COLUMBIA — He’s all grown up now, more confident in himself.
Marcus Lattimore is no longer the awkwardly shy freshman he was a couple years ago when he was a highly recruited high school player who hadn’t experienced much in the big world.
That’s what a serious knee ligament injury did for the South Carolina junior running back.
“It transformed me,” Lattimore said moments after a news conference Sunday, the first time he’s spoken publicly since rehabilitating from torn knee ligaments in a game at Starkville, Miss. last season.
“For me,” he said, “the whole thing was a test. It put me in a situation where I had to decide what to do with myself. If you aren’t a man when you get through this, I don’t know how you can do it, because the rehab will break you unless you can find a way to stay positive.”
Lattimore, possibly the best running back in the Southeast and one of a handful of the best nationally, said he used his religion to help him get through difficult moments, but now that he’s gone through the rehabilitation and come out on the other side, he sees the whole process as a major benefit to him as a football player and a person.
“I talked to a lot of guys (who had similar injuries), and the thing that kept coming back was that it’s all a mind thing,” he said. “Guys told me, ‘After nine months you just gotta’ know you’re better, you got to keep that in your mind and it will make you a better player.’”
People of a certain age who follow football might read that last part and shake their head in doubt. Get a knee injury and become a better player?
Oh, my, things have changed, haven’t they?
“It’s not like it used to be,” said South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier, who happened to be a backup quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers in 1968 when they were playing the Chicago Bears. “I was at that game when Gayle Sayers tore his knee up, I was on the bench when it happened. He never came back.”
The coach’s legendary memory recall is very good, but not perfect. He was on the bench, backing up John Brodie for the Niners when Sayers, one of the best backs of all time, suffered his first knee injury in 1968. He came back from that one with the emotional help of friend and fellow running back Brian Piccolo, but his second knee injury in 1970 put him out of the game.
“So much has changed since then,” Spurrier said. “The advancements in medicine, all that, has made it not the threat it used to be.”
But with Lattimore back, the Gamecocks are threatening to everyone. A Top 10 preseason pick, South Carolina’s running game with Lattimore and three or four others he believes are ready to step into the rotation with him, should be one of the strongest in the country.
Funny thing, you can say the same thing about the Carolina defensive front.
link: http://bleacherreport.com/tb/d8av6?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=south-carolina-football
Marcus Lattimore is no longer the awkwardly shy freshman he was a couple years ago when he was a highly recruited high school player who hadn’t experienced much in the big world.
That’s what a serious knee ligament injury did for the South Carolina junior running back.
“It transformed me,” Lattimore said moments after a news conference Sunday, the first time he’s spoken publicly since rehabilitating from torn knee ligaments in a game at Starkville, Miss. last season.
“For me,” he said, “the whole thing was a test. It put me in a situation where I had to decide what to do with myself. If you aren’t a man when you get through this, I don’t know how you can do it, because the rehab will break you unless you can find a way to stay positive.”
Lattimore, possibly the best running back in the Southeast and one of a handful of the best nationally, said he used his religion to help him get through difficult moments, but now that he’s gone through the rehabilitation and come out on the other side, he sees the whole process as a major benefit to him as a football player and a person.
“I talked to a lot of guys (who had similar injuries), and the thing that kept coming back was that it’s all a mind thing,” he said. “Guys told me, ‘After nine months you just gotta’ know you’re better, you got to keep that in your mind and it will make you a better player.’”
People of a certain age who follow football might read that last part and shake their head in doubt. Get a knee injury and become a better player?
Oh, my, things have changed, haven’t they?
“It’s not like it used to be,” said South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier, who happened to be a backup quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers in 1968 when they were playing the Chicago Bears. “I was at that game when Gayle Sayers tore his knee up, I was on the bench when it happened. He never came back.”
The coach’s legendary memory recall is very good, but not perfect. He was on the bench, backing up John Brodie for the Niners when Sayers, one of the best backs of all time, suffered his first knee injury in 1968. He came back from that one with the emotional help of friend and fellow running back Brian Piccolo, but his second knee injury in 1970 put him out of the game.
“So much has changed since then,” Spurrier said. “The advancements in medicine, all that, has made it not the threat it used to be.”
But with Lattimore back, the Gamecocks are threatening to everyone. A Top 10 preseason pick, South Carolina’s running game with Lattimore and three or four others he believes are ready to step into the rotation with him, should be one of the strongest in the country.
Funny thing, you can say the same thing about the Carolina defensive front.
link: http://bleacherreport.com/tb/d8av6?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=south-carolina-football