TrueGCFan

Per ESPN:

Linebacker Melvin Ingram suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament, the San Diego Chargersannounced in a statement.

The left knee injury was suffered during the Chargers' organized team activities Tuesday morning.

With Ingram presumably lost for the season, San Diego is bringing in free agent Dwight Freeney on Wednesday for a visit, a league source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
San Diego's new general manager, Tom Telesco, spent the past 15 seasons in Indianapolis, where the Colts drafted Freeney.

Ingram was San Diego's first-round pick in the 2012 draft. He had 41 tackles (21 solo), one forced fumble and one sack for a young, developing linebacking corps.
The Chargers saw veteran edge rushers Shaun Phillips and Antwan Barnes leave in free agency and had been expecting Ingram, who came on strong toward the end of last season, to provide a strong rush.

So what’s missing?
The Steve Spurrier tenure marks the greatest era in South Carolina football history, and
it’s not even close, but for all the success of two straight 11-2 campaigns and an
appearance in the 2010 SEC championship, it’s still the SEC and true greatness is
measured by winning titles.
Just ask Georgia.
Spurrier has amassed a dizzying array of great athletes, putting together some fantastic
teams built on speed and aggressiveness, but it hasn’t been enough to make that last
little push to get over the hump. Ten years ago going to the Outback and Capital One
bowls might have been worth doing cartwheels over, but now South Carolina has to come
up with something more or risk being stuck.
The program has seen what success looks like, but as close as it has come to true
greatness, it has also seen just how far it has to go and just how impossible it is to get a
turn on the SEC wheel of championships.
Everyone in the SEC has great athletes and all the top programs are loaded with NFL
talent. So, again, what’s missing? Why can’t South Carolina be the one to come up with
an 11-1 regular season, get into the SEC title game, win it, and be the one to rumble over
whatever sacrificial lamb comes out of some other poor schmuck league?
It was all right there for the taking over the last two seasons. A stunning 16-13 loss to
Auburn in 2011 could’ve gone either way, with a win meaning a shot at LSU possiblyleading to a shot at Alabama for the BCS championship. Last year, a late rally against
LSU came up short in a 23-21 loss. Had the defense been able to hold off just one of the
Tigers’ three field-goal producing drives in the fourth quarter, a win might have meant a
shot against Alabama – after all the wacky tie-breaking procedures - possibly leading to a shot at Notre Dame for the
BCS championship.
But every top SEC team has a story. Florida, LSU and Georgia could certainly do the “if only” thing last season, and
LSU could certainly wonder what life would’ve been like two years ago had Oklahoma State not gagged against Iowa
State. And that’s the difference for SEC teams between the Outback Bowl and a BCS championship - one mistake.
One miss. One wrong play. One close game that could’ve gone the other way. There’s a narrow-thin margin in the best
conference in college football, and to get on the other side, South Carolina has to do absolutely everything right and get
a little luck along the way.
Getting the right breaks starts with the schedule, and USC can’t ask for anything more than missing Alabama, LSU
and Texas A&M from the West and getting Florida at home. It’s obviously a stretch to call it a one game season, but if
the Gamecocks beat Georgia in Athens early on, it might not be the underdog the rest of the way. Even if they lose,
there’s still not another game on the slate they can’t win, and that includes Clemson, North Carolina and Mississippi
State, who all have to come to Columbia, and 11-1 could possibly get it done.
The offensive line could be the best yet under Spurrier, the secondary is going to be air tight, and there’s a freak of
nature from another planet working on the defensive line who’ll take all the heat and attention away from everyone else.
Jadeveon Clowney is a special player, and this just might be a special team if Spurrier can work just enough magic at
running back and linebacker to get by.
Close isn’t enough anymore for one of the premier programs in college football – yes, right now, South Carolina is one
of the premier programs in college football – and the only place to go from 11-2 is 12-1 with an SEC title. This team has
the talent to do just that.
What to watch for on offense: A melting pot of athletic stuff. There will be times when SEC fans wonder how the
Gamecocks get the job done on offense, but it has some interesting pieces for the Ball Coach to play around with.
What does South Carolina have offensively? Spurrier attacks always have something going for them like the fun ‘n’ gun,
or Marcus Lattimore, but this year’s O has a bunch of guys with a whole boatload of potential and not a lot of proven
production. The line is full of veterans and the quarterbacks are going to be great, but a slew of really fast, really
