Marcus Lattimore suffers a horrendous leg injury against Tennessee (WARNING DISTURBING VIDEO)

(**WARNING: the video above shows a gruesome injury. 

You may not want to watch if you are squeamish.**)

The entire college football world will be praying for Marcus Lattimore.

The South Carolina running back, who tore an ACL last year and battled all the way back, suffered an injury that looked as ugly as any we've ever seen.

Lattimore, considered one of if not the top running back for next year's NFL Draft had he decided to come out a year early, was running to his left. Tennessee defensive back Eric Gordon tackled him low, and Lattimore's leg collapsed. When he went down, replays showed what clearly looked like a dislocation in his leg. It was a terrible injury that will be remembered alongside Joe Theismann, Napoleon McCallum, Tyrone Prothro and many other grisly injuries that serve as a reminder how violent football can be.

"It looked severe on the field," South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said during his halftime interview with ESPN. "Hopefully it's not as severe as we thought."

Players from both sides came onto the field to show support for Lattimore, who was just named captain this week by his teammates. Tennessee's defensive players, in a class move, came over and consoled Lattimore as he was loaded onto the cart. Lattimore rode off the field with a towel over his head, covering his eyes. ESPN showed his family on the sideline, obviously emotional as the reality of what had just happened to Marcus started to sink in. ESPN said later that Lattimore and his mother embraced for about five minutes as he came off the field, and both were crying. Within minutes, Marcus Lattimore was the top trending topic on Twitter.

We hope the injury wasn't as bad as it looked. We hope Lattimore, a junior, can rehabilitate and get back on track for what looked like a promising NFL career. ESPN announcers Brian Griese and Dave Pasch brought up the example of Willis McGahee, who had an awful looking knee injury in college and came back to have a very good pro career. That should give Lattimore some hope, assuming his injuries can be repaired and he can return to football.

It looks like it will be a long road back for Lattimore. We'll be rooting for him.

Via: SportsYahoo

Gamecocks lose Lattimore, 

Vols face choice; more Snap Judgments

• No. 17 South Carolina 38, Tennessee 35: The Gamecocks survived the loss of Marcus Lattimore to a gruesome-looking leg injury and then survived a Tennessee rally when Jadeveon Clowney did what Jadeveon Clowney does: hit the quarterback and jarred the ball loose.

South Carolina will have to rely on Kenny Miles to carry the load at tailback now. Hopefully, Lattimore can eventually recover from his injury and resume his football career. Lattimore is a great player, a great leader and, by all accounts, a fine person. It was obvious Saturday how beloved and respected he is when South Carolina and Tennessee players crowded around him to wish him well as trainers examined him.

The loss brings up a fascinating dilemma for Tennessee, meanwhile. Anyone with eyes would admit the Volunteers are better than they were last year. But that improvement hasn't materialized in the win column. Tennessee's SEC losses have come against teams that, as of 4 p.m. Saturday, had a combined record of 34-3. Unfortunately for coach Derek Dooley, that isn't an acceptable excuse for a program that aspires to be among the SEC's elite on an annual basis.

Sure, Tennessee might beat Missouri, Vanderbilt and Kentucky -- or it might not -- but fourth in the SEC East is not the Volunteers' goal. Since Florida, Georgia and South Carolina don't appear to be getting any worse, Tennessee officials must make a choice: Are they happy with being an SEC also-ran, or do they want something more? The thousands of seats occupied by Alabama fans at Neyland Stadium last week suggest the team's current state is affecting the bottom line. Sometimes, a program must make a coaching change just to prime the donor pump. This appears to be one of those times. [RECAP | BOX]

• Texas 21, Kansas 17: It took a dropped interception by Kansas and some clutch throws by Case McCoy, but Texas survived the snakepit that is Lawrence with a win that certainly must give everyone hope for the future. What? You aren't hopeful? Sure, the Longhorns' final four opponents (Texas Tech, Iowa State, TCU and Kansas State) are all much, much better than Kansas. But imagine the alternative. Texas could have lost to the same team that fell to Rice and then been stuck on five wins heading into that set of completely losable games.

