2009 Gamecock Commitments

2009 Carolina Commits as of 8/9/08

• Corey Addison - Saftey - 5-11, 190
• Nick Allison- OL - 6-4, 295
• DeMario Bennett- WR-6-3, 195
• Matt Coffee-LB-5-11, 215
• Justice Cunningham-TE-6-3, 230
• Aldrick Fordham-DE-6-4, 220
• Chaun Gresham-LB-6-3, 205
• Charles Holmes-WR-6-4, 180
• DaMario Jeffery-S-6-4, 220
• Jimmy Legree-CB-6-0, 170
• Chris Payne-S-5-11, 190
• Brent Singleton-LB-6-0, 194
• DeAngelo Smith-WR-6-0, 175
• Quin Smith-LB-6-1, 200

Another kid enlists with the gamecocks...

Well, it seems recruiting is going well thus far with the 14th pickup just the other day. Chaun Gresham switched his commitment from Georgia Tech to South Carolina yesterday according to THE STATE.

He is the number 47 Outside Linebacker in the nation. He also had offers from Tennessee, UGA, Alabama and others including Klempson.

Here is a video of the man in action - HERE.

Seat Fee Chart for Gamecock fans

We read yesterday were the Gamecock Athletic Dept moved forward with the "seat fees" and here is a chart to see where you fit in.....

http://www.gamecockclub.org/UserFiles/gamecockclub/Documents/Stadium%20Seating%20Chart-%20FINAL-%20PRESSKIT%20B.pdf

According to the above, I will be paying $145 per seat next year....now the question that all of gamecock nation will have to ask themselves....is it worth it? How much are you paying next year?

We will know after Oct. 31st when the pledge cards have to be returned indicating if the gamecock faithful are going to step up in the future to keep up in the SEC.

The Garnet Way

The Garnet Way is USC's commitment to building a championship athletics program. The Gamecock Club has updated their site and devoted some links to explaining the path forward with fundraising in order to compete in the SEC and to explain the Yearly Equitable Seating (YES).

Check out the video - HERE

Interesting reads...

Here are two interesting reads for today, one deals with the WEAK ACC and the other takes a stab at predicting where the college football teams will fall through the course of the season......

• http://bleacherreport.com/articles/43680-why-usc-will-win-the-national-championship
• http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt_acc_0803aug03,0,149361.story?page=1

Gamecocks lose in court over 'SC' logo rights

The University of Southern California has won a lawsuit against the University of South Carolina over the rights to use the “SC” logo.

The administrative tribunal of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has ruled that the local USC has priority of use when it comes to the “SC” logo, including the interlocking version. The battle between the USCs has been quietly raging since 2002, when USC challenged South Carolina’s application to federally register a version of the “SC” trademark for use on clothing and baseball uniforms. South Carolina fired back with a counterclaim to cancel USC’s federal trademark registration for its interlocking “SC” logo. Proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board began in 2006. On Friday, the board issued a 93-page order in favor of L.A.’s USC. [LA Times] {h/t: palmettoscoop}

Our pal Dev, touched a little on this here awhile back....thoughts on who the real USC is?

USC approves seat-licensing plan

Thanks to our reader known as 'tums" and The State paper for reporting that the seat-licensing plan is now a reality at USC. Here is the text from today's article in The State -

The USC Board of Trustees today approved the plan that would require some season ticket-holders at Williams-Brice Stadium to pay up to $395 for the right to purchase their seats. Seat fees will range from $25 to $395. However, trustees were told that the average seat fee would be $157. The plan would affect 48,500 seats at the 80,250-seat stadium. Student seats would not be subject to the fee. Only 360 seats would carry the top-tier price tag. The largest bloc of seats affected is a group of 13,480 spread throughout the stadium, and those would carry a fee of $145. The implementation of the personal seat licenses, beginning for the 2009 season, is expected to generate $7.6 million in annual revenues. Officials studied similar plans about two dozen schools, including 10 in the SEC and other non-conference schools such as Clemson, Georgia Tech and North Carolina.

What is coming Carolina fans? PSLs?

