Gamecock Tailgating Must Have

Ran across this the other day as I visited our friends blog - SECgrilltoppers.com. 
This is a portable tailgating ice machine. College logod, you can tote this to any tailgate or cookout. No water line needed. Just pour water into it and in ten minutes you have ice! You can simply plug it in to any car outlet.  Well worth the $250 bucks because how cool is that to have on those hot days in the fairgrounds!

Lanning Named Groza Semifinalist

University of South Carolina placekicker Spencer Lanning is one of 20 semifinalists named for the 2009 Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award, presented by the FedEx Orange Bowl, it was announced by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission today.

Lanning, a 5-11, 188-pound junior from Rock Hill, S.C., is 15-for-17 in field goal attempts this season, his first as the Gamecocks' place-kicker. He  is 15 of his last 16 attempts, with his only miss coming from 50 yards out against Alabama. Lanning also handles the Gamecocks' punting chores and is on the Ray Guy Award watch list, which goes to the nation's top punter.

4A SC High School Football playoff bracket

I know we don't talk a whole lot of High School football on LOHD, but it is playoff time. Below you will find the first round of the 4A football pairings for the first round. Byrnes looks to be the favorite in the Big 16 or Division 1. South Pointe is defending champions of Division 2 but has a pretty tough road to repeat. Watch out for Rock Hill in Division 1 to give Byrnes a run for there money, and watch out for Irmo in Division 2.

Playoff pairings

Division I

Upper Bracket

White Knoll (16) at Byrnes (1)

Mauldin (9) at Fort Dorchester (8)

Spartanburg (13) at Rock Hill (4)

Blythewood (12) at Sumter (5)

Lower Bracket

Lexington (15) at Summerville (2)

Stratford (10) at Gaffney (7)

Hillcrest (14) at Irmo (3)

Clover (11) at Dorman (6)

Division II

Upper Bracket

Aiken (16) at Berkeley (1)

Beaufort (9) at Greenwood (8)

Lancaster (13) at Goose Creek (4)

Conway (12) at North Augusta (5)

Lower Bracket

S. Florence (15) at Northwestern (2)

T.L. Hanna (10) at Hartsville (7)

James Island (14) at Wren (3)

Richland NE (11) at South Pointe (6)

SC women's soccer - You go girls....

While we have women's soccer on the brain, congrats Carolina on wining the SEC championship yesterday. Defeating LSU 8-7 in shootout . Not thanks to SECSports.com for there ringing endorsement.

Did anybody on here graduate from SCU?

10 questions for this week

1.) Bigger surprise, TCU is undefeated and ranked in the top 5 in the BCS, or Oklahoma with 4 loses and not ranked at all.

2.) Since nobody has really taken charge in the Heisman race, is there a chance a Case Keenum or Ryan Mathews can win the Heisman. Ryan Mathews leads the nation in rushing through 10 games?

3.) Bigger upset this weekend, Northwestern over Iowa, or Stanford over Oregon?

4.) It looks like GT will play Clemson in the ACC championship, who you got?

5.) With only a couple games remaining on the Schedule, can Florida and Alabama stay undefeated until there match up in Atlanta for the SEC championship game.? Which team has a better chance of losing a game. Where are there remaining schedules Florida or Alabama

6.) Did Navy seal Charlie Weis’s fate as ND’s coach? Navy only threw the ball 3 times in there game against ND on Saturday compared to Jimmy Clausen’s 51 attempts.

7.) With all the injuries from this past weekend, who would you rather be without for the remainder of the season, start QB or star RB?

8.) Better chance of being a successful coach Spurrier Jr/ Jeff Bowden?

9.) Better conference Mountain West/ ACC?

10.) If the national champion ship game comes down to Cincinnati vs. TCU, will you be disappointed? Will you watch the game?

With UF in Town, the streak is on the line for Gamecocks

Dating back to the final two home games of last season, South Carolina has now won seven straight at Williams-Brice Stadium, the longest home winning streak since 1986-88, when the Gamecocks won 13 straight games at home.

Here's a look at the current streak---

2008: South Carolina 27, Tennessee 6
2008: South Carolina 34, Arkansas 21
2009: South Carolina 38, Florida Atlantic 16
2009: South Carolina 16, Ole Miss 10
2009: South Carolina 38, South Carolina State 14
2009: South Carolina 28, Kentucky 26
2009: South Carolina 14, Vanderbilt 10

Mumme Poll Ballot - Week 10

Mumme Poll here. Again, the Mummepoll requires you to rank the top five teams and then just select, in any order, the next seven. This intent is for a more original polling format.

1. Florida

--Beat Vanderbilt. Meh.

2. Alabama

--Beat LSU. Nice.

3. Texas

--Beat Central Florida, but why didn’t they pull away earlier?

4. Georgia Tech

--Beating Wake in overtime isn’t impressive, but Yellow Jackets are the beneficiaries of this week’s Top 12 carnage.

5. LSU

--Two losses: to Florida and LSU. Both close. That’s about what the number 5 team should look like.
------
Cincinnati
--It’s wins like this week’s squeaker over UConn that make me doubt how high this team deserves to be ranked.

TCU
--Boise, pay attention. If you don’t have the best schedule in the country, the least you can do is blow out the teams you do play.

Boise State
--Teams that beat Louisiana Tech worse than they did: Auburn, Navy and Nevada. This is perhaps the most undeserving undefeated team in the poll.

Iowa
--Most of us assumed this loss (or one like it) was coming. The question now is, how many more will there be?

Arizona
--Quietly putting together a nice season. With Oregon and Southern Cal left on schedule, Wildcats have plenty of opportunities to impress.

Pittsburgh
--Like their fellow Big East brethren, not sure how impressive their body of work has been, but they have continued winning.

Ohio State
--Welcome back. Don’t pull another Purdue and embarrass us.

USC women win SEC tournament championship

Per this story on The State -

USC’s Blakely Mattern scored with two minutes remaining in the game to send it to overtime, and goalie Mollie Patton made a save in the fourth round of sudden-death penalty kicks as the Gamecocks beat LSU on penalties, 8-7, to win the SEC tournament championship.

Good Luck to Gamecock Ladies Today in Futbol

South Carolina's women's soccer team will play for its first SEC championship today against LSU at 3:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

Full Story HERE

USC got there with a 1-0 victory against Florida on Friday night in the semifinals. Kim Miller scored on a penalty kick in the 11th minute while Mollie Patton recorded her 13th shutout of the season.

USC enters today's game 17-3-1 overall, setting a program best for wins in a season. It already tied the record for most SEC wins in a season with seven, leading to coach Shelley Smith being named the league's Coach of the Year while Blakely Mattern and Kayla Grimsley unanimous First Team All-SEC selections. Seniors Kim Miller and Samantha Diaz-Matosas made the second team.

Good Luck and bring home the SEC crown!