Marcus Lattimore: Adjusting to play in a weekday game
Thursday night lights. It has a nice ring to it but it’s different. Much different than what South Carolina is used to.
On the newest episode of the podcast series “BLEAV in South Carolina” with me, Marcus Lattimore, and Nick Klos on the BLEAV Network, Lattimore shared the challenges players will face as they prepare to play SC State.
“There’s really no template for it. It’s just so out of wack,” said Lattimore, who played in two Thursday night games during his career at USC. “It’s just not a normal week. Your brain and your body is like, ‘Huh? We’re playing today? Okay?'”
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Unlike the circumstances this week for the Gamecocks, Lattimore and the teams he played on knew before the start of their seasons that they would be playing Thursday night games. So while there could be things that Shane Beamer and USC are doing slightly different this week, Lattimore shared what it probably looks like.
“There’s not a padded practice. A lot of the work that’s done through those three days are game planning. Walk-thrus, correcting the mistakes from last week. You get a lot of rest and spend a lot of time in the weight room more than anything. But when it comes to on the field, there’s no pads on. You have to treat it like you’re a professional or the results just won’t be what you want. If you just don’t have that level of maturity to handle it — you’ll see it as a break. You’ll see it more so as a break instead of having to dial in mentally. A lot more than I have in the past few weeks because we just don’t have the time to fit in technique. It’s a risk to put pads on between Saturday and Thursday. Safety becomes the top priority. Getting everybody to Thursday and making sure mentally you’re prepared. There’s just not a lot of time to rep at game speed. Sometimes that’s a good thing but sometimes that can set you back.”
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On Tuesday, Beamer shared that South Carolina didn’t hold an on-field practice on Sunday and had its off day Monday. They regrouped on Tuesday morning.
“I’m pretty sure the strength staff and coaching staff put their heads together to figure out how can we mentally and physically get them ready… A lot of weight room, a lot of walk-thrus, a lot of film is what these (past) few days have looked like. (Wednesday) is a walk-thru but it’s probably times three mentally compared to what it would usually be.”
As far as game day goes, it’s all about locking in the best you can. That will be easier for some more than others depending on if they have any classes that day.
“I’m pretty sure class gets out around 1 p.m. Once out of class, you start your game day routine. You have a quick meeting and then walk-thrus. You may watch five or six clips of just quick reminders and then it’s back into warrior mode.”
