South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner thought back to the conversation with Marcus Lattimore.
The former Gamecocks football star was a day from leaving San Francisco, where his dream of coming back from the devastating knee injury that ended his University of South Carolina career was coming to an end. He was ready to come back to South Carolina, come back home.
“I said the things you would expect me to say,” Tanner said. “ ‘You’re always a Gamecock. We have a place here for you.’ And when I hung up, I thought to myself: That was very selfish.