After being suspended indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the team Stephen Garcia has been allowed to participate in summer workouts for the South Carolina Gamecocks. If you look at his production on the field his reinstatement is not surprising. Garcia led the Gamecocks to the SEC East championship and has consistently been USC's best player. If you look at his problems off the field the decision is troubling.
Stephen Garcia has been suspended or kicked off the team 5 times for off the field incidents, one of them as recently as 2 months ago. You would think that with a multitude of infractions and violations committed against the university and the state of South Carolina Garcia would never see the field again. Why the sudden change of heart?
SEC FOOTBALL IS SERIOUS! The South Carolina alumni wouldn't stand back and watch their team lose because a few rules were broken by their star quarterback. Winning is everything in the SEC and unless Garcia did irreparable damage to a person, place, or thing there's no reason (in the minds of the fans) to keep the Gamecocks best player in street clothes. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few and back up Conner Shaw looked shaky at best in his previous performances.
The message being sent by South Carolina is a dangerous one. I'm all about superstar preferential treatment, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. If the rules can be bent or twisted to accommodate the star players why have them at all? Why not tell the entire team that punishments being handed down are subject to your performance? This is how programs get themselves into trouble by facilitating an environment where certain players are above the law. It is inevitable that players will push the envelope until the boundaries of right and wrong no longer exist. The SEC has always played by their own rules. Stephen Garcia is just the latest example of that.
Thanks for the read. I'm glad I chose a subject that is near and dear to your heart. Would it be fair to say that most players don't get the opportunity to play football after being suspended 5 times (especially the quarterback). Would it also be fair to say that If Stephen Garcia wasn't such an integral part of the team he probably wouldn't be back at USC right now?
ReplyDeleteSpurrier wouldn't hesitate to remove him from the team if he thought he deserved it. I think it just comes down to how he views the offenses and he probably just views most of it as silly college stuff that doesn't warrant removal from the team. I would say most college qb's wouldn't be arrested for drunk in public when they are at college bars.
ReplyDeleteIt's like when Clowney (who was completely sober) was frisked when he was out with some of the team after his announcement. He didn't have anything on him and the police apologized and said they mistook him for someone else who had been involved in a robbery earlier that night. Oh really? The police mistook a 6'6" 245 guy with dreadlocks for someone else? How many of them are floating around at what is known around town to be a frat hangout? And what if they had found something?
I'm just saying out of context at a macro level when you word it like that, sure it looks bad. But when you look at each offense and the behavior of a team as a whole it's an entirely different picture.
The team has several players who are very active in churches across the stat, USC has been one of the most well behaved teams in the SEC in recent years (probably the most well behaved among successful teams), and USC led the entire conference with 71 fall athletes on the academic honor roll (31 of which were on the football team) with 2nd place being UGA with 24 less athletes qualifying (Vandy with 25 less).
You've got to admit "USC Has Loose Morals" is a ridiculous headline.
The headline was meant to be humerous from the perspective that Spurrier is known to throw QB's under the bus if he he thinks he has someone adequate waiting in the wings. Remember what he did to Terry Dean at UF? From the outside looking in it seems like Garcia was given another opportunity because Spurrier had no other options for fielding a competitive team. Conner Shaw clearly isn't ready to take the reigns wouldn't you agree?
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