Troy 24 at South Carolina 69 Final

A dominating title defense for South Carolina.

Troy 24 at South Carolina 69

Robinson fumbles the snap of Troy's first play and sets up a touchdown pass from SC's third string quarterback.

Troy 24 at South Carolina 62

The SC second team offense eats off nine minutes capped by a field goal.  There is just over 3 minutes left.

Troy 24 at South Carolina 59

Troy gets a good punt return to setup a short touchdown drive with 12:14 left in the game. 

Troy 17 at South Carolina 59

Troy forces a turnover and tops it off with a touchdown pass.  So Troy can match up pretty well it would appear against the SC second stringers. 

Troy 10 at South Carolina 59

Well Troy answers with their own field goal against SC's second string defense. 

Troy 7 at South Carolina 59

SC took the opening kick of the second half and marched down with their second string offense for a field goal.  Now we'll see if Troy's offense can do anything this second half. 

Troy 7 at South Carolina 56 Halftime

With seconds left and a 4th and 1 around the South Carolina 40 Robinson dropped back, was under pressure and simply made a dumb play tossing the ball up for the second pick six of the half.  He is a freshman after all and will make silly plays.

Clemson will be getting ready for their shot at the UCFC title next week.  

Troy 7 at South Carolina 49

Corey Robinson throws a pick six with 1:42 left in the half, and the Gamecocks put more points on board.  It's hard to believe this Troy team scored 38 against Oklahoma State and could win the Sun Belt.   

Troy 7 at South Carolina 42

With 2:36 left in the half Garcia caps off an 81yd drive with a quarterback sneak into the end zone.  That was a dominating drive by South Carolina.  I'm assuming that will be the last we see of the SC offensive starters.

Troy 7 at South Carolina 35

Troy finally settles down and puts together a nice drive, capped by a halfback option touchdown pass with 4:49 left in the first half. 

Troy 0 at South Carolina 35

With 8:18 left in the 2nd quarter South Carolina gets their third touchdown off of Troy's third turnover.  The Troy defense has been playing a bit better, but their offense cannot do anything. 

Troy 0 at South Carolina 28

With 5:49 left in the 1st quarter the Gamecocks connect on a long pass.  So far Troy looks completely overmatched and overly nervous.

Troy 0 at South Carolina 21

Came back in time to see SC score again with 8:36 left in the 1st quarter.

Troy 0 at South Carolina 14

Had to go feed my daughter lunch and missed the second score.

South Carolina up 7-0

Troy fumbles the opening kickoff and South Carolina scores on their first play, a run up the middle to take a 7-0 lead only 13 seconds into the game. 

No Live Blog This Week

I will have to be out of town this Saturday when South Carolina defends the UCFC against Troy, so I will not be live-blogging that game. I plan to post a report on the game Saturday night.

I will predict, however, that Carolina will defend the UCFC, thus setting up a showdown for the title with cross-state rival Clemson.

Troy

Troy University was founded as a normal school in 1887 in Troy, Alabama. At that time, it was called the Troy State Normal School. In 1929, it became Troy State Teachers College, and it awarded its first baccalaureate degree in 1931. In 1957, it became Troy State College, and in 1967 it became Troy State University. And I still think of it as Troy State. But in 2005, it was renamed again, and is now simply Troy University.

For a long time, Troy played in the NAIA -- in fact, they were NAIA national champs in 1968. But they've been moving up. In 1984 and 1987, they won the NCAA Division II national titles. In 2001, they joined Division I-A. They've done quite well, establishing themselves as a power in the Sun Belt Conference, which they have won four years in a row. But today they were beaten by Florida International 52-35, so they are now one game behind FIU in the Sun Belt standings.

Troy has scheduled very aggressively, and has actually played for the UCFC three times, losing all three games:

October 6, 2001: Miami (Fla.) 38, Troy 7
September 8, 2007: Florida 59, Troy 31
September 12, 2009: Florida 56, Troy 6

We'll see if they do any better next week.

Florida 14 - 36 S. Carolina (Final)

OK, I was totally wrong. Carolina not only won, they won in style. Against all expectations, the SEC title game will be S. Carolina v. Auburn.

This is a great triumph for Steve Spurrier, who completes a very sweet double with wins over Nick Saban and Urban Meyer, and takes the SEC East title in the very Swamp that he made famous.

So, for the fifth time this year, we have a new holder of the UCFC. We started off with Alabama, who lost to South Carolina, who lost to Kentucky, who lost to Georgia, who lost to Florida, who lost to South Carolina. What a crazy year.

Florida's record in UCFC games falls to 25-15. South Carolina's record in UCFC games improves to 5-12.

Next week, the Gamecocks will defend the title in their last home game of the season, they will be taking on the Troy Trojans.