promising smallish targets who can all blow the top off a secondary. There’s no Lattimore, but Mike Davis looks like a
keeper in the backfield and Brandon Wilds should produce when given the chance.
What to watch for on defense: The other guys. Everyone will come to see No. 7, but they might leave talking about
the other three. Jadeveon Clowney wasn’t the only reason the Gamecocks led the SEC in sacks and were so
devastating at getting into the backfield on a regular basis. However, some new parts are stepping up on the front four,
and they need to shine right away. They will. End Chaz Sutton has all the pro tools to become a breakout star on the
other side, while tackles Kelcy Quarles, J.T. Surratt and Gerald Dixon Jr. can all make plays.
The team will be far better if … the ground game works against everyone. The receiving corps is talented, and the
quarterbacks are a plus, but they’re not going to be good enough to carry the offense to an SEC title. The offensive line
is big, experienced, and knows what it’s doing, but it’s not great in pass protection and it’s not nasty enough on a
regular basis against the better SEC defensive fronts. That has to change. USC’s two worst rushing days last year by
far came against Florida (36 yards) and LSU (34 yards), and those just so happened to be the only two losses. The
only other game with fewer than 100 yards on the ground was in the bowl win over Michigan, and that took a lastsecond touchdown pass to get the job done.
The schedule: The season starts out with a bang and never lets up. North Carolina is a dangerous was to open up a
campaign, but that’s just the warm-up act with the SEC East possibly on the line a week later with a road trip to
Georgia. Throw in a date against Vanderbilt, and the Gamecocks have three great tests before hitting September 15th.
It’s not like they’ll need the week off before diving into the middle part of the slate, but they’ll get it.
Going to UCF isn’t going to be a walk in the park to kick off a run of four road games in five weeks with only a homedate against Kentucky to ease the pain. Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri didn’t go bowling last year, but they’re all
going to be better and they’ll all be looking to make a statement at home – but that’s it for the travels. The game in
Columbia, Missouri on October 26th is the last road date. Mississippi State will be another fight before getting a week
off to prepare for the home game against Florida. The team deserves a breather against Coastal Carolina before
finishing up with Clemson.
Best offensive player: Senior QB Connor Shaw. He might not even be the full-time starting quarterback considering
the strides Dylan Thompson has made, but he’s the leader and the main man, at least according to Spurrier. Shaw is
coming off a foot injury, and he has to be a bit more consistent, but he’s a baller who can take off and make things
happen with his legs or push the ball down the field with an accurate arm. He’ll do anything to make a play, but he has
to keep himself in one piece after getting popped time and time again.
Best defensive player: Junior DE Jadeveon Clowney. The expectations are going to be through the roof – and
extremely unfair. There’s no question that he’s the top pass rushing threat in all of college football, and there’s no doubt
that he’d be a top five overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft if he decided to pack it in and take a year off to work out and
prepare. However, he’s going to have all the pressure in the world on his shoulders to come up with lots and lots and
lots of sacks, when his main role at times will be to take all the attention away from everyone else. Don’t get caught up
in the numbers; he’ll be fantastic no matter what.
Key player to a successful season: Redshirt freshman C Cody Waldrop. Is this the year the Gamecocks finally have
an offensive line that can pass protect? Probably not, but four starters return to a very big, very good group that should
be effective enough for the ground game to get by. However, it’s missing its ringleader with center T.J. Johnson gone.
Waldrop is a big, promising option for the interior at either guard or center, but he’ll get the first look in the middle to
see if he can handle the workload of quarterbacking the veterans.
The season will be a success if … the Gamecocks play in the SEC title game. Beating USC might be the third or
fourth best team in the West, so winning the conference championship might be asking for a bit much, but with a
relatively favorable schedule and as many great athletes and dynamic playmakers as any team in the league, getting to
Atlanta for the second time in four years is a must.
Key game: Sept. 7 at Georgia. The rest of the SEC season could be an exhibition if the Gamecocks can’t get by the
Bulldogs in the SEC opener. The Florida game is always important, and the overall schedule isn’t that bad with no
Alabama, LSU or Texas A&M to deal with from the West, but a loss in Athens would mean Georgia would likely have to
lose at least two SEC battles for the Gamecocks to get to the SEC title game, and that could be a problem.

