Marcus Lattimore Update - Sunday Afternoon & USC RB Depth Situation

Per Steve Spurrier's Sunday Teleconference, Marcus Lattimore has a torn ligament and cartilage damage to his left knee. Lattimore will have surgery after the swelling subsides in a few weeks & miss the remainder of the season.

This is the third USC running back to suffer an ACL injury this season. During Spurrier's teleconference today the Head Ball Coach also revealed that redshirt freshman Fullback Matt Coffee will miss the remainder of the season with a torn knee ligament. Earlier in the year against UGA, freshman tailback Shon Carson suffered an ACL injury on his only carry of the game.

Redshirt junior Kenny Miles has been nursing a hand injury and did not even travel to Starkville, MS with the team.

That leaves only two healthy running backs on the roster. Freshman Brandon Wilds and redshirt junior Eric Baker will get the bulk of carries in the run game moving forward. Baker only has three carries for three yards on the season and he himself just returned this year from an ACL injury he suffered leading up to the bowl game versus UConn back at the end of the 2009 calendar year.

IMHO I expect Wilds to be the starter because he has surpassed both Miles and Baker on the depth chart and I anticipate Wide Receiver Bruce Ellington getting more chances in the Wildcock formation.

The run game for USC has been struggling mightily since the Navy game so unless the o-line starts blocking, then it doesn't matter who lines up at tailback for USC. South Carolina cannot afford another injury to its running back position because depth is starting to be a running problem for the Gamecocks.

Go Gamecocks!