‘We are in a valley’: In dark time, Gamecock veteran takes lesson from his faith
South Carolina football is in a bad spot — there’s no real way around that.
The season opener was a stunning loss. The defense didn’t play well. Multiple parts of the offense failed. Two days after, news came that senior quarterback Jake Bentley is injured and will miss five games, possibly the rest of the season.
They day after the game, sixth-year offensive lineman Donell Stanley did what many folks do Sundays: He went to church. And from there, he took a message that resonates with where his team sits.
“I was just thinking, I went to church the other day and God, he was talking about mountains and valleys,” Stanley said. “You know, we are in a valley right now. You find out who your true friends are. And you learn a lot about yourself and about life. When you’re on the mountain, everything’s going good.”
This came about an hour before Will Muschamp declared he and his staff are “pissed off” about where things sit, and he asked the fans to stay supportive heading into a game against Charleston Southern.
That loss was a punch in the nose of sorts, and it made what was already a daunting prospect of a schedule that much harder. UNC projected to be one of the bottom teams on the slate, and that now sits as a loss on the schedule.
The defeat prompted some changes, too. Stanley is changing positions as part of an offensive line reshuffle. The offense will be in different, inexperienced hands going forward, with QB Ryan Hilinski running the show.
The Gamecocks in recent years are no stranger to valleys. Muschamp’s first team started out 2-4, then rallied with Bentley at QB to make a bowl. His second team very nearly let a 2-0 start fall to 2-3, needing a miraculous final drive to stave off a Louisiana Tech team that finished 7-6.
Last year, the team was always up and down, taking dips with losses to Kentucky, Georgia and Texas A&M.
The question is, can they climb out this time?
USC has the FCS game this week, then Alabama. After that come the likes of Kentucky and Missouri. If the Gamecocks play as they did Saturday, those two could very likely be losses.
To avoid that, they simply have to play better and climb out of the hole they’ve dug with one down and at least 11 to go.
“We’re in the valley right now,” Stanley said. “We got each other and I’ll know if it’s dark, cloudy, but we got to get out of it. We got a long season ahead.”
