Wisely rejecting "Dr. Lou's" suggestion that the Gamecocks go with a two-QB system, Spurrier has named Smelley the starter for Vanderbilt.

"He played well and he deserves to start, probably if Tommy wasn't injured," Spurrier said. "But Tommy is injured, so we don't have to worry about this, that or the other. So it appears Chris is going to be our starter right now unless something happens between now and Thursday night."

Spurrier said redshirt freshman Stephen Garcia would be the No. 2 quarterback if Beecher is not 100 percent by game time.

C&F suspects that the "Tommy is injured" line is a way to save a bit of face for Beecher. Maybe, maybe not. In any case, it looks like HBC might have acted a bit hastily in tapping Beecher for the starting job over the summer -- and is ready to correct that mistake.

That said, this won't solve all the offensive problems from Thursday night. There's still a lot to be done. If the offensive line can't block and the running game doesn't warm up until the second half, the only improvement between Smelley and Beecher might be that South Carolina won't give the ball to Vanderbilt as much.

Emphasis on might.

I had intended to do a profile on the career of Darrin Horn for one of my first posts, but it appears that Coach Horn's website has done the job for me. Those who haven't checked this out yet should definitely take a look; it features tons of interesting information on Coach Horn's history and coaching philosophy, and promises more to come.

Out of Raleigh, NC State coach Tom O'Brien has tagged redshirt freshman Russell Wilson as his starting quarterback for next Thursday's game. O'Brien and his staff have had a lot of trouble deciding who will start next week's contest, which should come as some consolation to Gamecock fans who think we have QB problems.

Here, LRM at Statefans Nation remembers the last time the Gamecocks and the Pack squared off back in 1999. Let's hope this year doesn't go like that year.

Here's a great read from Rick Scoppe on the career of our star SR WR, Kenny McKinley. McKinley, despite being a little undersized for a modern WR, will probably break most major USC passing records this season. Here's to hoping we'll get to see him help us win some big games as well as break those records.

Here's an interesting read from The State's Joe Person about how the HBC doesn't like to let his players knock each other silly during preseason practice. I can see both sides of the issue here. On the one hand, preseason injuries to key players can seriously hurt a season. Just look at Georgia, whose fans are worrying whether or not their offensive line will be as effective after losing starting left tackle Trinton Sturdivant to a knee injury suffered during a scrimmage. On the other hand, our offensive play during the early part of the season has been uninspired during each year of the Spurrier era, and one can reasonably wonder whether or not that's because we've had a hard time adjusting to having to play against defenses that are, well, actually playing as hard as they're supposed to.

Here's something else worth looking at, this time from Seth Emerson. Darrin Horn seems to be taking the bull by the horns when it comes to recruting a team in his own image, so hopefully we can all hope for some improvement in the hoops program. Unfortunately, the article suggests that we can probably expect Devan Downey to take off for the NBA if he has another big year.

Or not really introducing. Most of you should know Gamecock Man. He's going to be blogging here as I step back -- but not away -- from Garnet and Black Attack to work on another project. More on that later.

In the meantime, don't be mean. Gamecock Man will do a great job, I'm sure, and the blog will be better for it.

No ironclad promises on time, but it should be up in the late evening hours. Deadline for ballots is 6 p.m. ET; given time for crunching, tallying, etc., this should mean the poll will arrive by 10 p.m.-ish. (This time will be cut down dramatically in the future.) My ballot is the post below this one.

Other scheduling news: I had hoped to complete the previews by Thursday. This obviously will not happen. The plan now is to blog through the weekend and have all the previews up by Monday.

And more good stuff is coming your way -- some of which will be revealed in the next few days. Stay tuned.

This is Michael Phelps after he won his second gold medal in two tries earlier at these Olympic games.

Now, it's eight. That's a record. No one has ever won eight gold medals in a single edition of the Olympics. Never.

Congratulations, Michael Phelps.

A couple of news items:

Stephen Garcia is out for longer than expected. The ankle injury -- which might or might not have happened at practice -- pretty much ices any chance of Garcia starting or getting significant playing time early in the season. He'll probably start the season several weeks behind, which means significant playing time could happen against Wofford on Sept. 20. I'd be skeptical about anything before then.

Keeping an eye on Smoak. Sure, everybody's saying the right things now, but Haney brings up an intriguing idea about Smoak's trouble in inking a deal with the Rangers.

The deadline is quickly approaching for Justin Smoak to reach a deal with the Texas Rangers, lest he join an independent league or even return to South Carolina. [EMPHASIS IS C&F's]

Far be it from me to even suggest that it might be a good thing for a former Gamecock to not get a deal done with a major-league team.

But...

First of all, C&F would like to ask a question of some Georgia bloggers: If we are such an unimportant part of your life, why did roughly half the Georgia blogs I follow take notice of a trademark lawsuit that involves the spelling-challenged Dawgs not at all? Y'all sure do pay a lot of attention to a school that you regard as your fifth- or sixth-most significant rival. Just saying.

In any case, yes, I'll mention it, because it's important.

The school recently lost a trademark case against "the other USC," Southern California, a battle that was over the use of the "SC" logo.

The schools agreed in 1982 that each could use "USC" as a logo. But in 2002, Southern California filed suit against South Carolina’s use of "SC" and last week gained a favorable ruling from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

C&F admits that not only is he not a trademark lawyer, he's not a lawyer at all. But how in the name of all that is holy could any human being with an ounce of rationality and intelligence confuse these two hats?

Californians are supposed to be smarter than us, right?

And if that's trademark infringement, where do you draw the line? Should Florida State sue Fresno State, or vice versa?

Look alike to me.

And we won't even go into Green Bay/Grambling State/Georgia.

The entire Southern Cal case is based on the hats being similar. Um, the schools' names are similar. The interlocking letters look entirely different. Since when did W. start naming Southern Cal alum to federal posts?

And why doesn't the patent and trademark office go do something more significant with its time, like tracking down someone selling pirated copies of Gigli?

I sincerely wish that I could have done anything but deal with the punch that real life threw me late Tuesday, but unfortunately it left me unable to write even this much until 1 a.m. ET. (And I wasn't even among the people most directly affected by it.) Expect more content sometime Wednesday evening, and accept my heartfelt apologies for not being able to provide you with anything today.

I think, if I could tell you, you would all understand. But thank you in advance for your patience.