Texas looked terrible in the red zone Saturday and couldn't tackle Kansas tailback James Sims, but remember, it could have been worse. Longhorns coach Mack Brown very easily could have been contractually obligated to spend eleventy-billion hours this week explaining the loss on The Longhorn Network. [RECAP | BOX]

• Northwestern 28, Iowa 17: We covered this in The Walkthrough on Friday, but it bears repeating: If the Hawkeyes elect to fire Kirk Ferentz, they're on the hook for $250,000 a month to Ferentz until January 2020. That lead balloon of a contract kept non-existent NFL teams away from Ferentz, and it will probably keep the Hawkeyes under their current leadership for the foreseeable future.

Iowa was never close Saturday. Northwestern led 28-3 in the third thanks to three Kain Colter touchdown runs. The Wildcats bounced back from a painful loss to Nebraska, and depending on how things shake out later Saturday in Lincoln, they might remain in position to make the Big Ten Legends Division race quite interesting down the stretch. [RECAP | BOX]

• Ole Miss 30, Arkansas 27: Quite a few coaches have done great jobs this season, but do not overlook the job Hugh Freeze has done at Ole Miss. After taking over a team that went winless in SEC play in 2011, Freeze has the Rebels at the doorstep of bowl eligibility.

Bryson Rose hit a 31-yard field goal as time expired Saturday to give Ole Miss a win in Little Rock against an Arkansas team that had improved dramatically in recent weeks following a dreadful start to the season. The road to win No. 6 won't be easy. Vanderbilt is the most winnable game out of a group that includes visits to Georgia and LSU and the Egg Bowl. But if Freeze can pull it off -- given what he inherited -- he will have done one of the best coaching jobs in the country this season. [RECAP |BOX]

• North Carolina 43, NC State 35: Florida State fans, send any fruit baskets or any other thank-you gifts to Floridian Giovani Bernard in Chapel Hill. OK, don't do this. It would be an NCAA violation, and you wouldn't want to jeopardize the eligibility of Bernard, who, with his 73-yard punt return with 13 seconds remaining Saturday, beat NC State and eliminated -- at least temporarily -- the possibility of FSU getting shut out of the ACC title game.

North Carolina took a 25-7 first-quarter lead, gagged it away and then stormed back for 18 unanswered fourth-quarter points to beat the Wolfpack for the biggest win in Larry Fedora's brief tenure in Chapel Hill. There were 13 seconds on the clock last week when Duke scored to erase a North Carolina comeback and beat the Tar Heels. The number 13 was luckier for North Carolina this Saturday, and that luck was felt in Tallahassee. Had NC State beaten North Carolina, the Wolfpack's remaining schedule was soft enough that a win against Clemson in Raleigh on Nov. 17 probably would have allowed NC State to win the ACC Atlantic Division.

Via: Sportillustrated

Apple unveils iPad mini - VIDEOS

Apple marketing exec defends iPad Mini's $329 price

The tech giant enters the small-tablet market with a device priced from $329, about $130 more than similar-size tablets from its competitors. Underwhelmed investors send Apple stock lower.

Times technology writers Michelle Maltais, Andrea Chang and Salvador Rodriquez discuss the iPad mini and other new Apple products.

SAN JOSE — Apple Inc.'s new iPad is small in size but not low in price — and that's got consumers grumbling and Wall Street worried.

By launching a 7.9-inch iPad mini that is as thin as a pencil and as light as a pad of paper, Apple threw itself into the market for smaller tablets currently ruled by its rivals.

But with a higher-than-expected price for the device, the technology giant may run into difficulty stealing customers away from Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire HD or Google Inc.'s Nexus 7. The iPad mini starts at $329. Many analysts and consumers had hoped to see a starting price of $250.

Investors appeared to be disappointed, sending Apple's shares down $20.67, or 3.3%, to $613.36 on Tuesday after the company announced the new tablet at an invitation-only media event held at the California Theatre in downtown San Jose. Apple's stock has now fallen 12.4% since it released the iPhone 5 on Sept. 21.

Apple, which in the past had resisted making a smaller iPad, sought to emphasize that the mini was not inferior to its 9.7-inch device, which was unveiled in 2010 and has since dominated the tablet market.

