Quarterback off team after strange day for USC athletics
The fifth-year senior was dismissed from the Gamecock football program Tuesday, a week after he lost the starting position he had held, save one game, since the end of his redshirt freshman season.
Multiple reports indicate Garcia's dismissal was due to a failed substance test.
"I'm not going to deny what people have said," President Harris Pastides told The Daily Gamecock, but declined to comment on exactly why Garcia was dismissed.
Pastides said Garcia broke terms of a contract he signed with the university earlier this year.
"It was very clear when that contract had been made before, this was not going to be a matter of well we'll think about it or have a vote about it," Pastides said. "It was solely in his hands."
The president said he wasn't notified of the decision until 3 p.m., after news outlets widely reported the matter. The decision was made by Athletics Director Eric Hyman.
"I was totally OK with that because I already knew he had a contract that if he violated it, he would not be part of the football program," Pastides said, adding he was "very disappointed" that news leaked early in the day.
Garcia's father, Gary Garcia, told CBSSports.com that his son had "a couple of beers," which led to the dismissal. Garcia said he was "shocked and completely flabbergasted" by the dismissal in a text to The Associated Press. Garcia, who was under a zero-tolerance policy after his reinstatement, emphatically denied having a drinking problem during a preseason press conference in August.
The Daily Gamecock contacted the phone number listed under Garcia's name in the USC Student Directory for comment. A female picked up and said it was not Garcia's number. Multiple email requests to Garcia for comment were unreturned. A family friend of the Garcia family told The Daily Gamecock she would pass along a message for comment, but the call wasn't returned.
A source told The Daily Gamecock that members of Garcia's family had traveled to Columbia from his hometown of Lutz, Fla., after Garcia was made aware of the dismissal, and Garcia was in the process of moving out of his off-campus apartment on Tuesday afternoon. The dismissal capped a trying two weeks personally for Garcia, whose grandfather recently passed away prior to his demotion from starting quarterback.
"Being a student-athlete at the University of South Carolina is a privilege, not a right, and we remind all of our student-athletes that there are consequences for their actions," said Hyman in a release. "For Stephen to return to and remain with the football squad this fall, we agreed on several established guidelines. Unfortunately, he has not been able to abide by those guidelines and has therefore forfeited his position on the roster. We wish him the best of luck as he moves forward in life."
Hyman's statement was almost identical to the one he released on April 6 of this year announcing Garcia's indefinite suspension from the program after an incident at a Southeastern Conference-mandated life skills seminar on campus. The suspension, which was Garcia's fifth at USC, lasted through the summer until the start of summer camp, when Garcia was reinstated to the team under conditions established by Hyman, Pastides and coach Steve Spurrier. At the time, Spurrier expressed optimism that Garcia had changed his "lifestyle."
Garcia began the summer having started 28 consecutive games as quarterback for the Gamecocks, dating back to the 2009 Outback Bowl. But Spurrier named sophomore Connor Shaw the starting quarterback for USC's season opener against East Carolina in Charlotte, stating Shaw had outperformed Garcia in summer camp.
Garcia entered the game against the Pirates in the second quarter with the Gamecocks trailing 17-0 and played well, winning back the starting job and leading USC to a come-from-behind 56-37 victory. Garcia then started against Georgia, Navy, Vanderbilt and Auburn, with progressively worse performances in each outing. After Garcia was particularly ineffective in the Gamecocks' 16-13 home loss to Auburn on Oct. 1, Spurrier elected to turn back to Shaw, who starred in USC's 54-3 romp over Kentucky on Saturday.
Garcia leaves USC with 7,597 career passing yards and 47 touchdown passes. Both marks put him third all-time in USC's record books. Garcia won 20 games as a starter at USC, second all-time in school history.
With Garcia at quarterback, the Gamecocks won back-to-back games against Clemson for the first time since 1969-1970, as well as the first SEC Eastern Division championship in program history in 2010 and the first win over a top-ranked team in history when USC beat then-No. 1 Alabama in Columbia last fall.
But there were many bumps in the road for Garcia, almost from the beginning of his time in Columbia. Garcia was suspended three times early his career, missing most of spring practice in 2007, all of spring drills in 2008 and many of the sessions this spring. Garcia never missed a game, however, due to suspension.
After a bizarre beginning to his weekly press conference, Spurrier met with a handful of print and internet media outlets, including The Daily Gamecock, in a conference room inside the football facility. The round table meeting was held prior to the announcement of Garcia's dismissal, but Spurrier was asked several questions about Garcia. When asked if Garcia would be Shaw's backup on Saturday at Mississippi State, Spurrier coyly said that "we'll see how all that works out."
When asked about the extent and severity of the left elbow injury Garcia supposedly suffered during the Auburn game, Spurrier said that he was "not sure."
Spurrier spoke highly of Shaw, his performance against UK and his commitment level.
"He's all football," Spurrier said. "You're not going to hear about him downtown in the bars, I don't think."
The public relationship between Garcia and Spurrier has been an oft-analyzed one, with many contentious moments over the years. Spurrier has often been highly critical of Garcia's work ethic, as well as his on-field performance.
But on Tuesday, Spurrier expressed "sadness" over Garcia's dismissal in the official release announcing the decision.
"We all feel like we've given Stephen numerous opportunities to be a student-athlete here at South Carolina," said Spurrier. "Obviously, he has chosen not to follow the guidelines of his reinstatement contract. We wish him the best."
Pastides said he personally liked Garcia and left him a voice mail expressing his sadness about how his career at USC ended. The university wouldn't revoke Garcia's scholarship, Pastides said.
"I wished him well and told him he had a good future and a good career ahead of him, that he should hold his head high relative to his future," Pastides said. "I look forward to hearing back from him."
Editor-in-Chief Josh Dawsey and Isabelle Khurshudyan contributed to this report