and Marcus Lattimore comments in the media interview this weekend:
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Marcus' comments just get me fired up to see this team hit the field this year...
** “I feel good,” he said. “I know it’s a long process, but my knee feels great. I’m just taking it day by and day and it’s working.”
** Lattimore knew he was all the way back from his injury not too long ago.
“I would say when we started doing more agility drills in July,” he said. “I was doing it. I wasn’t thinking about it. I wasn’t thinking about cutting on it at all. It was just coming natural again. I would say around mid-July, everything just started feeling like I could do it again. That was it really.”
** Like many players, the injury brought about a realization of athletic mortality for Lattimore.
“Football is not going to last forever,” he said. “An injury can happen just like that and it can take away what you’ve been doing your whole life. I realized that and it just put a whole lot of things into perspective for me. It’s not going to change my style at all. I’m still going to run hard. I’m still going to do what I’ve been doing.”
** Unprompted, Lattimore brought up freshman cornerback Rico McWilliams, who suffered a left knee injury in Saturday’s practice that might require season-ending surgery. McWilliams likely would have redshirted this season anyway, but he never really got a chance to show off the fruits of his summer labor.
“I just want to recognize one of our future leaders, Rico McWilliams,” Lattimore said. “He had an injury last night and my season, every time I go out there, that’s who I’m going to think about, because of the way he worked, Monday through Saturday. And we only worked out Monday through Thursday. He worked the whole summer. He did everything he could. He treated me with respect and you can ask anybody in the locker room how he treated people.
“I know he’s hurting right now, but he’s going to get through it because he had an ACL before and he came back faster. Every time I go out there, that’s who I’m thinking about this whole season, and running hard for him.”
** Lattimore, who began doing 7-on-7 workouts in mid-June, has no regrets about some of his games with a lot of carries over the past two seasons, and isn’t thinking about the wear and tear that might have put on his body before the injury.
“I love carrying the ball,” he said. “I love it when I’m in the zone and it’s third and three or third and four. I don’t even think about how many carries I’ve got. I’m just going as hard as I can. It happened for a reason.”
** He probably won’t carry 40 times a game this season, because USC has a deeper backfield now, with Kenny Miles, Brandon Wilds and Carson.
“Our goal is to be the best running back group in America,” Lattimore said. “There ain’t no reason we can’t. We want to be like LSU. They’ve got four or five guys they use the whole game and they just keep pushing and pushing and they wear the defenses down. That’s how we want to be this year.”
Another reason USC might not lean on Lattimore as much every game this season, according to Lattimore himself: “I think we’re going to throw the ball a lot more than we did last year because we’re completing more in practice. That’s easy to say.”
“Our offensive linemen are doing nothing but getting better every day,” he said. “They’re not going to see another d-line as big and as fast and as quick as ours. So when we get in the game, I kind of know it’s going to be a little bit easier. That’s good for us as a unit.”
Spurrier's comments...
** “We’ve got a pretty good team,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ve got a great team. ... We’ve been impressed with our quarterbacks and our receivers thus far. I told the guys earlier today that we’re actually hitting more passes during our little pass skel 7-on-7 passing than we ever have around here. Dylan Thompson and Connor Shaw, they both seem to know where to throw the ball and when to throw it. The receivers are running pretty good routes. Hopefully that will carry over. We don’t know yet. But we hope and believe we’re going to have a better passing game. That would be fun, wouldn’t it? Seeing the ball going in the air and somebody catching it.”
Spurrier grinned. Throwing the ball as rarely as USC did last season (36 percent of the time) is uncommon for his offense. The Gamecocks ranked No. 104 nationally with 24.4 pass attempts per game. In 2010, they were No. 82 (27.8). In 2009, they were No. 37 (33.8). In 2008, they were No. 28 (34.8). And in 2007, they were No. 33 (36.9). Spurrier catered his offense to its strengths the past two seasons – Lattimore’s feet in 2010, Shaw’s feet in 2011, after Lattimore was hurt.
** Spurrier actually heaped some praise on his quarterbacks at media day, but it’s still early.
“Dylan Thompson, if something happens to Connor, we have confidence that he can go play,” he said. “He’s 6-3, he can run around, he can make all the throws. Dylan and Connor are real students of the game. They come up here and watch tape, just the two of them a lot, and throw the ball most afternoons during the summer from what I’ve heard. These are two guys that are really going to be good. They warm up with each other all the time. We’re pretty confident that we’ve got two quarterbacks that can get the ball in the air to our receivers.”
** Spurrier said Lattimore, among running backs, is “one of the best in the nation, if not the best,” and that he has completely moved
on from his injury.
“In practice, there’s no even thinking about it,” Spurrier said. “Our defense is sort of pulling the ball out. The other day, we were watching the tape and about two or three of them were waiting on Marcus and he just lowered his pads and went right through them. We said, ‘Now that’s how you eliminate guys trying to pull the ball out and cause a fumble.’ He doesn’t even think about it. We don’t really even talk about it.”
