Why Marcus Lattimore's Knee Injury Ends South Carolina's SEC Title Hopes

South Carolina's 14-12 win over Mississippi State is the only positive the Gamecocks can take away from Saturday's action.

Yes, the Gamecocks are bowl eligible just seven weeks into the college football season and now have only Georgia in their way of repeating as champions of the SEC East; those things are all well and true.

But the Gamecocks must now continue on in their hopes of winning the nation's toughest conference without Heisman candidate running back Marcus Lattimore, at least for now.

Lattimore sprained his knee in the Gamecocks narrow victory over the Bulldogs on Saturday.

South Carolina's leading rusher has 818 yards and 10 touchdowns thus far this season, but will no doubt have to wait to add to that count.

Lattimore's injury comes just one week after sophomore quarterback Connor Shaw was thrown into the fire as the Gamecocks' starting signal caller.

Last week, veteran quarterback Stephen Garcia was released from the team, and the pressure to carry the offense was thrust upon the shoulders of Lattimore.

Fortunately for South Carolina, rivals Florida, Vanderbilt and Tennessee all lost on Saturday, leaving them tied with the Georgia Bulldogs atop the SEC East division, both with just one loss in the conference.

The Gamecocks own the tiebreaker over the Bulldogs, having beat them in Athens back in Week 2, but still have two difficult road tests against Tennessee and Arkansas after a bye week next weekend.

Even more concerning, South Carolina's overall title hopes could be dashed in the final game of the season against undefeated No.8 Clemson.

Lattimore not only hurts the Gamecocks' running game moving forward, but puts the team's ground burden solely on the shoulders of sophomore Shaw, a quarterback.

The Gamecocks' second leading rusher in 2011 is former quarterback Garcia, who is no longer with the team.

If Lattimore misses any significant amount of time, South Carolina will give way to Georgia in the East.

Follow Bleacher Report Featured Columnist Patrick Clarke on Twitter @_Pat_Clarke