Scott has followed South Carolina athletics for over 40 years and provides commentary from a fan perspective. He writes a weekly newsletter (this email) year-round and a column during football season that's published each Monday on GamecockCentral.com.
Scott Davis: Gratitude in trying times
These days, it's not always easy to find a topic upon which most of us can agree.
But if there's one area where most psychologists, social scientists, and therapists have found consensus in recent years, it's this: Finding something to be grateful for makes you feel better.
A New York Times newsletter from earlier this week put it this way: "Practicing gratitude is like mainlining a mood booster – it improves sleep, reduces anxiety and depression, improves heart health, and makes you a nicer person."
All of that sounds awesome, of course.
But how do you practice gratitude when you're feeling down, depressed, and despondent? How can you be grateful when you experience defeat?
I've been thinking about that here in the week of Thanksgiving, as the South Carolina football team prepares to close out a disappointing season that has left fans in a state of uncertainty regarding the future. When you don't know what's coming next and you aren't feeling good about what's happening now, maintaining a thankful attitude can seem impossible.
But it's at these moments when we must make an even stronger commitment to finding gratitude.
When I've been at my lowest in recent years, I've often challenged myself to find something – anything – for which I'm thankful. Often, I've found myself really taking it all the way to the most basic level to find gratitude.
I remember lying on the couch one dreary day when it suddenly hit me how incredible it was that I could walk. If I didn't feel good, I could stand up, walk outside, and move. I could at least attempt to walk it off.
It's something I'd probably taken for granted my entire life until that moment.
I can walk.
What a profound blessing.
Blessings are available if you look for them. This football program – bruised, battered, and beaten down by the 2025 season – still has the capacity to move.
We can still walk.
Let's be grateful for that.
We can still walk.
And now, it's time to rise up off the couch and move.
Thankful Feelings
If anyone could be forgiven for feeling sorry for himself right now, it would be coach Shane Beamer. In the span of just over two months, he's gone from being a media darling, fan favorite, and potential coaching superstar to a beleaguered leader facing intense pressure to deliver a turnaround.
His team started the season with what many believed were legitimate hopes for a College Football Playoff berth. On Saturday, they'll end their season under .500, without even a lower-tier bowl to show for their efforts.
How thankful would you be feeling in such a situation?
Personally, I feel sorry for myself when my shoe comes untied, so I don't even want to try answering that question.
And yet during his weekly press conference previewing this weekend's game, he was asked about Thanksgiving and what he's grateful for. His answer, in full, was as follows:
"Certainly, I'm very blessed to have an awesome family around me," he said. "God has blessed me greatly, and then extremely blessed to be the football coach here because I get to be in a place that I love, I get to live in a city and state that I absolutely love living in, and then get to come in this building every day as a head coach and be around some awesome young men on this team and get to work with some awesome people day in day out in this building."
"So, this season has been frustrating, but there hasn't been one day where I've walked into this building not looking forward to coming into this building, and that's because of the people and the culture of this program, and for that I'm very, very thankful."
Now that's how you put things in perspective.
I've been a fan of this program for many years, and I've seen many South Carolina football coaches come and go. What I have too often witnessed from those coaches is that they ultimately became ensnared inside a web of negativity and doubt when losses began to rise. The fans became impatient, the media pounced, the pressure mounted, and the attitudes and the approaches of these coaches grew as dark as their surroundings.
And one thing makes me hopeful about Beamer's capacity to deliver the turnaround we all want to see.
He has not ever allowed himself to get caught in that web.
Gratitude is Contagious
I've written this many times, and in a season like this, it's an opinion that some have grown to find mildly controversial.
I'm grateful that Shane Beamer is the head coach of the South Carolina football team.
I'm still grateful for that today, even as the Gamecocks sit at 4-7 and gear up to close out what I believe to be among the most disappointing football seasons in South Carolina history.
Some readers have taken such statements of support to mean that I'm predicting that Shane Beamer will lead the program to SEC titles and season after season of winning.
I am making no such prediction. In truth, I don't know if he'll ever win any type of championship here. I don't know – or even have a vague feeling – whether he'll finally deliver the stability we've longed for in the program we love.
But I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to root for him. I hope to continue doing so for a long time to come.
I'm grateful for his positivity, for his love for the school and state, for his burning desire to deliver a championship program to fans who've waited their entire lives for it.
Sometimes, when you're at your lowest, it helps to remember what you have for which you can be thankful.
At South Carolina, we have much – much that goes so far beyond wins and losses on a football field – for which we can be thankful.
In trying times, we would all do well to remember them.
Tell me what you're thankful for by writing me at scottdavis@gamecockcentral.com. (Please do not reply to this email.)
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