Hardesty, Lloyd share common ground in returning from injury

MarShawn Lloyd arrived in Columbia with lofty expectations placed upon him upon signing with South Carolina football’s 2020 class. After enrolling in January of 2020 as a highly recruited prospect, Lloyd suffered a setback when he tore his ACL on the second day of preseason camp, forcing him to miss the entirety of what would have been his freshman campaign.

Lloyd’s position coach, Montario Hardesty, can personally attest to the difficult of returning from a significant injury. The former Tennessee Volunteers running back, himself a former highly-regarded recruit out of the state of North Carolina’s 2005 class, also tore his ACL prior to his freshman season in Knoxville.

“I’ve been there before,” said Hardesty during South Carolina football’s Friday media availability. “I know how it is mentally on you.”

The year after Hardesty’s knee injury, he showed he was fully recovered by breaking off a 43-yard touchdown run against California in 2006. In Lloyd’s first season of game action there were some likewise some flashes of the player that Gamecock fans saw on the former five-star prospect’s high school highlight tape, including a 40-yard romp against the Florida Gators.

Although Lloyd was able to return to the field in 2021, ZaQuandre White, Kevin Harris, and Juju McDowell saw more carries overall. One reason for that was, of course, the fact that Lloyd did not take off his knee brace until the bye week leading up to the Florida game. Less than a month ago, Lloyd told Mike Uva in a Garnet Trust exclusive that he was moving around in pre-injury form.

Going into year three – and his second of true game action – it appears Lloyd is ready to take another step forward.

Said Hardesty: “He has his confidence back. You can see him moving around. You can see him starting to be a leader amongst the team, him feeling fine and good with the scheme and feeling more comfortable being a second-year, college football, SEC running back.”

Aside from Lloyd, South Carolina football also returns the aforementioned McDowell and Rashad Amos. The staff also added Lovasea Carroll and Christian Beal-Smith from the transfer portal. There’s plenty of competition, but Lloyd has seen a lot of first team reps in practices.

Hardesty believes that with Lloyd’s health and the fact that he’s now had some time to continue his development, that he’s ready to begin reaching his potential.

“MarShawn has been doing a really good job throughout the winter, continued throughout spring ball,” said the second-year Gamecocks assistant. “The biggest thing is, he’s understanding football a lot more. We know MarShawn because he’s been known since he was in Pop Warner, but that was his first time playing a college football season last year. He was a freshman. He was a rookie. We expect all those things, he put a lot of things on himself, but you can see the growth now. “

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