Marcus Lattimore had an incredible college career as a running back at South Carolina. Most of us will remember Lattimore missing a good chunk of the 2011 season after a knee injury, only to come back and suffer another major knee injury in 2012 before declaring for the NFL draft.
It took a tremendous amount of work and perseverance to come back from each of those injuries, and after spending just over a year in the NFL, after being selected in the fourth round by the 49ers, he announced his retirement.
At one point shortly after Will Muschamp was hired, Lattimore briefly joined the staff, but the NCAA soon ruled that due to Lattimore's work through his foundation, the school would have an unfair recruiting advantage. So Lattimore decided to move on, while still continuing to work with his foundation. After a few years at Heathwood Hall in a coaching role, including a promotion to head coach in November of 2016, the door of opportunity once again opened with Muschamp and the Gamecocks, and with the red tape cleared, Lattimore jumped at the opportunity and was named Director of Player Development.
In a fitting tribute to welcome a former standout back to the program, South Carolina released this special video with video clips and soundbytes of his journey leading him back to the Gamecocks.
This is really, really cool to see, and is hopefully something that other programs pick up on and do when they find themselves in a similar situation.
https://youtu.be/3XDlOPNjeR0