RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day 11: Marcus Lattimore conquers the Swamp (2010)
A true workhorse RB.
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Welcome to day 11 of Running Back Respect Month! Yesterday, we gave Rudi Johnson his deserved flowers for a spectacular 2000 season at Auburn. Here's where we're at today, and how the rest of the month looks:
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Today: Marcus Lattimore vs. Florida (2010)
RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day 11: Marcus Lattimore conquers The Swamp (2010)
On a scale of 1-10, what would you rate this touchdown run from Marcus Lattimore:
Now what if I told you that Lattimore was just a true freshman and this was his 40th carry of the game? On November 13, 2010, Marcus Lattimore put South Carolina Football on his shoulders. Facing No. 22 Florida in The Swamp, he ran 40 times for 212 yards and three TD in a 36-14 win:
It's not like this was just a great performance in some run-of-the-mill regular season game, either. The 19-year old Lattimore was the focal point of one of the most important games in South Carolina history! The SEC East Title and a trip to the SEC Championship were on the line that night - feats the Gamecocks had never achieved before. They'd also never beat Florida in The Swamp.
Both streaks looked like they'd continue when Florida's Andre Debose housed the opening kickoff 99 yards for an immediate 7-0 lead. Instead of panicking, Steve Spurrier trusted his gameplan of beating the Gator defense to a pulp with his freshman running back. It was evident early on that Florida was in for a long night trying to stop No. 21:
On the rare plays he wasn't churning tough yards on the ground, Lattimore beat Florida in just about every other way possible. With 15 seconds left in the first half and no timeouts, he caught a screen pass in the middle of the field and picked up a first down out of nothing, while getting out of bounds to stop the clock. South Carolina made a 41-yard field goal to end the half on the next play:
In the fourth quarter, he made the key block to spring QB Stephen Garcia into the endzone on a third-and-goal QB draw from the eight:
If there was ever a game where it felt like the football gods turned off the fatigue sliders for one player, it's this one. All of Lattimore's 40 carries came with some sort of physicality, and he still had enough left in the tank to affect the game in other areas. It's one of the most slept-on workhorse games from a running back in modern college football history.
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Freshman Marcus Lattimore was a phenomenon. He finished 2010 with 1,197 yards rushing on 249 carries (4.8) and 17 TD. He added 412 more yards and two TD on 29 catches (14.2). His 1,609 scrimmage yards led the SEC, and his 19 TD were third behind Cam Newton (21) and Mississippi State's Vick Ballard (19). He broke South Carolina's single-season freshman rushing record, and was a main catalyst in their first (and only) SEC East Title and SEC Championship Game Appearance. Marcus Lattimore didn't just excel as a freshman. He stepped into the prime era of physical SEC Football as a 19-year old and dominated.
Other notable things about this game/video
- This game is a window into how disgusting Florida's offense was at the end of the Urban Meyer era. The Gators gained just 226 total yards, the majority coming in garbage time. John Brantley put up an ugly 16-31-130-0-1 line, and Florida also rotated in Trey Burton and tight end Jordan Reed at QB. Their ground game (20 carries, 35 yards) was non-existent. Meyer has some incredible sideline reactions throughout the game that make it easy to see why he stepped down less than a month later:
