Greatest Gamecock bracket: Finals
The final match up of the Greatest Gamecock is officially here, and it’s a great one.
Two of the best Gamecocks ever will square off to see which one is officially the Greatest Gamecock to come through Columbia with George Rogers and Michael Roth going head to head over the next 24 hours.
The two have two national championships, a national player of the year award and some All-American honors as well between them.
Voting can be done on the Fighting Gamecocks Forum and is completely free.
Rogers is fresh off a dominating victory over Clint Mathis, garnering around 97 percent of the vote in his Final Four match.
Roth squeaked out a thin win over another program great, A’ja Wilson, picking up just over 51 percent of the vote to move onto the finals.
To get to the Final Four, Rogers took down some of the biggest names and most popular athletes ever at South Carolina, beating Steve Taneyhill, Stephon Gilmore, Marcus Lattimore and finally Connor Shaw.
Roth on the other hand took care of other greats from the baseball program starting with David Marchbanks and continuing on with Whit Merrifield, Justin Smoak and Jackie Bradley Jr. to advance to the Final Four.
Both have their places in Gamecock lore with Rogers the program’s only Heisman winner and arguably the best player in program history.
Roth etched his place into history after getting a start in the College World Series against Clemson en route to a title in 2010 before turning into the best pitcher in college baseball for two seasons that ended with three trips to Omaha and two national championships.
A full breakdown of the matchup is below.
(1) George Rogers vs. (1) Michael Roth
The former No. 1 pick and program's lone Heisman winner and arguably the best running back to come through the program. Rogers finished his career with 5,091 yards and 33 total touchdowns in four seasons at South Carolina and still holds plenty of school records 40 years after his college days are done. His No. 38 is retired by the school.
Roth was the best pitcher in college baseball for two years, helping lead the Gamecocks to three straight College World Series championship series and two national championships. He's an All-American and considered one of the best college baseball players of all time. He has two of the best seasons in terms of ERA all-time at South Carolina (1.35 in 2010 and 1.00 in 2011) and the bullpen at Founders Park is named after him.
