Senior quarterback loses facial hair at HBC's request
Steve Spurrier wasn’t joking when he praised Stephen Garcia for shaving prior to the East Carolina game Saturday.
“Coach asked me to shave,” said Garcia on Tuesday. “I talked with him and [quarterbacks] coach [G.A.] Mangus and a few other people. They decided that would probably be the best thing to do. I didn’t really have a problem with it.”
Garcia has worn a beard and long hair for much of his career at USC. He cut his hair after his fourth suspension and it hasn’t returned to its one-time shoulder length to date, but he had continued to sport facial hair up until this past weekend.
“He came to the pregame meal all shaved,” Spurrier said. “We’ve been asking him to shave for five years now. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. I think a quarterback should be shaven; that’s just my opinion.”
The fact Garcia shaved is important to USC’s seventh-year coach because he views it as a sign Garcia takes his position seriously. Spurrier said that he had heard a national sports radio host comment that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo should refrain from wearing his hat backwards when on the sideline.
Instead, the host said, Romo should wear his hat the correct way like players such as Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. Spurrier said he agreed with the suggestion.
“Quarterbacks, everybody’s looking at them,” Spurrier said. “They need to be sharp. They need to do things right. Stephen’s made a lot of progress toward that.”
Garcia said he never expected his facial hair to be such a big issue. But, he said, it is what it is.
“I’m not the boss,” Garcia said. “You’ve got to do what the boss asks you to do.”
Now that he has done that and also played well off the bench against ECU in the Gamecocks’ come-from-behind win, Garcia has regained his starting job and is “back in the box,” as Spurrier called it.
Garcia said he didn’t feel he was being punished when Connor Shaw started to break his consecutive starts streak at 28 games. Instead, Garcia said, it was a result of Spurrier following through on his promise to hold an open competition in preseason practice and award the starting nod to the quarterback who performed better.
“I don’t think that was a punishment at all,” Garcia said. “As he stated and I said before, Connor played better than I did in the scrimmages and the preseason camp.”
So, Garcia said, he focused on taking advantage of his opportunity to play in the game’s second quarter. He did so, as Spurrier said he “played a lot better” than Shaw, who struggled. Garcia said he felt he played “all right.”
Both Garcia and Spurrier expressed confidence that Shaw will be able to rebound from the subpar outing and be prepared to play whenever his next chance may come.
“He’s going to be fine,” Garcia said. “I’ve talked to him several times since the game. He’s going to be just fine. I told him not to worry about what everybody saying if they’re saying anything negative.
“The kid’s going to be a good quarterback. He is a good quarterback now. He’s just got to get experience and he’s going to get plenty of it this year, I think, and he’ll be ready to go next year for sure.”