Tailback carted off field in second quarter against Tennessee
On Friday night, South Carolina junior tailback Marcus Lattimore stood before the team as a captain, telling everyone to play each snap like it could be their last.
On Saturday afternoon, Lattimore was on the ground, possibly having played his last snap as a Gamecock. He was carted off the field in the game against Tennessee during the second quarter with an “injury to several ligaments” in his right knee, according to team physician Dr. Jeffrey Guy. There were no other fractures or injuries to his right leg, and his surgically repaired left knee was uninjured, according to a release.
“He was just talking about it last night,” sophomore defensive end Jadeveon Clowney said Saturday. “It was just crazy how he went out. I couldn’t believe it.”
In his teleconference Sunday afternoon, USC coach Steve Spurrier said Lattimore had dislocated his knee and will not return this season, but he did not rule out the possibility of Lattimore redshirting the 2013 season and coming back in 2014. In a release, USC said Lattimore has already begun the process of “prerehabilitation” for his “eventual return to football.”
“There could be a chance it would be two years down the road — it could be a full year of recovery,” Spurrier said. “We’ll wait and see.”
The celebrations after the Gamecocks’ 38-35 win over Tennessee were tame. Earlier, there had been tears in the locker room at halftime. After the game, Lattimore’s dejected teammates seemed at a loss for words as they described the scene on the field.
“I just couldn’t get it out of my head, him laying down on the ground like that,” said sophomore wide receiver Bruce Ellington.
While he was being tackled high and low by Tennessee’s Herman Lathers and Eric Gordon, Lattimore’s knee turned the wrong way. Gordon’s helmet hit Lattimore’s right knee at full speed while the rest of his body was held up by Lathers.
“I saw that his knee was kind of facing the other way, and he was holding it,” said junior quarterback Connor Shaw. “He just couldn’t get his feet off the ground and got maybe an unfortunate tackle on him.”
The ball popped out of Lattimore’s hands as he hit the ground, but the play was blown dead instantly, as medical staff rushed to his side. He instantly pulled his helmet off, revealing a pained expression of his face before cloaking it with his pink-gloved hands.
As the staff tended to him, running back Kenny Miles, wide receiver Nick Jones and wide receiver Ace Sanders kneeled above him.
“I was really just trying to tell him to stay mentally strong,” Sanders said. “The look in his eyes when he was down on the ground — he was just really heartbroken about the injury. We were just trying to keep him strong and tell him to relax so the medical staff could do what they needed to do to secure the injury.”
Lattimore missed half of the 2011 season after tearing the ACL in his left knee. He had played in every game this season, tallying 65 yards on 11 carries and one touchdown against Tennessee before the injury. At the end of the season, he’ll have the option of forgoing his senior season and declaring for the NFL Draft.
“Maybe he’ll be back next year,” Spurrier said after the game. “Maybe it won’t be quite as severe as it happened on the field out there.”
Spurrier said Sunday that he’s optimistic Lattimore’s football days are ahead of him, mentioning a history of players who have recovered to a similar injury. Former Miami running back Willis McGahee suffered a similar injury in the 2002 national championship game, but went on to have an NFL career and now plays for the Denver Broncos.
After the staff tended to him on the field for several minutes Saturday, a cart drove to Lattimore’s side to transport him, prompting the entire South Carolina bench and half of Tennessee’s to surround him on the field, a sea of orange and garnet showing support and passing along well-wishes.
“Even opponents don’t ever trash-talk Marcus Lattimore,” Spurrier said. “They have so much respect for him. It’s interesting, usually when you play a team one of the guys makes a tackle or gets in a guy’s face a little bit. They don’t do that to Marcus. He’s such a well-respected young man, and I think he’s the most popular Gamecock maybe we’ve ever had here. Good things are going to happen for him in his life.”
USC President Harris Pastides told The Daily Gamecock he was “touched” by the Tennessee players surrounding Lattimore and intends to call the UT President Joe DiPietro today to commend them on their sportsmanship.
“Marcus and I spoke about that today, and he was also very touched by that,” Pastides said Sunday. “It’s times like this where we learn what we’re made of. I know that meant a lot to Marcus, and it meant a lot to me, too.”
Clowney and cornerback Victor Hampton said they’d never seen two teams rally around a player like that before. Shaw said he wasn’t surprised by the gesture because of Lattimore’s reputation throughout the league.
“Everybody has a lot of respect for Marcus and what he has done,” Tennessee coach Derek Dooley told reporters. “Nobody likes to see a player get hurt, so I think when [my players] saw the severity of it and went out there, it just shows the respect that everybody has for each other as athletes.”
“Lattimore” was the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter as fans, media and others even remotely associated with college football voiced their support. LSU coach Les Miles, former Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins and former USC wide receiver Alshon Jeffery were a few of the many to offer public support.
Auburn running back Tre Mason tweeted that he would wear his No. 21 jersey in honor of Lattimore. LSU defensive end Sam Montgomery tweeted that he would wear Lattimore’s number on his arm as a sign of respect.
On Sunday, Pastides, his wife and Athletics Director Ray Tanner visited Lattimore and his family in the hospital. Pastides said Lattimore appeared to be doing well and was in “a good frame of mind.” The three watched ESPN with him in his hospital room, Pastides said.
Helped off the field onto the cart, Lattimore put a towel over his head, as Miles continued to encourage him. Miles took Lattimore’s place on the field as the starting running back, finishing with 10 carries for 34 yards.
After Lattimore was taken off the field, USC announced later in the game that he was transported to a hospital for further evaluation. On the field, the Gamecocks had an incomplete pass on the next play before punting on fourth down.
“A couple plays after that, we were just choked up out there on the field,” Sanders said. “It was like, ‘Why did it have to be Marcus again?’
“When he went down, you could feel it through the whole football stadium. It just died down.”
Sanders took it upon himself to encourage his fellow teammates, especially Ellington and Jones. Jones was a high-school teammate of Lattimore’s at Byrnes High School in Duncan.
Ellington went on to finish the game with 101 receiving yards and one touchdown on six catches.
“Ace kind of kept me in, telling me that if he was out there, and we were hurt, then he’d be giving us 100 percent,” Ellington said. “I just thought about that, and I just went out there and gave 100 percent because I knew he would do it for me.”
While Ellington and Clowney instantly recalled Lattimore’s words from the night before, Sanders said he hadn’t thought about it until Ellington brought it up. Eyes closed, he shook his head his eyes as he listened to Ellington describe Lattimore’s talk to the team.
“That was the first thing that come out of Marcus’s mouth: ‘I want everybody to play hard and play every snap like it’s your last, because you never know — it could be your last,’” Sanders said. “He just went out there and gave us everything.
“Like he said, that might have been his last snap. It’s real sad that it had to end that way, but sometimes you just have to face reality.”