Tailback’s goal for junior season is to stay healthy after tearing ACL last season
After tearing his ACL at Mississippi State last season, sophomore tailback Marcus Lattimore said that on the day he started running again, he was happier than when he committed to South Carolina.
Lattimore has been running on land for about two months now, and he will begin cutting on May 2, which is ahead of the original schedule for his recovery. Spending the spring watching his teammates be able to do what he couldn’t in practice, Lattimore has used his injury as a way to improve in other ways as he enters his junior season with the goal of staying healthy.
“It was hard,” Lattimore said. “I said it all the time, just watching them run and do the things that I used to do is real hard. I just stay focused on getting better every day in some way. That’s learning my plays better — I feel like I’m a master of the offense now because I’ve studied it so much. I’m in the meeting room paying attention. I’m obviously getting stronger and getting my leg right while they’re practicing. I feel like I’m getting better every day.”
Prior to his ACL injury, Lattimore had tallied 818 yards on 163 attempts through seven games. In freshman year, Lattimore finished with 1,197 yards on 249 attempts, so he was on track to meet his freshman yardage total in 10 games. But with the volume of attempts, having as much as 37 carries in one game, Lattimore put a lot of pressure on his legs.
Without Lattimore, the pressure has been on the arms of the quarterbacks, which USC coach Steve Spurrier hasn’t always been happy with. Though the Gamecocks leaned on Lattimore at the start of last season, they’ll look to incorporate more of a true passing game in the coming season.
“I think right now the pressure is on us in the passing game,” said quarterback Connor Shaw. “When you get No. 21, (Lattimore) back, it takes it a little bit off our shoulders. His freshman year, we were pretty balanced. Everybody saw that when he came out, we had to adjust and persevere through that. It’ll be nice to get him back on the field.”
The Gamecocks turned to Kenny Miles and Brandon Wilds for the rushing offense when Lattimore went down. Through the spring, Miles has been practicing with the first team, with Wilds operating as the backup. Lattimore will be back to full strength in the fall, where he will also be joined by incoming tailbacks Mike Davis and Kendric Salley. Being an observer as opposed to a participant, Lattimore has gotten to see the team from a different perspective.
“We have a great team,” Lattimore said. “We have some guys out right now that are going to help us. Our defense could be just like last year — just relentless. Our offense looks great. Connor (Shaw) looks awesome. We just have a lot of talent, and we’ll put it all together this year.”
Lattimore has also been able to reflect on where things went wrong for his knee. He said the biggest lesson he learned is to not take anything for granted, as he said he hadn’t been doing everything to keep himself in the shape he was supposed to be in when he was playing. He wasn’t getting in the hot tub, cold tub, stretching and “just wasn’t doing the little things.” At the same time, he is as confident in his knee as he was the day he committed, though now he’s stronger and more knowledgeable.
“I have complete confidence in it right now,” Lattimore said. “If it happens again, it just happens again. I’m just going to let it fall wherever it goes and just follow the path that God has laid out for me. If it happens, it happens. I’ve got confidence in it right now.”