Lattimore injury: The pain ‘hurt everybody’

Marcus Lattimore stood before his South Carolina teammates after they returned to their hotel Friday night after attending a movie. As one of the captains who spoke, the junior tailback delivered a message to them with his opening words.

“I want everybody to play hard, and I want you to play every snap like it’s your last because you never know, it could be your last,” Lattimore said.

His teammates took the motivational speech to heart in Saturday’s 38-35 win against Tennessee, but they were crestfallen afterward.

USC’s top offensive player for the past three seasons suffered a devastating knee injury for the second consecutive season. Last year a hit on his left knee against Mississippi State ended his season. Saturday, he took a hit on his right knee in the first half.

Lattimore was taken off the field on a cart and went to a hospital for further evaluation. USC announced after the game that Lattimore was out indefinitely.

Coach Steve Spurrier didn’t give details of the injury but said that it was every bit as devastating as the one last fall that required surgery to repair ligaments and cartilage, and six months of rehabilitation and recovery before Lattimore was cleared to return to action.

A stunned crowd stood in silence as medical personnel attended to Lattimore, and upset players from both teams gathered around to wish him well.

“I saw the look in his eyes when he was on the ground,” USC junior receiver Ace Sanders said. “He was really heartbroken about the injury. We were just trying to keep him strong.”

So were the Vols players.

“What a heartbreaking scene,” Tennessee safety Byron Moore said. “It was just a crushing blow to him, and our prayers go out to him.”

For the third straight season, it looks as if an injury will keep him from playing to the very end. As a freshman, he was knocked out of the Chick-fil-A Bowl against Florida State after just one carry in the game.

After gaining 662 yards this season – including a 28-yard touchdown run in the second quarter against the Vols – Lattimore moved to sixth on USC’s all-time rushing list with 2,677 yards. His 41 overall touchdowns and 38 rushing touchdowns are both school records.

“Not only is he a great football player, he’s a great person,” USC defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward said. “For whatever reason, the good Lord knows Marcus is a young man of faith, and he’ll be fine. To see the morale of the team (as they) rally around him because they know what kind of young man he is, it is just going to make us closer.”

USC junior quarterback Connor Shaw said Lattimore has earned respect from his teammates and across the SEC and nation for his bruising running style and likable manner.

He said Lattimore has the makeup to make it through another injury.

“If there’s anybody who can handle it mentally, it’s Marcus,” Shaw said.

But now it will be up to the Gamecocks to handle it as well. They managed to hang on against Tennessee because they wanted to win the game for him.

“Latt is a great person off the field. It’s just sad. It hurt everybody,” USC sophomore cornerback Victor Hampton said. “The whole team was down. Everybody was going around saying that he wouldn’t want us to be pouting, (and that) he would want us to go win the game. That’s what we tried to do.”

Sanders, who caught a third-quarterback touchdown pass, did not want the game to slip away.

“The only thing we could do was play for him and pray on it,” Sanders said. “We had to try to put it behind us for the time being, but it was really hard.”

After the victory, Spurrier sent a game ball to Lattimore at the hospital through the team chaplain.

His teammates understood how much effort it took for him to rehabilitate following last season’s injury.

“That hurt the team. He’s a big part of the team. Everybody knows that. That’s one of the hardest-working guys I’ve ever seen,” sophomore defensive end Jadeveon Clowney said. “Nobody expected something like that to happen to him again after it just happened last year. I told him, ‘Keep your head up.’ ”

Tennessee receiver Zach Rogers echoed those feelings.

“It was one of the worst injuries I’ve seen in person, actually,” Rogers said. “You hate it for a guy like that, for anybody really, but for a guy to get back after his previous injury, you hate to see him go down again. I wish him the best of luck in his recovery.”

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Send cards, notes to Lattimore

You can send cards, notes and well wishes (but no gifts) to South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore. Here's the address:

Marcus Lattimore

c/o USC Athletics Dept

Rice Athletic Center

1304 Heyward St.

Columbia, SC 29208

This story was originally published October 27, 2012 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Lattimore injury: The pain ‘hurt everybody’."