Oklahoma's Bob Stoops is a great coach and seemingly a good man, so we hate to have to vehemently disagree with him for a second time this offseason.
In a column by the Tulsa World, Stoops claims that the SEC isn't as dominant and everyone says it is. If you watch enough SEC games you realize that's an incorrect statement, but Stoops went on. His reasoning was that the very best teams are elite, but the entire conference is not.

"So they've had the best team in college football," Stoops said, according to the Tulsa World. "They haven't had the whole conference. Because, again, half of 'em haven't done much at all. I'm just asking you. You tell me."

That reasoning is pretty faulty.

Here's Stoops' long quote on why the SEC isn't really all that, from the Tulsa World:

"So you're listening to a lot of propaganda that gets fed out to you," he said. "You're more than smart enough to figure it out. Again, you can look at the top two, three, four, five, six teams, and you can look at the bottom six, seven, eight, whatever they are. How well are they all doing?
"What'd we (the Big 12) have, eight of 10 teams in bowl games this year? Again, you figure it all out."

This comes down to a pretty simple math problem. For all SEC games, there has to be a .500 record at the end. If Alabama, Texas A&M, Florida, South Carolina, LSU and Georgia are all among the top 10 or so strongest teams in the nation, as they were last year, and Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and Ole Miss get into bowl games, as they did, some teams are eating a lot of losses. No, coach, the entire conference can't be good at once. It's mathematically impossible.
There were five SEC teams that didn't go to a bowl game last year. They are ...
• Missouri, which went to seven straight bowl games its final seven years in the Big 12. Its first SEC season, it went 5-7 and missed out. That seems relevant to the conversation.
• Tennessee, which has been to 49 bowl games, from 1981-2010 missed qualifying for a bowl just three times and won a national championship at the end of the 1998 season. Yes, Derek Dooley struggled in a tough conference and was fired, but is Tennessee really the doormat Stoops is talking about?
• Auburn, which won a national championship 28 months ago.
• Arkansas, which was ranked 12th at the end of the 2010 season, fifth at the end of the 2011 season and probably would have been at least top five in the 2012 preseason poll (the Razorbacks were 10th) had it not been for the Bobby Petrino fiasco. They struggled mightily last season, but there were decent reasons why. And again, with six of the best teams in the nation at top of the conference, someone has to lose.
• Kentucky, which is kind of a basketball school. The Wildcats don't care much about football. Stoops should recognize schools like this, considering he plays in the same conference as Kansas.
So that's your list of also-rans that Stoops thinks drags down the SEC. A couple relatively recent national champions, a perennial bowl team when it was in the Big 12, a team that is one season removed from being ranked fifth in the nation, and the 2012 national basketball champions.
Stoops apparently thinks other conference's doormats are far better than that. Did Indiana win a national title a few years ago? Has Duke played in 49 bowl games? Again, when you play in a conference which is so good at the top, the bottom has to lose some games. The SEC has to end up with a cumulative .500 record in conference games. Simple math. And we haven't even gotten into the national championships streak or the NFL draft record the SEC just set. Stoops at least owns up to the fact that's legitimate. He should know, considering Texas A&M blasted his team in the Cotton Bowl this past January. The rest of Stoops' argument is wrong, but at least he's correct on that elite teams part of it.
We're not picking on Stoops. He's a great coach with a great program. He has one of the few programs that could go to the SEC and compete every year. That's the best compliment we can give him.


http://sports.yahoo....-193521063.html

The announcement is suppose to happen today.

What do we know about it so far?

According to Darren Rovell of ESPN,Under Armour has signed Marcus Lattimore to an endorsement deal.