Why Mike Bobo says MarShawn Lloyd ‘has a chance to be a special back’ at USC
Mike Bobo wasn’t really on board with the idea when it happened.
The Georgia football team on which he was QBs coach had running backs Kregg Lumpkin, Danny Ware and Thomas Brown, and the staff had just added four-star tailback Knowshon Moreno. Head coach Mark Richt wanted to redshirt him.
Bobo felt differently, but it was not his call.
“He ended up leaving in three years anyway, so we only got two out of him,” Bobo said.
Moreno ran for 2,700 yards in two season at Georgia and was off to be a first-round NFL Draft pick. Bobo recalled lobbying, along with the special teams coach, on a weekly basis to get Moreno on the field.
That is all to say this: Bobo would have no problem playing a freshman tailback, and he’ll have the chance to do that with MarShawn Lloyd, a South Carolina early enrollee who was rated as high as a five-star recruit by one service.
“Running back is a position that you can tell pretty quick if a guy’s got it,” Bobo said, “and usually you’re not signing a running back to redshirt him.
“What your running back should be doing, if they’re not starting at tailback, is they should be starting on special teams.”
Lloyd might well start at tailback when the 2020 season begins as the team has a vacuum of experience — four players with starting experience (47 combined starts) graduated from last year’s team. USC is working shorthanded this spring as junior college transfer ZaQuandre White and freshman Rashad Amos have yet to enroll.
That left the team with three scholarship runners on campus, and top returning rusher Kevin Harris has not been practicing. So it’s meant a lot of work for Lloyd.
“He has a chance to be a special back,” Bobo said. “He’s very diligent about how he approaches every day. He comes with the right mindset. He’s sitting in coach [Bobby] Bentley’s meeting room 30 minutes before the other guys get there. He wants to learn. He wants to be ready.”
Lloyd came in at No. 42 nationally in the final 247Sports Composite rankings for his class (Moreno was No. 68). Rivals had the explosive, stout back at No. 33 and rated him a five-star.
Playing for athletic power DeMatha outside Washington, D.C., he posted 1,197 yards and 11 touchdowns as a senior. He got a run on SportsCenter and produced more than a few big plays against a national-level schedule.
Bobo also spoke highly of his other available scholarship back, sophomore Deshaun Fenwick, noting he showed toughness in some of the blocking drills the staff employs.
And one thing is clear: USC won’t put itself in the spot Georgia did, getting only two years out of a top back by choice.
“There’s good competition there,” Bobo said. “I wish we had more guys out there competing right now. But those guys are doing a good job.”