** But a deep backfield doesn’t necessarily mean more two-back sets, Spurrier said.
“I don’t know if we’ll use two-back that much more, because we did use a lot last year,” he said. “We were in two-back quite a bit. We’re still probably going to spread it out more than that. Some weeks maybe more than others, just depending on where the game plan is. Our offense is a little of both. It’s sort of a combination (of two-back and one-back spread sets).”
** He does expect to incorporate his tight ends more, with freshmen Kelvin Rainey, Jerell Adams and Drew Owens, a redshirt, joining Rory Anderson and Justice Cunningham. Spurrier really likes Adams.
“We’ve never had the kind of tight ends that we have here right now,” Spurrier said. “(Adams) is a big-time talent. Jerell is 6-5, runs about a 4.55 or something, 240. He’s impressive. We’ll use a lot of two tight end offense. It’s hard to get it to all of them.”
** Spurrier reflected on his experience with knee ligament tears. Surgery to repair them is now common, and guys routinely come back from those injuries, which wasn’t always the case.
“Certainly, the doctors are much more advanced than they were 20, 30, 40 years ago,” he said. “In fact, I was actually at the game (in 1968) when Gale Sayers got hurt. I was on the bench with the 49ers. He never came back from it. He had an injury very similar to Marcus, and actually R.G. Griffin III had one I think two or three years ago, and he came back from a ligament repair surgery. They come back just as strong. The first day of practice, I said, ‘Marcus, are you doing everything? Are you cutting left, right?’ He said, ‘Everything, coach. Don’t worry about it. I’m ready.’**
** Spurrier relayed an amusing anecdote about increased expectations at USC.
“I came out of the Dodie (academic center) cafeteria yesterday and one of the guys that works on campus or something said, ‘Hey, coach, are we going to have a winning record this year?’ I said, ‘Winning record? Our goals have gone a little bit past winning record.’ I started thinking that was probably what you used to say around here. That was the question. I hadn’t heard it in a long time. If we go 7-6, that wouldn’t be a very good year for us. We’ve sort of built it up.”
yeah I am pretty excited about seeing what 2012 holds for this team
http://www.postandcourier.com/section/spurofthemoment?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&UID=6076b782-972c-43ee-b7e6-6c16fbce4f12&plckPostId=Blog%3a6076b782-972c-43ee-b7e6-6c16fbce4f12Post%3a6beb9e37-4e39-4661-a11c-5889378845ad&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest
Marcus' comments just get me fired up to see this team hit the field this year...
** “I feel good,” he said. “I know it’s a long process, but my knee feels great. I’m just taking it day by and day and it’s working.”
** Lattimore knew he was all the way back from his injury not too long ago.
“I would say when we started doing more agility drills in July,” he said. “I was doing it. I wasn’t thinking about it. I wasn’t thinking about cutting on it at all. It was just coming natural again. I would say around mid-July, everything just started feeling like I could do it again. That was it really.”
** Like many players, the injury brought about a realization of athletic mortality for Lattimore.
“Football is not going to last forever,” he said. “An injury can happen just like that and it can take away what you’ve been doing your whole life. I realized that and it just put a whole lot of things into perspective for me. It’s not going to change my style at all. I’m still going to run hard. I’m still going to do what I’ve been doing.”
** Unprompted, Lattimore brought up freshman cornerback Rico McWilliams, who suffered a left knee injury in Saturday’s practice that might require season-ending surgery. McWilliams likely would have redshirted this season anyway, but he never really got a chance to show off the fruits of his summer labor.
“I just want to recognize one of our future leaders, Rico McWilliams,” Lattimore said. “He had an injury last night and my season, every time I go out there, that’s who I’m going to think about, because of the way he worked, Monday through Saturday. And we only worked out Monday through Thursday. He worked the whole summer. He did everything he could. He treated me with respect and you can ask anybody in the locker room how he treated people.
“I know he’s hurting right now, but he’s going to get through it because he had an ACL before and he came back faster. Every time I go out there, that’s who I’m thinking about this whole season, and running hard for him.”
** Lattimore, who began doing 7-on-7 workouts in mid-June, has no regrets about some of his games with a lot of carries over the past two seasons, and isn’t thinking about the wear and tear that might have put on his body before the injury.
“I love carrying the ball,” he said. “I love it when I’m in the zone and it’s third and three or third and four. I don’t even think about how many carries I’ve got. I’m just going as hard as I can. It happened for a reason.”
** He probably won’t carry 40 times a game this season, because USC has a deeper backfield now, with Kenny Miles, Brandon Wilds and Carson.