"It is every inch an iPad," Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, told the crowd moments after introducing the long-rumored device.

"The full iPad experience. There's less of it, but no less to it," the company later reiterated.

But with it comes an Apple-worthy price tag. Many people pointed out that tablets with similar specs start at $199, including the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD. Amazon has been vocal about its strategy of making essentially no money from its hardware in favor of reaping profits from the sales of content such as digital music and e-books.

Apple, however, faced a high cost for iPad mini components and wasn't willing to give up its cushy profit margins, analysts said.

That leaves "significant room" for its rivals to build competing tablets at more attractive price points, said Abhey Lamba of Mizuho Securities in a note to investors. "We believe a price point of $250 to $300 would have gone a long way in keeping competition at bay."

Some consumers, too, were displeased.

"They dropped the ball," said Ryan Michaud, 24, an assistant editor at a Los Angeles entertainment production firm. He had hoped the iPad mini would be priced closer to competing tablets or would come with the high-resolution "retina" display included on the latest 9.7-inch iPad, which would better justify the price, he said.

But Bill Choi, an analyst at Janney Capital Markets, said although some investors were let down by the iPad mini's price, he expected the device would sell well among women and consumers 16 and younger.

"We don't think Apple needs to compete aggressively on price against mini-tablets" running Google's Android operating system, Choi said in a note to investors. "We recognize that competing 7-inch tablet products are priced starting at $199, but [we] see Apple providing a premium product with a superior ecosystem."

Longtime Apple analyst Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, also shrugged off pricing concerns for the iPad mini, which weighs 0.68-pound and is 0.28-inch thick. He said the device had at least one major advantage over many Android-powered tablets — more than 275,000 apps designed for the iPad mini — and predicted the Cupertino, Calif., company would sell 5 million to 7 million iPad minis worldwide in November and in December.

Apple already sells the world's bestselling tablet with the regular-size iPad. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company recently sold its 100 millionth iPad, 21/2 years after its debut, and said the iPad accounts for 91% of tablet Web traffic.

Analysts said Apple's move into the smaller-tablet market is a sign that the company doesn't want to cede ground to rivals amid a rapidly growing industry for portable touchscreen devices.

Worldwide tablet shipments are expected to total 117.1 million units this year, according to International Data Corp., which last month increased its 2012 estimate thanks to robust consumer demand. The firm also revised upward its 2013 forecast number to 165.9 million units from 142.8 million. Last year, worldwide tablet shipments totaled 70.9 million units.

"We know we are just getting started," Cook said of the iPad product line. "We're not taking our foot off the gas."

The iPad mini, which will be available for pre-order Friday, will ship Nov. 2 for Wi-Fi-only versions and two weeks later for models that come with a cellular data plan. It comes in black and in white and is equipped with a FaceTime HD camera, iSight camera with HD video recording, speedy wireless and 10 hours of battery life.

At the media event, Apple also announced a slew of updates to existing products, including the fourth generation of its 9.7-inch iPad, a 13-inch MacBook Pro with retina display, an improved Mac mini computer and a redesigned iMac desktop computer with a 5-millimeter edge.

Cook also said more than 200 million devices are using iOS 6 since the operating system was released a month ago.

Via: LATimes

Syrian helicopter reportedly downed by rebels over Idlib - VIDEO

Syrian rebels claim to have downed helicopter over Idlid - dramatic footage

WARNING - DISTURBING VIDEO

By NBC News staff and wire services

A video reportedly shot by an amateur in the Syrian city of Idlib Wednesday shows a crippled Syrian military helicopter spiraling down before it explodes in flames. Syrian rebels say they shot down the helicopter, according to The Telegraph.

Syria's divided rebels have agreed to set up a joint leadership to oversee their battle to overthrow President Bashar Assad, two insurgent sources said Tuesday as fighting raged in cities across the country.

Rebels hope the decision, taken after increasing pressure from foreign supporters on them to unite, will help convince those backers that they are a credible and coordinated fighting force deserving to be supplied with more powerful weapons.

