When Mike Bobo saw MarShawn Lloyd come up a little gimpy and start hopping around, apparently hurt, in practice Wednesday he knew something was wrong.

He didn’t know the severity yet, and was holding out hope the diagnosis wasn’t as bad as it could be, but an MRI confirmed the worst Thursday with Lloyd tearing his ACL and having to miss his entire freshman season.

“It’s obviously devastating. Obviously I’m devastated for the young man,” Bobo said. “I know Will (Muschamp) talked about MarShawn in front of the media a lot more than I have. What an amazing young man. He’s been nothing but all in. when I got here we were recruiting the young man and watched the tape and said, ‘This guy’s special.’ I got a chance to meet him and meet his mom and his sisters. He’s just a remarkable young man.”

Also see: Insider notes on what Lloyd's injury means

Lloyd, the first five-star running back to commit to South Carolina since Marcus Lattimore, entered his freshman preseason camp with plenty of hype around him and was expected to be one of the bigger pieces in Bobo’s new offense this season.

But, that got cut short after his non-contact injury, leaving the Gamecocks needing to adjust and find someone else to step up and fill those shoes.

The Gamecocks have options with two returning players on the roster in redshirt sophomore Deshaun Fenwick and redshirt freshman Kevin Harris and two newcomers with ZaQuandre White and Rashad Amos.

Fenwick is the most seasoned of the four backs right now with 43 career carries over two seasons and 226 total yards (Harris carried the ball 21 times for 179 yards last season) and is off to a strong start two practices into camp.

“The player of the day yesterday was Fenwick and his mindset and how he’s gone about his business. He’s changed his body. He looks good to me,” Bobo said. “There’s competition in that room. MarShawn brought competition. He’s been about competition since day one; he didn’t back down. When I got here last winter he’s been about competition. Those guys responded. Fenwick responded.”

Also see: Notes from Mike Bobo, Travaris Robinson availability

Bobo did have good things to say about Amos, the three-star back out of Georgia, but one of the biggest wildcards is White, who was one of the best junior college running backs in the country last season and just had his first practice Wednesday.

“Yesterday you saw some good things. He obviously has the size and you saw the ability with him in some short area quickness and some long speed,” Bobo said. “I love his attitude and some mentality. He’s brought some life in the running back room. We all know in this league you’re going to need multiple running backs.”

The Gamecocks get back on the practice field Friday for their third of preseason camp trying to find out which running back will take over the starting job.

For Bobo, it’s hard to gauge anything right now until they get in pads and he can see how his backs maneuver then. South Carolina’s first padded practice will be next week.

“It’s always tough to tell about a running back, like it is to evaluate in a camp setting when you have them on campus,” he said. “You can get their measureables and their size and see things in drills, but at the end of the day it’s carrying that ball, getting behind their pads and seeing if they’re going to flinch when they hit the hole or if they’re going to get the dirty two to three yards.”