If I Could Freeze Time

I have enjoyed this week. I have enjoyed this week of Gamecock football more than any non-football week ever. And I wish I could freeze time right here, and soak it in for just a little longer.

This week brought us:

• Steve Spurrier at SEC Media Days standing up for student athletes in football and basketball, advocating that they get spending money so their families can come see them play.
• Spurrier poking Notre Dame, saying “We all voted 14-0 they ought to be in a conference.”
• Spurrier being Spurrier at the podium – perpetually moving, scriptless, rambling at times, yet engaging and funny (whether intentionally or not).
• Spurrier smiling at friend-of-the-blog Brandi’s question about his 50-year high school reunion.
• Jadeveon Clowney calling out quarterbacks by name – Murray, Wilson, Boyd – and saying they’re “scared” of him and the USC defensive line.  
• Clowney’s obvious comfort with the media now as opposed to when he arrived. He will be a jewel of a spokesman at the next level for Under Armour, Gatorade, Buick, or whoever decides to pay him lots of money to say nice things about their product.
• Clowney actually saying “Clowney comin’.”  #CLOWNEYCOMIN
• Clowney at the ESPY’s, picking up the award for play of the year in all sports, for what is one of the top 5 college football plays of the last 40 years. (Cal-Stanford, Flutie, Colorado-Michigan…what else?)
• And the cherry on top, this photo: Spurrier at Arby’s, slightly disheveled, but completely in control. Even while he’s grabbing condiments at Arby’s.

I want to freeze time right here because we have these two guys, arguably the best player in South Carolina history and not arguably the best coach in South Carolina history. I want to freeze time right here because of the team we’ll be fielding in six weeks, and the possibilities. Oh, the possibilities.

Survive week one; sneak out of Athens with a win; run that three-game middle-of-the-season road gauntlet; beat Florida for the SEC East; beat Clemson for that elusive thumb ring; Atlanta; Pasadena?

It’s fun to think about. Today.

We say we can’t WAIT for football season, and I’m with you. But the truth is when we start practice in about two weeks our grandiose dreams of roses will fade into another hallmark of Gamecock fandom: we’ll start to worry.

A two-quarterback system never works. Our linebackers are SO young. Who is our go-to receiver? Oh no, <insert player name> tweaked an ankle. If we don’t get pressure on the quarterback we’re going to get picked apart. Why the hell aren’t we running the ball more? Why the hell aren’t we throwing the ball more?  

It’s completely natural. Especially for us. Natural to wring our hands and rub our faces. I do it every Saturday in the fall.

So today, July 19, 2013, I want to think about Spurrier and Clowney and Gamecock football just the way it is. It’s fun. And we’re good. Really good. We haven’t had this much fun, or been this good, in our 131-year history.    

Maybe we’ll win all our games. Maybe we won’t.

Either way, it’s great to be a Gamecock. Especially today.