The Daily Feed: Wednesday, 12/19/2012

To borrow a phrase from Kanye West, you should be honored by The Daily Feed's lateness.

Gamecocks Practice Wednesday Morning - South Carolina Official Athletic Site (VIDEO)

The highlights from Spurrier:

"Connor Shaw is healthy. He was running around the best he has in probably a month or so. So he's all set to start the game. Dylan will play in there, but Connor's been our starter all year, and he's set to go."

On Lorenzo Ward: "I think he's developing into one of the best defensive coordinators in college ball."

"I think all the guys are going to make it. I don't think we'll have any casualties academically."

On whether Stephen Garcia would be dropping by the Gamecocks' bowl practice at SG5's alma mater: "You need to ask somebody else that. If he comes by, that's fine." Spurrier seemed deeply put off by being asked that question.

Scott Hood, to Spurrier, on the Stanford women's basketball team "They'v got 8 girls 6'3" or taller." Spurrier's retort: "Eight? But they can only play five at a time, right?" Oh, Scott. You're so Hood.

Lorenzo Ward, answering one of the two million questions he was asked about reflecting upon his first year as the defensive coordinator: "We ran a lot more zone pressures that we probably did a season ago on run downs, but as far as all out blitzes we probably only called 3 or 4 the whole season."

Ward also revealed that Cedrick Cooper, who was projected to start at MLB in 2013, went down with a knee injury and had to be carted off. Cooper will have an MRI to see the extent of the damage to his ligaments. This is not a position at which the Gamecocks can afford to sustain injuries, which is something that you may not be aware of if this is the first thing that you read after emerging from a coma that lasted at least two weeks.

Grady Brown: "I wasn't expecting to learn as much defense from Coach Spurrier as I have since I've been here." I thought this was an interesting tidbit, given the perception that Spurrier almost completely delegates the defensive side of things. Admittedly, that perception is fueled by his stock response to questions about the opposing team's offense: "Oh, I don't know. You'd have to ask Coach Ward about that."

Kenny McKinley and O.J. Murdock were college teammates with big NFL dreams. Where did things go wrong? - ESPN
Holy cow. This is an excellent and incredibly sad long read. Take advantage of this opportunity while you can because it may be another 5 years before someone at ESPN writes something worth reading.

Gamecocks Sign JUCO Cornerback - South Carolina Official Athletic Site

Junior college cornerback Ronnie Martin has signed a national letter of intent with the University of South Carolina, it was announced today.

Sanders reportedly headed to Texas A&M
So much for that. The Rubber Chickens provide the money quote:

So freaking pissed we missed out on a recruit I had never heard of until Monday.

— TRC (@RubrChickens) December 19, 2012

Ruffin has USC among favorites
Class of 2014 DB Nicholas Ruffin (6-1 180) of Atlanta has offers from USC, LSU, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Louisiana-Lafayette.

USC & Clemson offer 14 year old
Conway coach Chuck Jordan said Tuesday USC and Clemson have made verbal offers to 9th grade WR/SAF Bryan Edwards (6-3 179). USC made the first offer and Clemson followed in kind.

Gamecocks Hold on for 74-69 Win Over Appalachian State
I've got to be honest: the only reason I brought this up was so that I could use Frank Martin flashing deuces as the photo.