A note about today's Daily Feed. Fans of this blog may have noticed that producing The Daily Feed seems to constitute the majority of my contribution as of late. I assure you that this has more to do with the amount of time I have available for blogging this semester. I'd like to provide more in-depth analysis, but I can't seem to carve out the time. As such, today's Daily Feed is sort of an amalgamation of my thoughts on the game and your Gamecock-related articles for the day.

FOOTBALL

The Kentucky Game – A Graphic Explanation | The Rubber Chickens
Yup, that about sums it up.

Report card: Kentucky | Spur of the Moment
Let's get right into it. Travis Haney does some really excellent work covering the Gamecocks. His post here is dead-on accurate. But it's comments like this that underscore his status as a neutral observer.

It's just the how that's truly amazing. Think about it: If USC covers Cobb on a fourth-down play, it wins. As badly as it played in the second half, it would have survived and escaped. Instead, the Gamecocks lost one of the best players in the conference on fourth-and-7. Still haven't figured out how that's possible.

Any true Gamecock fan spent about two seconds wondering how this game ended in a Carolina loss. Haney, a piece of advice. Don't trouble yourself with pondering the endless "what ifs." If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. Every time I watch a Carolina football game there is at least one point in there where I say to myself, "Wow, never seen that before." Whether it's Garcia getting tackled by a ref, USC dominating a number one Alabama,  or Carolina failing to put up a single second half point against Kentucky, something is bound to happen. What did you expect?

Mark It Down: 11 Straight Wins for South Carolina Over Kentucky | Saturday Down South
And that's a fair question. What did you expect?

If Alabama cannot stop Marcus Lattimore, Alshon Jeffery, and Stephen Garcia, how could Kentucky even dream of accomplishing it?

...

If South Carolina can shut down Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson, why would the Gamecocks have any issues with Derrick Locke (if he plays) and Randall Cobb?

...

As a South Carolina fan, it is very comforting to know we have a W on our schedule each season before the games are actually played (and I am not talking about Furman).

Oh, you expected that? Yeesh. Seems like this was an ill-advised post - you know, hindsight being 20/20 and all. Some might even say something about your mouth writing checks that your body can't cash. But in all seriousness, why shouldn't we have been confident? Maybe not that confident, but we were riding high off of the 'Bama win. Alas, we flew too close to the sun on the legs of Marcus Lattimore. By the way, the Kentucky fans commenting on this post managed to chastise this guy for assuming a victory and then in the same breath admonish him that the 'Cats are going to demolish us on the hardwood this year. Classic. And what of our Kentucky neighbors? How are they handling the victory?

Kentucky 31 South Carolina 28: Streak-Busting Postmortem | A Sea Of Blue
They're pretty much handling their victory over us like we handled beating Alabama. Does that mean we've arrived as a program? Hardly. What I take from it is that no team in the SEC is ever as good as its best victory or as bad as its worst lost. Our worst loss happens to be to Kentucky. Our best victory happens to be over Alabama. Somewhere in between those two milestones is where our program lies.

And the 'Cats deserve to celebrate. They straight up out-played us in the second half. And I think it's pretty clear that this wasn't a "hangover" from 'Bama, so don't cheapen Kentucky's victory by saying that garbage. If anything, our head coach had a hangover from the first half against the 'Cats. They adjusted, and is so often the case, we didn't. It also didn't help that we lost our #1 play maker 3 plays into the second half. But the failure to adjust to that situation is on the coaches as well.

Gamecocks Suffer Heartbreak in Lexington | Leftover Hot Dog

Another thing I can not understand is how USC looked post-Lattimore injury.....the offense was like a lost puppy. I hope that I am wrong and the offense is made up more than two players. And where is Kenny Miles?

This was my main thought during the second half. We were moving the ball along fine until Lattimore got injured early. No big deal, I thought. Seemed like a sprain, and we'd have Marcus back for Vandy after tucking this game away in our pocket. Boy, I could not have been more wrong.

Spurrier Sunday teleconference notes | Spur of the Moment

Spurrier said he "seriously doubts" Marcus Lattimore will play this week at Vanderbilt. Lattimore will stay off the ankle until the second half of the week, Spurrier said. Then he'll see if he can "jog around or something." But it sounds as if Lattimore is a no go, as you'd expect after an ankle injury that knocked him out of the second half.

Also, read Haney's comments about Spurrier and Kenny Miles. Truly mystifying.

College GameDay Final: Week 7 | ESPN
Of course, then there's the aftermath. You know, I think we're starting to develop a reputation for this.

South Carolina (4-2, 2-2) did its part Saturday by doing what the Gamecocks always do, and that's lay one of those supersized chicken eggs right when you think that maybe they're finally going to break that curse and sustain a little success.

And finally, we are oh-so-close to ending the 2010 Recent Unpleasantness.

Gamecocks Slip in National Polls | Gamecocks Online
Back to 19 in the AP. Maybe where we should have been all along. Also, we're the only team in the SEC East ranked right now. Not that it will matter for much longer.

Georgia Football: Dawgs Have New Life, Back in SEC Race | Bleacher Report
This is maybe the most disgusting thing about the whole situation.

Tailgate blog: Gamecocks under the weather, what I expect tonight | Spur of the Moment
And for those of you still wondering why DJ Swearinger was returning kicks on Saturday, it's because apparently our entire defensive backfield had the flu.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Gamecocks Basketball: Early Look at the 2010-2011 Team | Leftover Hot Dog
LOHD has your first taste of Gamecock basketball this year.

Videos and Photos From Men's Basketball Media Day | Gamecocks Online
No explanation needed, really. Videos from Coach horn, Lakeen Jackson, Bruce Ellington, and Malik Cooke.

WOMEN'S SOCCER

No. 14 Gamecocks Drop First SEC Match, 1-0 | Gamecocks Online
Doh! BREAK

No. 14 South Carolina's seven-match unbeaten streak came to an end Friday night as the Gamecocks (11-3-2, 5-1-1 SEC) dropped a 1-0 decision to No. 20 Georgia (9-2-4, 4-0-3 SEC) at Stone Stadium. Despite the loss, South Carolina remains atop the SEC standings with 16 points courtesy of a tiebreaker with Florida.

No. 14 Gamecocks Defeat Tennessee, 2-1, To Remain In SEC Lead | Gamecocks Online
At least there was some good news in the Gamecock world this weekend.

Junior defender Ellen Fahey headed in her first career goal in the 59th minute to lead No. 14 South Carolina to its fourth consecutive victory against Tennessee with a 2-1 win Sunday afternoon at Stone Stadium.

MEN'S SOCCER

No. 20 South Carolina Battles No. 22 UCF To 1-1 Tie | Gamecocks Online
This does not comfort me.

SWIMMING/ DIVING

Gamecocks Sweep Vanderbilt, WKU in Swim/Dive Opener | Gamecocks Online
I have no idea if this means our swimming/ diving program is legit this year, but I included it because we needed some good news around here.

COCKY

A Week in the Busy Life of Cocky | Spurs Up
The Bird turns 30! See what he's up to.