At 10:30 a.m., Athletic Director Eric Hyman will take the podium and start speaking to the Board of Trustee’s Intercollegiate Athletics Committee.

This article - HERE - touches on the topic of the meeting....a possible fee being imposed for certain seats (if not all) at Williams Brice Stadium beginning in 2009.

If approved, the plan would require season-ticket holders to pay a personal seat-license fee for the right to purchase their football tickets beginning next season. The board approved a similar plan for the Gamecocks’ new baseball stadium in June.

Cut through the BS and the main take away is this --- USC fans must pay more money to watch the Gamecocks play football. This is most likely to pass the only question is how much? Hyman is expected to gain approval of an annual seat licensing plan that could require USC fans to pay upwards of $500.00 per seat or more per season to keep their tickets.

USC is about to get richer.... USC has about 60,000 season tickets. If you speculate that the average PSL will cost $450.00 per year, that would raise $24 million per year.

So USC is poised to be flush with cash all in the name name of competing in the SEC. And with our neighbors to the north as Clemson did the same recently but held the fee down at a minimum. And down forget the cost of the gamecock club has gone up and tickets are increasing and in '10 USC will get parking rights at the old farmers market so I am sure the cost to park increases.....wow....this will surely separate the fans along the lines of - haves and have nots. Have is basically you got the money to dish out to watch college football and have nots are those who love the game but can not pay the cost to watch up close.

USC has already called for a 1 p.m. press conference in these terms: "To explain the next steps the Athletics Department will take towards strategically building an athletics program that will consistently battle for championships in all sports."

So watch for more on this later.....

Commitment number 13 signs with USC

Defensive back Jimmy Legree (6-0, 170) of Beaufort committed to USC Thursday night, becoming the 13th pledge for the Gamecocks' 2009 class. Legree also had an offer from Vanderbilt and drew interest from Clemson, N.C. State and Wake Forest.
Here is a video of him - here.

what to watch

Just want to remind everybody to set your TiVo or DVR, because the University of South Carolina Gamecock football preview will air tonight at 7:00 on Fox sports south. This will be a 30 minute special, giving a full preview of the gamecock gridiron squad. If you really don’t have a lot going on tonight, the Clemson Preview will air at 7:30.

LOHD is so fresh and so clean

Thanks to Moose the site has gotten a much needed face lift......hope you like it and continue to visit as we continue to tweak the site.

Who is coming with me

How long is it going to take for the Rangers to sign Justin Smoak?-- Was the question asked by Rangers fan Adam Y., Forney, Texas

The deadline for drafted players to sign a big league contracts is Aug. 15. Rangers fans as well as Gamecock fans want to know what he is going to do. Granted the Rangers are not going to let their 1st round pick slip away. Right now the Rangers are throwing out low number because by default they are suppose to sign a player based on slot money. I think Justin will probably sign sometime next week once a team decides to defy the Commissioner’s office and pay a little more for a player, the chips will start to fall. On the other hand, James Darnell has not signed with the Padres, and I feel we have a good chance of seeing him return to South Carolina.

Inspiration speech for the Gamecocks

This is the speech from the movie -"Any Given Sunday" and is the challenge talk to the 2008 Gamecock Football Squad from LOHD.

Go Cocks!

Fire Ron Morris

Check this out - http://www.fireronmorris.blogspot.com/ - and make sure you play the game on the site!

Also noticed someone bought www.fireronmorris.com recently.....seems gamecock fans have had enough of ole' Ronnie.

Throw Bart Wright and Ron Morris

under the bus....
After having to deal with this over the weekend from Ron now our other least favorite sports editorial writer - Bart Wright - pens this today - HERE. I will simply post the first line of the article from today and let you click for the rest....it begins like this:

"Until something changes for more than one week, one month or one year, the football story at the University of South Carolina will always be about the past."

Both Bart and Ron make me sick! We have touched on Bart before and we here at LOHD are sick of it! USC fans need to raise hell over the media bias that exists in this state when dealing with USC. You can not tell me that it is 'fair and balanced;' both schools have faults and have fallen short in the past....come on....clemson as the media darling is getting old!

