As a Georgia football fan, I hated South Carolina, but I loved Marcus Lattimore

I am a die-hard Georgia football fan who hates all things South Carolina, but despite that, I couldn’t help but respect, admire and love Marcus Lattimore.

Rivalries are what make college football the best sport in the world.

Every fall, every game matters. Your favorite team can maybe afford to lose one game and still vie for the College Football Playoff. That’s not easy when you have to put your trust in 18 to 23-year-olds to remain consistent. What makes this even more challenging is every school has at least three teams who would love nothing more than to beat you and ruin your season in the process.

For a good bit of my time at the University of Georgia, that team was the South Carolina Gamecocks.

While the Auburn Tigers, the Florida Gators and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are the Georgia Bulldogs’ three most hated rivals historically, South Carolina has become an annual nuisance since joining the SEC back in 1992. The rivalry only intensified once the “Head Ball Coach” arrived in Columbia in 2005 after not doing so hot in the NFL with the Washington Redskins.

Steve Spurrier embarrassed the Dawgs regularly during his decade of dominance at the helm of the Florida Gators. If a Dawg was lucky, one of his teams may beat the Gators down in Jacksonville once before he graduated. Naturally, Georgia fans were ecstatic to see Spurrier leave for the nation’s capital in 2002 but weren’t overly thrilled when he returned to the SEC East in 2005.

It took a few years, but Spurrier got back to beating Georgia routinely at the apex of South Carolina football in the early 2010s. There were plenty of great players who rocked the garnet in Carolina for Spurrier. There was Stephen Garcia, Connor Shaw and Alshon Jeffery on offense, as well as Stephon Gilmore and Jadeveon Clowney on defense.

However, there was only one Marcus Lattimore.

There is no position more revered in the annals of SEC football than running back. Seemingly every school that matters has at least a few their fanbase collectively salivates over. Arkansas has Darren McFadden. Auburn has Bo Jackson. Florida has Emmitt Smith. Georgia has Herschel Walker. South Carolina has George Rogers, but he was before the Gamecocks were in the SEC.

Lattimore was well on his way to being that guy for South Carolina.

As a freshman in 2010, Lattimore had 249 carries for 1,197 yards and 17 rushing touchdowns. He also had 29 catches for 412 yards and two additional trips to pay dirt out of the backfield. South Carolina won the SEC East that year, only to fall to Cam Newton‘s Auburn team in Atlanta. Lattimore was named First-Team All-SEC and SEC Freshman of the Year.

His future was so bright.

Lattimore was well on his way to another 1,000-yard season on the ground for the Gamecocks in 2011. In seven games, he had 163 carries for 818 yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. Sadly, he tore his ACL in October vs. the Mississippi State Bulldogs and had to miss the rest of the season. Despite only playing in seven games, Lattimore still made Second-Team All-SEC. Who does that?

With a little bit less than a year’s worth of recovery time, Lattimore returned to the gridiron for South Carolina in his junior season of 2012. Once again, Lattimore picked up right where he left off, running all over the SEC competition. Though a tad off his pace of five yards per carry as a sophomore, Lattimore still had a decent shot at getting to 1,000 yards again for the Gamecocks.

Then, the unthinkable happened…

Lattimore tore every ligament in his right knee vs. the Tennessee Volunteers. There was a dislocation and he also suffered nerve damage. Even though he starred for a rival team, I was devastated. It felt like we were robbed of seeing the next great SEC running back of his Heisman season. Johnny Manziel would win it a few weeks later, but Lattimore would have had his shot.

South Carolina finished the 2012 season with an 11-2 (6-2) record and a No. 8 final AP ranking. Four SEC East teams finished the year ranked in the top 25: Georgia (No. 5), South Carolina, Florida (No. 9) and Vanderbilt (No. 23). It was one of the best seasons the SEC East has ever had, yet its best player that year had to watch the final third of it from the sidelines, never to return.

Lattimore would leave school a year early and entered the 2013 NFL Draft. With multiple knee injuries already, could you really blame him? He went in the fourth round to the San Francisco 49ers. Despite signing a four-year rookie contract, he never played in a regular-season game for Jim Harbaugh, retiring at the age of 23.

Without a Heisman Trophy, a national championship or even an SEC Championship to call his own, Lattimore’s brilliant college will, unfortunately, get lost to time. In some ways, he was the Marcus Dupree of the SEC, the best that never was. But I knew how good he was during his time at South Carolina. The guy went 3-0 vs. my Dawgs in college. Not many people can say that these days.

I hate South Carolina so much, but I will always have the utmost respect for Marcus Lattimore.

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