FOOTBALL

Practice report: Waiting frustrates Wilson | GoGamecocks
A lot of take aways from Tuesday's practice. Probably the most interesting is this quote from Ellis Johnson regarding Shaq Wilson.

"It’s just when you lose a guy with Shaq’s experience and his leadership and his poise – I was talking to (Eric) Norwood the other day and he was laughing about how the veterans wouldn’t ever tell him anything at camp because they don’t want to give away any secrets. And he said, ‘Man, Shaq always told you where to line up.’ It was the first time I ever knew that Shaq knew more than Norwood."

It also appears that Ladi Ajiboye, Akeem Auguste, and C.C. Whitlock are all still mired in the Whitney Hotel controversy. Ladi missed part of practice while Auguste and Whitlock missed all of it. This is starting to become more than a nuisance. We're talking about potentially losing quite a few starters here.

Whitney issue lingers for several Gamecocks | GoGamecocks
More explaining the Whitney controversy.

Q&A: Spencer Lanning | The Daily Gamecock
Topics include Lanning's favorite place to eat in the Russell House, team nicknames, the team trip to Spurrier's house, and pregame rituals. An excerpt:

We got a guy named Eric Davis that looks like somebody named Doug so we call him Doug. Coach Spurrier and coach Beamer call him Doug, too, so it’s funny. His name’s not Doug at all.

Ah, to be a kid again.

Gilmore grows into a must-see player | GoGamecocks
Gilmore has already been named to the watch lists for the Chuck Bednarik Award and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, as well as earning preseason All-SEC first team honors. He was good to begin with, and he's only gotten better in the offseason. Even the coaches don't have any complaints.

"Stephon’s been good," assistant head coach for defense Ellis Johnson said. "He’s had a good fall camp. He’s picked up right where he left off."

Johnson still notices busted assignments, including some by Gilmore, that need to be cleaned up. "But, of course, that’s what practice is for," Johnson said. "Hopefully, he’s going to continue to improve fundamentally and so forth," Johnson said.

SEC Trap Games: South Carolina | Team Speed Kills
Year2 presents USC's game versus Southern Miss as its biggest trap game of the 2010 season. If this game were any week other than the first one, I might be inclined to agree. Even though USM has made a habit of knocking off BCS conference teams, I think the Gamecocks come into this game focused. I'm sure the players will be stoked to finally start knocking around players from a different team - especially a team whose head coach has been talking trash over the summer. Add that to the fact that we haven't lost an opener since 2000 and we generally play well on Thursday nights, and I think we'll be just fine.

SEC Trap Games: Alabama | Team Speed Kills
However, Year2 also sees us as potentially upsetting the Crimson Tide on October 9. The game is in Columbia, so maybe we do have chance at a team coming off the "most anticipated game or the whole country in 2010."

Telling the freakish truth: Phillip Dukes Q&A | GoGamecocks
A 6-foot-3, 290 pound defensive tackle who can dunk a basketball and do a back flip? Yikes. He's trimmed his list to South Carolina, Clemson, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Miami.

Number Association Countdown – #9 – Todd Ellis | The Rubber Chickens
Yesterday marked just nine days until kick off. In honor of the number nine the guys at The Rubber Chickens take us for a stroll down memory lane, reliving the days with Todd Ellis at quarterback. Sidenote: I had no idea Todd Ellis was the #1 quarterback prospect in the country.

Restroom Upgrades at WBS | Spurs Up
Gentlemen, we have obtained urinal technology.

BASKETBALL

Gamecock Men's Basketball Unveils 2010-11 Non-Conference Schedule | Gamecocks Online
Darrin Horn and company will face off against four teams that participated in this year's NCAA tournament. There is a little more meat on this out of conference schedule than last year's with the most notable games being at Michigan State on November 16 and at Ohio State on December 18. Surely cocknfire, of Team Speed Kills, will be salivating over the proximity of former Gamecock and current Spartan football coach Mark Dantonio to USC athletics.

South Carolina to face Big Ten, ACC teams early | TheLedger.com
Horn comments on the new schedule.

MEDIA

New USC beat reporters hired | GoGamecocks
It looks like there will be celebrating in throughout Gamecock Nation tonight. For the record, I won't be one of them. Just a few weeks after his buddy, Sether Emerson, left for greener pastures, Joe Person is taking his talents to the Charlotte Observer.

I could never tell if Gamecock fans were unusually hard on the State beat writers, or if that is just run of the mill around the SEC, but I always thought Joe and Seth did a pretty good job around here. Sometimes the news isn't always rosy, and it's their job to write about that, too. Of course the conspiracy theorists out there will probably read something into the fact that Joe just broke the Whitney story and is now on the way out, but I would be seriously surprised if that had anything to do with it. Both he and Emerson moved up in the sports media world, so somebody has to think they're good at their craft.

And USC fans now get to experience the investigative reporting of a man who won an FOIA award for breaking the story that got UGA basketball head coach Jim Harrick fired. I'm already starting to get nostalgic.

Ex-Gators QB: Stakes big at USC | GoGamecocks
Possibly Joe Person's last article as a writer for the State. Joe, I hardly knew ye.

SOCCER

Mollie Patton Named SEC Defensive Player of the Week | Gamecocks Online

South Carolina senior goalkeeper Mollie Patton has been named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week, the conference office announced Monday afternoon. In addition, senior defender Brittiny Rhoades was chosen as one of 11 players selected to the Top Drawer Soccer national team of the week.