Guest Blog by friend-of-the-blog and my personal best friend, AJ Welch. Enjoy...
Well, the Garcia coaster has finally derailed. And let me tell you it was one hell of a bumpy ride. Throughout his whole career here at USC, Garcia has been one headache after the next; from his off the field suspensions, to his recent lack of talent and intelligence on the field.
Coming out of High School, Stephen Garcia was a highly recruited Qb, a four star recruit as a matter of fact. However, he was already tagged with the label of being a hand-full and an off field liability. You see, in his high school days, he would go around in the parking lots and slash tires, a modest hobby in his eyes I’m guessing. Still, these issues were seen as just some “high school pranks” and what not, he ultimately got recruited and offered a scholarship to play ball here at South Carolina.
Coming into camp in the summer, Garcia looked very promising as a starter, and a talented one at that. But wouldn’t you know his off field issues traveled with him to college. His first suspension came when was yelling and making a scene outside of his dorm, while sitting on a cooler of beer absolutely plastered.
But this wasn’t enough for him, almost one month later, he received his second suspension. This time it came for keying one of his professor’s cars. Even better about this, is his professor SAW him doing this, amateur status Stephen, amateur.
After these two pretty much back-to-back suspensions, he seemed to be settling down and maybe changing his act…”maybe” being the key word. Meanwhile, his off field stupidity was not necessarily translating to the football field, when he was able to play granted. He was shaping up to look like an all SEC quarterback. In 2009 he threw for 2,862 yards and 17 TD’s, not too shabby.
However, with each upside, there always seemed to be a downside. He got suspended for a third time in the offseason for underage drinking. This started to shape the question in some fans minds if maybe he had a problem and needed some help with it. This was quickly forgotten however when Garcia was once again reinstated.
Once the season started in 2010, the fans were on the fence about their controversial Qb. He soon had fans on his side of the fence when he started the season with a bang. He led the Gamecocks to a big time victory over Georgia, a game the Gamecocks haven’t won in many years. He also came very close to defeating the future National Champion Auburn Tigers, in a shootout.
Then came the Alabama game, which will now probably be his most remembered game. He must have been drinking something magical in that kool-aid, because the man played out of his mind. He led the Gamecocks to their first victory over a #1 ranked team, and one of the biggest upsets in the school’s history.
This is one of the reasons I believe fans have been so loyal to him in these past two years. They caught a glimpse of the high caliber talent that he has, but for reasons unknown, he doesn’t bring them to every game. This is what makes him such a frustrating player to watch on the field, his inconsistency. He is one of the only quarterbacks I know who can be flawless against a #1 ranked team, and then look like hes in pop warner against a team the next week. He has so much talent but he doesn’t use it on a regular basis.
Then comes the two other suspensions that came this year. Both of which are again for stupid things. The first suspension was for his violation of the hotel room curfew at the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta. Now I guess this one isn’t terribly stupid, I mean he is a guy just trying to get some play, but as a fan I don’t want my quarterback to be focused on that a night before a fairly substantial bowl game that he is playing in. His second suspension is just downright dumb. He was suspended for drunken disruptive behavior at a leadership conference. Wow, nothing quite says leadership like a drunk fool. This is honestly where, as a fan, I began to draw the line on Steven. When he failed to learn from his past incidences and made my school look like a joke, I think its only fair.
Overall, I do not hate/dislike Stephen Garcia. I would merely say I am very disappointed in him and think to myself what could have been. This year he has severly regressed; now whether or not it has anything to do with all these suspensions…I do not know. All I know is that this year the Gamecocks are chock-full of talent, and while he was under center he didn’t allow the talent around him to shine. All of the games he started were nail biters till the very end, with the Gamecocks managing to pull them out for a win. Until Auburn came to town, and Garcia couldn’t manage to pull it out. Connor Shaw got the start the following week and everyone suspected that Garcia would ride the pine the remainder of the year, now with his dismissal, he won’t even do that. I think this quote I heard sums it up beautifully, “He is a million dollar talent, with a ten cent mind”. So now, with Garcia dismissed from the team, we turn to a new chapter with Connor Shaw. I think the future looks very bright for this young man. He came out looking spectacular last week when he started at Qb. He threw for over 300 yards and 4 TD’s, matching Garcia’s season total. And another upside to this young man is that there are no off-field issues to give fans heart attacks about. We shall now see where our season takes us, and hopefully it is a smoother ride.
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