South Carolina just received a difficult blow to its season before it even got underway. The Gamecocks saw star freshman RB MarShawn Lloyd suffer a serious knee injury that put him on crutches and ended his season. The program announced the news on Thursday afternoon. The torn ACL happened in Wednesday’s practice.

“I’m extremely disappointed for MarShawn,” said coach Will Muschamp. “It was a non-contact situation where he just planted his foot and tore his ACL. MarShawn will attack his rehabilitation like he does everything in life. The best is yet to come for MarShawn Lloyd.”

No date for surgery has been set.

Lloyd, a 5-foot-9, 210-pounder from Wilmington, Del., was a highly-regarded recruit who enrolled at South Carolina in January and went through the abbreviated spring drills after graduating from DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland. 247Sports tabbed him as the fifth-best running back in the country and No. 43 overall, and it was seen as a recruiting steal for the Gamecocks over more high-profile Power 5 programs.

Lloyd was a bright spot in the recruiting class, and expected to be one of the best running backs in the program in several years as a key member of the re-tooled offense under Mike Bobo.