other SEC offers."
And the very second that dude selects Arkansas or Kentucky over the Gamecocks, I'm suddenly sickened at the prospect of facing him on the field for the next four years.
Let's put it this way: I want these guys to want me.
I want everyone in the world to really, really want to attend the same school I attended.
Why this is so important to me, I don't know. It can't be part of a healthy personality.
But you know it's a bad sign when something is so ludicrous, so silly and so soul-crushing that it reminds you of house hunting.
Only 10 more months until Signing Day, everybody.
The first one, that is.
Welcome to Scott Davis's weekly email newsletter.
Scott has followed Gamecock sports for more than 30 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. His columns appear on Gamecock Central each Monday during football season and other times throughout the year.
I Want You to Want Me
Scott Davis, Gamecock Central columnist
Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019
It's over.
For real this time.
South Carolina wrapped up its 2019 football recruiting class for the second time on Wednesday, and did so by essentially breakdancing to the finish line. The Gamecocks added four-star defenders Jaquaze Sorrells and Jammie Robinson along with a couple of other signees to close out at No. 17 on the Rivals recruiting rankings (ahead of Southern Cal, Washington and Ohio State, which feels mildly meaningful).
It seems like we just went through this process five seconds ago during the early signing period in December -- all of the emotional roller coasters, the mood swings, the ever-shifting "rock-solid inside info" and all the absurdity and gut-wrenching pageantry that recruiting season brings.
Just a few short years in the past, we only put ourselves through this once a year, on the first Wednesday of February, when high school seniors across the country gathered in dimly lit gymnasiums to sit behind card tables and pick a ball cap out of a crowd.
In more innocent times, Signing Day was a national holiday of sorts for sports nerds and gossip mavens like me, kind of the male equivalent of reading US Weekly. Now? It's part of an exhausting year-long tsunami of football news, opinions, analysis and social media meltdowns. Even plugged-in fans can only pretend to keep up with it all.
The final signing decisions, as always, ricocheted around the world, sending waves of joy to some and destroying the hopes and dreams of others. Why we all agreed to sign up for this twice a year is beyond me, but look, I don't make the rules.
As for what happened to South Carolina on Wednesday: I feel good about it.
I think.
I definitely guess.
I feel better than bad, certainly.
It looks like something vaguely resembling progress for Will Muschamp and his coaching staff, who closed the recruiting cycle with a flourish and (kind of, sort of) helped us forget that our football team just got run out of Charlotte by, uh, Virginia in something apparently called the Belk Bowl.
But I won't know how I feel until September or October of 2021 or so.
Until then, might as well celebrate.
Searching for a Home
My wife and I are in the midst of searching for a new house here in metro Atlanta, and to say it's been fun would be, like, totally false.
I can find all kinds of reasons to dismiss a potential house. The surrounding neighborhood is too weird, or devoid of trees, or near a busy a street, or near a street that's close to a street that's near a busy street. There might not be enough yard to suit me. Or too much yard (who can keep up with all those shrubs, man?). There have been houses too far from the city, and others too close.
I even rejected one townhouse on the basis of its shabby shutters, which is sadly a true story.
In fact, the only time I've actually liked a house that we've looked at has been in the immediate seconds after I've learned that someone else has just claimed the property.
On multiple occasions during the search, I've hemmed and hawed on a particular place, pointing out its myriad deficiencies and gross inadequacies, only to find myself pining for the residence the very moment I learn it's been given over to another buyer. Suddenly all the bad shutters, wacky-looking neighbors and weed-filled yards seem absolutely necessary for residential perfection.
"You know what this reminds me of" I asked my wife the other night after yet another property escaped our indecisive hands. "Recruiting."
And it did.
I can't tell you how many times I've glanced over the resume of a three-star linebacker or offensive line project and thought, "Why did we offer this guy again? He's only got two other SEC offers."
And the very second that dude selects Arkansas or Kentucky over the Gamecocks, I'm suddenly sickened at the prospect of facing him on the field for the next four years.
Let's put it this way: I want these guys to want me.
I want everyone in the world to really, really want to attend the same school I attended.
Why this is so important to me, I don't know. It can't be part of a healthy personality.
But you know it's a bad sign when something is so ludicrous, so silly and so soul-crushing that it reminds you of house hunting.
Only 10 more months until Signing Day, everybody.
The first one, that is.
