What Harris's return this week means for South Carolina's run game

An already stacked running back room gets that much stronger this weekend when the Gamecocks head up to East Carolina.

After missing the opener, preseason All-SEC running back Kevin Harris is back in the fold and ready to make his debut, an encore of sorts after putting together one of the best rushing seasons in school history.

Now comes the part where Harris will have to ingratiate himself back into a position group full of backs deserving carries.

“Kevin will have a role on Saturday but it’s not like all of the sudden Kevin Harris is back and those guys are kicked to the curb,” head coach Shane Beamer said. “There are some dynamic running backs in that room, Kevin included, and competition is a core value of this program. We’re competing at every position. Certainly it helps to add a guy of Kevin’s ability.”

Last season Harris became the first 1,000-yard rusher at South Carolina since 2014, totaling 1,138 yards and 15 touchdowns, both top five all time in a season.

But the Gamecocks have some insanely productive backs to pair with the SEC’s leading returning rusher from last year.

Last week’s starter ZaQuandre White popped off for 129 yards, including a 63-yard touchdown, while former five-star MarShawn Lloyd had 55 yards on 14 carries to pair with Juju McDowell’s 42 yards on 12 carries.

With Harris returning, it makes carries for that position a little tighter, with offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield saying the most productive back will play the most, but Satterfield also knows it behooves the Gamecocks to have as many backs on the field as possible.

“It’s my job to make sure we’re getting those guys on the field and they’re not standing on the sideline, whether that be two of them at one time or three of them at one time on the field,” he said. “We can’t have those guys—they’re the best players on our offense—standing over there on the sideline while other guys are on the field.”

What Harris’s return could mean is an improvement on the rushing attack from last week where the Gamecocks were slow out of the gate.

Not including sack yardage, they’d end with 265 rushing yards and average 5.8 yards a carry but finished ninth in the SEC in run game success rate at 47.7 percent last week.

That will have to improve as the Gamecocks get ready play ECU at noon Saturday.

“It’s a combination of everybody who has a hand in the run game. Eastern Illinois did a good job of bringing pressure and moving their guys up front,” Beamer said. “That’s East Carolina’s M.O. as well so we better be able to handle it because we put it on tape early on we didn’t do a great job handling it. We have to have a great plan this week to execute against those guys.”

Regardless of who totes the ball most Saturday, it’s a welcomed sight to have a guy like Harris back in the rotation and ready to showcase the thunder and lightning he and Lloyd talked about this offseason.

“It’s amazing. Kevin’s a true competitor. After what he did last year, he’s coming for something better this year. It’s great to have all of us out there.”

----

• Not a subscriber? Learn more about Gamecock Central here!

• Watch our live show and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

• Sign up for Gamecock Central's FREE news alerts and daily newsletter.

• Subscribe to our podcast on whatever podcast platform you prefer!

• Follow us on Twitter: @GamecockCentral, @GCChrisClark, @WesMitchellGC, @CollynTaylor.

• Follow Gamecock Central on Instagram @GamecockCentral.