USC coach Steve Spurrier says quarterback has been following behavioral guidelines
With summer practice set to start a week from today, fifth-year quarterback Stephen Garcia remains on track to be reinstated to the South Carolina football program according to coach Steve Spurrier.
“Stephen has done well,” said Spurrier last week at SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala. “He has some guidelines he must follow to be reinstated in August. He’s done everything we’ve asked. He’s certainly behaved very well, gone to all the workouts from what I understand. So right now he in all likelihood will be set to return.”
Garcia was suspended indefinitely on April 7 — the fifth suspension of his career at USC — after an incident at an SEC-mandated life skills seminar. At the time, Garcia was given a set of guidelines by Spurrier, Athletics Director Eric Hyman and USC President Harris Pastides that he had to fulfill in order to be reinstated for his final season. After making sufficient progress, Garcia was partially reinstated prior to the start of the Summer I session and team workouts, and now, it appears, he will soon be fully reinstated.
Many have criticized Spurrier for his seemingly endless patience with Garcia. Despite being suspended on five separate occasions, the Lutz, Fl., native has yet to miss any playing time due to punishment. When asked about these claims, Spurrier defended Garcia to a point, saying his various incidents haven’t merited a dismissal.
“I guess we don’t want to kick him out for stupidity,” said Spurrier, drawing laughs from the media members in attendance. “Basically we do believe he’s a good kid, good person. He’s already graduated. He’s graduated. With this latest incident, we told him he could go play somewhere else if he wanted to, but he wants stay there.
“He’s really made some lifestyle changes to stay there. Hopefully it will keep up. We just felt like he was worth giving another opportunity to sort of change his lifestyle, and thus far he’s done it.”
Even if Garcia is reinstated, Spurrier wouldn’t go as far as to guarantee the incumbent starter his job once he returns, saying he and backup Connor Shaw will both have a chance to win the position in camp. Garcia, who is closing in on several Gamecock career passing records, started all 14 games for USC last season, throwing for 3,059 yards and 20 touchdowns, while Shaw, a sophomore, appeared in nine games off the bench as a true freshman, completing 69.7 percent of his passes.
“[Garcia] and Connor Shaw will battle it out a little bit,” Spurrier said. “Stephen played well last year, other times not so well. He may be our best quarterback, but we’re going to have a little competition in preseason this year. Connor Shaw has been a year there now.
“We feel whoever our quarterback is, he needs to go out and earn it in preseason practice. So we’ll have some competition for the quarterback job.”