Best South Carolina football players: Modern-era Mount Rushmore – From Rogers to Clowney
By Ethan Lee
Marcus Lattimore
Marcus Lattimore‘s career was truly a special one and it’s an incredible shame that it was cut short by injuries. Lattimore was versatile, dynamic and powerful, making him essentially the perfect running back for the Southeastern Conference. And Spurrier’s teams definitely benefitted from having Lattimore on the field.
Lattimore played for the Gamecocks from 2010 to 2012. His best season came as a freshman when he ran for 1,197 yards and an astonishing 17 touchdowns. While he only gained 4.8 yards per carry, Lattimore was still a dominant running back who opponents could not stop.
His next two seasons were still really good, but a couple of injuries sidelined the star running back. Getting dinged up against Mississippi State in 2011 and then in 2012 against Tennessee likely prevented Lattimore from reaching his full potential.
That didn’t mean that he didn’t have a good career though.
In total, Lattimore ran for 2,677 yards and 38 touchdowns. It’s important to note just how versatile Lattimore was. In addition to all of those rushing yards and touchdowns, Lattimore caught 74 passes for 767 yards and three more touchdowns.
In just 29 games, Lattimore had 3,444 yards from scrimmage and 41 touchdowns.
Arguably the best running back in the country when healthy, Lattimore was a consistent scoring threat and was someone defenses did not look forward to dealing with. While devastating knee injuries ultimately hindered his college football playing career, Lattimore was still able to show just how great of an athlete he was during his time on the field.