They escaped in an Escape.

Is this the most South Carolina lede ever?

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Deputies are looking for a gun toting woman with a goatee who stole hundreds of dollars of Gamecock merchandise from a K-Mart in Lexington County recently.

If the goatee turns out to be a disguise, I’m going to be disappointed.

Also, I can’t stop laughing over the “Related” box.

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“Be the hammer and not the nail.”

That’s Merritt Hall’s advice to self on blocking Jadeveon Clowney.

Explosive

Georgia has 11 touchdowns of 30+ yards this season, 1 fewer than all last season; lead FBS with 43 plays of 20+ yards this season.

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 4, 2012

I think you know whom to blame.  Round up the usual suspects.

How “back” is Marcus Lattimore, anyway?

His coach hopes all the way.

Spurrier had one of his trademark one-liners ready when asked Sunday about the health of Lattimore, who had knee surgery last year.

“I hope he’s where he was when he ran against Georgia two years ago,” Spurrier said with a laugh, alluding to Lattimore’s 182-yard performance, when he carried it 37 times, “because that was sort of his coming-out day here at Williams-Brice two years ago.”

And he is behind last season’s rushing pace.

237: Number of rushing yards short of last year’s total through five games for South Carolina’s Marcus Lattimore, who enters the Georgia game with 440 yards on 92 carries (4.78 yards per carry). Through five games last year, Lattimore, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament nearly a year ago, had 677 yards on 124 carries (5.46 ypc). Lattimore has been productive in 2011 with eight rushing touchdowns and his signature vision and patience through the line. Will he fully regain his explosiveness and cutting ability of old? If he hasn’t, there’s still time for that. Look at Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who tore his ACL in December and looked stronger in Week 4 than in Week 1.

But if you look a little more carefully at his stats this season, it doesn’t seem that he was that far off to begin with.  He’s been a very productive player in 2012:

• Second in the conference in rushing attempts
• Top twenty in the SEC in receptions (and first among running backs)
• Sixteenth in the SEC in total offensive plays (and second among running backs)

Further, if you compare this year’s stats to his prior work, he’s pretty much on the same pace he was on his sensational freshman season.  He projects out to 239 rushing attempts this year, compared to 249 in 2010, but he’s also on a pace to catch 41 passes, which is more than the 29 he caught two years ago.  His average yards per carry is also close:  4.78 vs. 4.81.

If there are any differences of note, maybe it’s these:  his average yards per reception has dropped steadily, from 14.21 in 2010 to 9.58 in 2011 to his current 6.81; and his yards per rush are down from last year.  How much of that is him and how much of that is how Spurrier has tweaked his offense based on the change from Garcia to Shaw is hard to say.

But overall, what I see is a coach who’s managed his best player on offense carefully and well.  Last week was Lattimore’s season high in carries.  I expect him to have plenty in the tank to try to repeat the experiences Georgia’s defense suffered through the last two season.

Friday morning buffet

Nom nom nom…

• Aaron Murray has a legitimate shot at setting the Georgia career touchdown passing record tomorrow.  (He’d trade that for a win, though.  Duh.)
• Les Miles, on his big-ass fullback J. C. Copeland:  “He is a large man. He will continue to be that.”
• Charlie Weis knows what separates the great coaches from the rest – attention to detail.
• John Pennington reports that the nine-game conference schedule is back on the table for the SEC, because of the need for product for the SEC Network.  Fine by me.
• Pat Dye isn’t man enough to pick a winner in the Georgia-South Carolina game.
• Geno Smith’s numbers are insane.
• Georgia racks up 544 yards of offense tomorrow… and loses?  I can see that happening, with a few untimely turnovers and whatnot.
• Despite having more scholarship players on its roster, South Carolina has played the same number of kids on scholarship this season as Georgia has.

Montana takes note of Gurshall.

Very nice piece by Stewart Mandel on Georgia’s freshman running duo here.  At least one coach knew what he had early on:

“I felt we were gonna be OK [after Crowell’s dismissal],” said Georgia running backs coach Bryan McClendon. “I knew I was going to play both of those guys already.”

The most impressive thing in the story isn’t what the coaches have to say about the two.  It’s the chart comparing freshman running back pairs who have played in the SEC in the last decade or so.  Gurley and Marshall have  already surpassed what Williams and Brown did at Auburn in their first year and have a legit shot at outdoing McFadden/Jones.  Whoa.