'Extremely dangerous': Assad forces use cluster bombs as rebels gain, rights group says

"The agreement has been reached, they only need to sign it now," one rebel source said. Foreign supporters "are telling us: 'Sort yourselves out and unite, we need a clear and credible side to provide it with quality weapons.'"

He said Qatar and Turkey were the main drivers behind the agreement, which he added might be formally announced this month.

Since the beginning of the revolt against Assad, Western powers have been reluctant to arm the divided rebel factions.

This is the latest attempt to bring together Assad's disparate armed opponents, most of whom have fought nominally under the banner of the rebel Free Syrian Army but who in practice have operated independently, often weakened by deep rivalries.

More weapons in Syria could trigger 'all-out war'

The new leadership will include FSA leaders Riad al-Asaad and Mustafa Sheikh - criticized by many rebels because they are based in Turkey - and recently defected Gen. Mohammad Haj Ali, as well as heads of rebel provincial military councils inside Syria like Qassem Saadeddine, based in Homs province.

Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area. 

The Syrian National Council has set Nov. 4 as the date for an opposition unity conference in Qatar, organizers said.

The 19-month-old revolt against Assad, which started as peaceful demonstrations, has mushroomed into a civil war, pitting the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against a power structure dominated by the Alawite minority.

Activists say more than 30,000 people have been killed, hundreds of thousands have fled to neighboring countries and more than a million have been displaced inside Syria as entire city districts have been rendered ghost towns by heavy shelling.

The British Observatory for Human Rights said 80 people had been killed in Syria by dusk on Tuesday, after 160 died on Monday. Heavy clashes broke out in the city of Hama, and fighting continued in Aleppo and the northern province of Idlib.

A Reuters correspondent on Lebanon's northeastern border with Syria saw a helicopter dropping explosives on the Syrian side of the frontier. Refugees unloading blankets from a pickup truck in an olive grove on the Lebanese side stopped to watch big black plumes of smoke rising into the sky.

Underlining increasing international concern about the conflict, Pope Benedict will send a group of top cardinals to visit Syria in coming days to express solidarity with its battered population, the Vatican news service said.

Envoy seeks ceasefire

U.N.-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi has called on Shiite Muslim Iran, Assad's closest regional ally, to help arrange a ceasefire in Syria during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha later this month.

Diplomatic sources said Brahimi is also trying to persuade Assad and the rebels to accept a ceasefire and allow U.N. monitors into the country to oversee it.

Brahimi, who took over after Kofi Annan quit in frustration in August, has been traveling around the Middle East trying to nudge regional powers into accepting his plan, which resembles a ceasefire Annan tried in vain to implement, U.N. diplomats said.

Advertise | AdChoices

But diplomatic sources familiar with Brahimi's proposals said that neither Assad's government nor the fractious opposition had shown interest in halting the conflict.

Major powers at the United Nations remain deadlocked over what to do to defuse Syria's conflict.

Outgunned rebels have struggled to turn the tide of conflict against government forces endowed with tanks, jets and helicopter gunships. But Western powers have been reluctant to arm the insurgents because they perceive no coherent leadership and fear that weapons are ending up in the hands of Islamist militants increasingly evident in the conflict.

Mistrust and miscommunication have dominated relations between rebel brigades and each privately accuse the other of incompetence. Differences over leadership, tactics and sources of funding have also widened rifts between largely autonomous brigades scattered across Syria.

The rebel sources said countries who have supported the revolt but whose own rivalries have exacerbated rebel divisions agreed that it was time the rebels fight side by side.

"There will never be unity inside Syria unless the countries supporting the revolt agree because each group is supported and backed by (one) country," one source said.

"Now the countries are becoming nervous and the Syrian issue has become bigger than they expected and almost out of control."

Rebel leaders believe a common fighting front would enable coordination of multifaceted operations crucial to success against a better armed adversary.

"If a brigade wants to hit a (government) checkpoint,  then an intelligence unit would check it out and then raise a report up to the (regional) command. The command will take a decision on the number of men needed for this operation and the kind of weapons plus other issues," another rebel source said.

Reuters contributed to this report. 

Via: WorldNews