“Our goal is to be the best running back group in America,” Lattimore said. “There ain’t no reason we can’t. We want to be like LSU. They’ve got four or five guys they use the whole game and they just keep pushing and pushing and they wear the defenses down. That’s how we want to be this year.”
Another reason USC might not lean on Lattimore as much every game this season, according to Lattimore himself: “I think we’re going to throw the ball a lot more than we did last year because we’re completing more in practice. That’s easy to say.”
“Our offensive linemen are doing nothing but getting better every day,” he said. “They’re not going to see another d-line as big and as fast and as quick as ours. So when we get in the game, I kind of know it’s going to be a little bit easier. That’s good for us as a unit.”
Spurrier's comments...
** “We’ve got a pretty good team,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ve got a great team. ... We’ve been impressed with our quarterbacks and our receivers thus far. I told the guys earlier today that we’re actually hitting more passes during our little pass skel 7-on-7 passing than we ever have around here. Dylan Thompson and Connor Shaw, they both seem to know where to throw the ball and when to throw it. The receivers are running pretty good routes. Hopefully that will carry over. We don’t know yet. But we hope and believe we’re going to have a better passing game. That would be fun, wouldn’t it? Seeing the ball going in the air and somebody catching it.”
Spurrier grinned. Throwing the ball as rarely as USC did last season (36 percent of the time) is uncommon for his offense. The Gamecocks ranked No. 104 nationally with 24.4 pass attempts per game. In 2010, they were No. 82 (27.8). In 2009, they were No. 37 (33.8). In 2008, they were No. 28 (34.8). And in 2007, they were No. 33 (36.9). Spurrier catered his offense to its strengths the past two seasons – Lattimore’s feet in 2010, Shaw’s feet in 2011, after Lattimore was hurt.
** Spurrier actually heaped some praise on his quarterbacks at media day, but it’s still early.
“Dylan Thompson, if something happens to Connor, we have confidence that he can go play,” he said. “He’s 6-3, he can run around, he can make all the throws. Dylan and Connor are real students of the game. They come up here and watch tape, just the two of them a lot, and throw the ball most afternoons during the summer from what I’ve heard. These are two guys that are really going to be good. They warm up with each other all the time. We’re pretty confident that we’ve got two quarterbacks that can get the ball in the air to our receivers.”
** Spurrier said Lattimore, among running backs, is “one of the best in the nation, if not the best,” and that he has completely moved
on from his injury.
“In practice, there’s no even thinking about it,” Spurrier said. “Our defense is sort of pulling the ball out. The other day, we were watching the tape and about two or three of them were waiting on Marcus and he just lowered his pads and went right through them. We said, ‘Now that’s how you eliminate guys trying to pull the ball out and cause a fumble.’ He doesn’t even think about it. We don’t really even talk about it.”
** But a deep backfield doesn’t necessarily mean more two-back sets, Spurrier said.
“I don’t know if we’ll use two-back that much more, because we did use a lot last year,” he said. “We were in two-back quite a bit. We’re still probably going to spread it out more than that. Some weeks maybe more than others, just depending on where the game plan is. Our offense is a little of both. It’s sort of a combination (of two-back and one-back spread sets).”
** He does expect to incorporate his tight ends more, with freshmen Kelvin Rainey, Jerell Adams and Drew Owens, a redshirt, joining Rory Anderson and Justice Cunningham. Spurrier really likes Adams.
“We’ve never had the kind of tight ends that we have here right now,” Spurrier said. “(Adams) is a big-time talent. Jerell is 6-5, runs about a 4.55 or something, 240. He’s impressive. We’ll use a lot of two tight end offense. It’s hard to get it to all of them.”
** Spurrier reflected on his experience with knee ligament tears. Surgery to repair them is now common, and guys routinely come back from those injuries, which wasn’t always the case.
“Certainly, the doctors are much more advanced than they were 20, 30, 40 years ago,” he said. “In fact, I was actually at the game (in 1968) when Gale Sayers got hurt. I was on the bench with the 49ers. He never came back from it. He had an injury very similar to Marcus, and actually R.G. Griffin III had one I think two or three years ago, and he came back from a ligament repair surgery. They come back just as strong. The first day of practice, I said, ‘Marcus, are you doing everything? Are you cutting left, right?’ He said, ‘Everything, coach. Don’t worry about it. I’m ready.’**
** Spurrier relayed an amusing anecdote about increased expectations at USC.
“I came out of the Dodie (academic center) cafeteria yesterday and one of the guys that works on campus or something said, ‘Hey, coach, are we going to have a winning record this year?’ I said, ‘Winning record? Our goals have gone a little bit past winning record.’ I started thinking that was probably what you used to say around here. That was the question. I hadn’t heard it in a long time. If we go 7-6, that wouldn’t be a very good year for us. We’ve sort of built it up.”
yeah I am pretty excited about seeing what 2012 holds for this team
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