Marcus Lattimore: I wouldn't have skipped a bowl

— -- For two-plus seasons,? Leonard Fournette?and Christian McCaffrey gave everything to become legends at LSU and Stanford, respectively. Two of the best running backs to grace the collegiate gridiron broke record after record in under three full years of playing time before deciding to leave school early for the NFL draft with early-round millions on their minds.

Both have been the topic of contentious national conversation because of their decisions to skip their bowl games to get healthy and begin preparation for the draft.

Naturally, they've drawn both criticism and praise. Talk of preserving their bodies, which dealt with nagging injuries this season, and sprinting toward the money have been interpreted as selfish.

Both players had to make tough decisions about their present and future football lives -- even if it came at the cost of their current teams.

For former South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore, the past few days have stood as a steady reminder of the gruesome, career-ending knee injuries he suffered during his sophomore and junior seasons with the Gamecocks. Lattimore's injuries were so bad that the once surefire top-10 draft prospect dropped to the fourth round of the 2013 draft.

He never played a down in the NFL, but Lattimore still said the possibility of suffering an injury like his wouldn't have convinced him to sit out his final collegiate game.

"I wish them all the best in that decision," Lattimore said. "Me personally, I probably couldn't do it because of my mentality. I always wanted the team on my back. I wanted to be in the game in the fourth quarter, 35-40 carries. Let me win this game for you, and let me go out with my guys.

"You can understand that [financial] side, but you also have to look your teammates in the eye and say, 'I'm just going to skip this one.' That's tough."

Lattimore, a fan of both Fournette and McCaffrey, said he didn't think either made the wrong decision -- just one he couldn't.?

"In this situation, I get it," he said. "You have to be selfish, and you have to take care of your family, and you have to take care of yourself."

Fournette and McCaffrey are the most prominent names to skip their bowl games, but Oklahoma defensive lineman? Charles Walker?was the first this season to leave early for draft preparation. Walker left Oklahoma's team to train for the pros in mid-November, but he hadn't played since Oct. 1 because of a concussion.

On Tuesday, Baylor senior running back Shock Linwood decided to skip the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl against Boise State to focus on his NFL future.

While that makes four Power 5 players in the thousands of FBS players, Lattimore said the star power and notoriety Fournette and McCaffrey have will influence more players to seriously consider sitting out bowl games in search of higher financial gain. Simply put: If they can do it, why not them?

That belief doesn't just belong to Lattimore. Christian Robinson, a linebacker at Georgia from 2008-13 who served as a defensive graduate assistant for the past two years at Ole Miss, said he's worried this will become a real issue for college football.?

"We're creating a trend where people don't finish things," Robinson said. "They just give up because something else is more important at that time. To them, right now, it's more valuable to get that money, and I understand it, but it's setting a bad precedent for the future."

Injury fear could be fueling these decisions,. A few years ago, it was Lattimore's gruesome fate. Last year, it was Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith tearing his ACL and MCL in the Fiesta Bowl, which cost him an estimated $19 million of guaranteed money in the 2016 draft. Years back, it was Miami running back Willis McGahee's gruesome knee injury in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl that impacted his own draft status.

As terrible as these injuries were, even Lattimore said injuries are a part of the game. They can come on Sept. 1 or Jan. 1.

"At the end of the day, you could get hurt riding a bike," Lattimore said. "You could get hurt training. These guys want to focus on the NFL draft and combine; well, you could get hurt doing that."

McGahee, who was still a first-round pick after his injury, recently said on SportsCenter that while he respected Fournette and McCaffrey's decisions, he wouldn't have skipped the same bowl game that left his knee shredded.

"If I had to do it all over again, I would play again," McGahee said. "I'm not even going to sit here and lie to you; I would still play in the game."

Now, it's important to note that McGahee was playing in a national championship game, which begs the question: Would this even be up for discussion if Fournette or McCaffrey were playing in a New Year's Six bowl or in the College Football Playoff?

LSU is in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, while Stanford is in the Hyundai Sun Bowl. It's one last chance to play with their teammates, but what's really on the line for these two? Two bowl games are losing two stars, and the loss of players like that to games outside the New Year's Six will start to affect the interest in secondary bowl games.

"I would have watched [the Sun Bowl], but I can tell you right now I'm probably not, unless there's nothing else on TV," Robinson said.

South Carolina State offensive coordinator/tight ends coach G.A. Mangus said this has been brewing in college football since he was at South Carolina with star defensive end Jadeveon Clowney. Clowney's playing shape and numbers were called into question after his on-field production dropped significantly his junior year of 2013. Many wondered if he was shutting it down to preserve his body for the NFL.

While Mangus tried to help Clowney get through the mental side of not overreacting to any positive or negative attention, Mangus said he thinks the biggest issue impacting coach-player communication is third-party influence -- the people who can speak with agents and relay information to players. From financial help for players and their families to the risk of career-changing injuries, these figures could become major influences on the length of time players have at their respective schools.

"They have a scenario for every single situation and an example where they can say, 'Here's what happened to this kid and here's the amount of money it cost him,'" Mangus said. "These kids in most cases are going to be 21-year-old kids and they see it on paper and it scares the hell out of them."

For now, the number of players deciding to skip their final bowl game is too small to assume trend status, but early returns on opinions tend to indicate that many players would prefer playing one last game with their teammates.

"One more game with my brothers is always special," said Miami senior cornerback Corn Elder, who thought about turning pro last year. "I love this team, the coaching staff and just the whole program. So any chance I get to play another game with them, I always will. ... For me always getting to play another game with my brothers is definitely a goal."

Or the bowl game is a chance to improve draft stock.

"I'm taking advantage, really. That's how I look at it." said Pittsburgh running back James Conner, who has already declared for the NFL draft. "It's showing the scouts that I'm getting back to my normal self and I can compete at a high level even after everything I've been through. So, I'm playing."

So for those worried that this could be an issue, there's hope that these couple of guys are just anomalies.

"You only get so many opportunities to play the game of football during the year," Tennessee senior quarterback Joshua Dobbs said. "You train 270 days a year for 13 or 14 opportunities. The opportunities you have to play football are so limited that anytime you have that opportunity, you have to take advantage of it."