Only four players in South Carolina football history have rushed for more yards in a single game than Kevin Harris did on Saturday night.
The sophomore running back joins a list filled with names of Gamecock greats like George Rogers, Marcus Lattimore, and Brandon Bennett.
But, despite a historic night from the sophomore, the Gamecocks couldn't get him a win, dropping a 59-42 shootout to the hands of Ole Miss.
“I tell him every time we go out, every time he touches the ball, every time he scores, every game, I tell him ‘You’re the best back. You’re the best back in this league’, Senior receiver Shi Smith said. “I feel like he knows that.”
Harris averaged nearly 10 yards per carry, rushing 25 times for 243 yards and five touchdowns, which broke Marcus Lattimore's school record.
He becomes the first SEC running back since 2000 to rush for at least 210 yards and five touchdowns. The only back who's come close is Alabama's Najee Harris, who rushed for five scores and 206 yards this year, ironically against Ole Miss.
Harris has been the focal point of the South Carolina team for most of this season, but after having his worst performance of the year so far last week against Texas A&M, amassing just 39 yards on 13 carries, he followed it up with a game that will be hard to top.
“That was the game plan. Everybody knew that was the game plan, he was gonna get a lot of touches. The dude’s a stud.” quarterback Collin Hill said. “He had an unbelievable performance and he played his tail off.”
Ole Miss’ fast-paced high scoring offense can make it difficult for an opposing offense to relax, feeling like they have to score on every possession to win but that wasn’t the problem tonight.
After mustering just three points last week the Gamecocks scored six times on 11 drives with all of those touchdowns.
"It don’t matter what the other offense is doing,” Smith said. “Every time we go out we’re trying to score, that’s the reason why we go out there.”
Though the huge game came in a loss, Harris says the locker room hasn’t lost confidence.
“We did pretty good as a whole team but we just gotta keep on coming, fighting, go back to practice and get better.”
The Gamecocks return home to Williams-Brice next week to take on Missouri at 7:30 ET.