Spurrier fires back - the video

This is the video from what we wrote about yesterday - here.
Also the Anderson Newspaper has a nice article on it - here


Again h/t - BarnYardian.

Spurrier fires back

Our pal at BarnYardian has the excerpt from the Spurrier Press Conference up on his site that deals with Coach Spurrier firing back at Ron Morris about this at today's media event....it is classic Spurrier. I have to agree with BarnYardian that it is great to see Spurrier firing back concerning some of the crap going on lately with the media and CU sites. Seems he is getting fired up with 25 days till kickoff.....

Here is the exchange and all the props to BarnYardian -

-Ron Morris asks a question about running back depth.....

-Spurrier: "I thought you were more worried about the 3rd string QB getting into school two weeks earlier....that was just stupid...just being honest."

-Ron has no comment

-Spurrier: "No I just thought you'd ask about that, seems like you'd think that was more important. But anyway, what was your question."

-Ron: RB depth?

-Spurrier: "Sorry to go off track there, just thought the article was stupid." Spurrier then proceeds to touch on RB depth.....

Priceless!

Cocktail's drink of the week...

With really hot weather approaching us, drinking red wine is not always the easiest thing to do. I myself, being a huge fan of heavy reds, have been buying sweet and light whites due to the heat. Red wine never tastes as good to me when you come in from the extreme heat of late summer. Here is a way to still have red wine, while keeping a refreshing characteristic. If you are having people over for dinner, this drink will still complement a steak or other game meat.

Sangria:

1 Bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rioja, Zinfandel, Shiraz)
1 Lemon cut into wedges
1 Orange cut into wedges
1 Lime cut into wedges
2 Tbsp sugar
Splash of orange juice
2 Shots of gin
1 Cup of sliced strawberries or raspberries (may use thawed or frozen)
1 Small can of diced pineapples (with juice)
4 Cups ginger ale

Pour wine in the pitcher and squeeze the juice wedges from the lemon, orange and lime into the wine. Toss in the fruit wedges (leaving out seeds if possible) and pineapple then add sugar, orange juice and gin. Chill overnight. Add ginger ale, berries and ice just before serving. If you'd like to serve right away, use chilled red wine and serve over lots of ice. However, remember that the best Sangrias are chilled around 24 hours in the frig. - allowing the flavors to really marinate into each other.

You can also double or triple the recipe and put into a gatorade cooler and take it to tailgating. It is very refreshing in the Columbia heat.

Thoughts on Ron Morris?

LOHD would like to open it up and ask "what are your thoughts concerning Ron Morris and his writing today in The State?"

His article is here - http://www.thestate.com/gogamecocks/story/478914.html

Cliff note summary of the article is this - That USC was wrong to allow Garcia back on the team ahead of schedule due to his suspension and this is a black eye for USC.

Central theme to the story, as Morris states, is -

The message sent by allowing Garcia to rejoin the USC football team two weeks ahead of schedule is clear: You are important to the football program’s success; you are an exception to the rules; you are a possible superstar, and we will bend the rules at every turn to ensure your success.

Again we here at LOHD have no love for Ron Morris and seldom agree with him (I think we have agreed with him a total of twice in his career at The State). Okay, we dislike the guy and yet again find his writing hard to stomach b/c it is way off base but this is what the media is all about in South Carolina. They criticize USC on things like this but give free passes to Klempson. We will not begin to discuss Bowden and the way he has handled allowing a "accused girlfriend beater" to remain part of the team....oh, and how the media has not even touched it really but on the surface and we will not mention the player allowed to play in the bowl game after getting a DUI....we will stop there b/c we want to hear from you on this one.

We want to here your reaction to this article............post your thoughts?

Chalk up another signee for USC

The State is reporting that -

Defensive back Corey Addison (6-1 190) of Jacksonville, Fla., committed to USC while on an unofficial visit to the school Saturday.

Addison, who is poised to play in the secondary for SC, said his commitment to the Gamecocks is firm. He picked USC over Central Florida. He also had offers from Clemson, Miami, Kentucky, Illinois, Arkansas, Louisville and Ole Miss.