Garcia in great shape after surviving Spurrier's QB gauntlet
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- There are no real surprises -- or least there shouldn't be -- when you play quarterback for Steve Spurrier.
"Coach Spurrier does not baby his quarterbacks," said Danny Wuerffel, the 1996 Heisman Trophy winner at Florida and the man many point to as Spurrier's prized pupil. "If you do what he asks you when he asks you to do it, you'll be OK. But he's a demanding coach. That is why he is a great coach."
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| Steve Spurrier has been merciless when it comes to Stephen Garcia, but the coach has his methods. (Getty Images) |
Ask Doug Johnson, who Spurrier would call "Dougie" when he wanted to stick the needle in a little deeper to motivate him. Playing quarterback for Spurrier is tough because, to the former Heisman Trophy winner, the quarterback is the extension of himself on the field. But in all that time I can't remember him being harder on a quarterback than he has been on South Carolina's Stephen Garcia.
And now we know why Spurrier has continued to lean on Garcia. That's because every time Spurrier looked at Garcia he knew that a day like last Saturday was possible.
After years of looking like a quarterback with a lousy work ethic who was destined to underachieve, Garcia played the game of his life, completing 17 of 20 passes with three touchdowns as the Gamecocks upset No. 1 Alabama 35-21 at Williams-Brice Stadium. Garcia completed 14 of his first 15 passes. He led South Carolina to touchdowns on its first three possessions and five touchdowns in its eight meaningful possessions.
But understand that on Wednesday, just three days before the historic win, Spurrier was still wondering out loud whether or not Garcia had the right stuff to win a game of this magnitude. In South Carolina's previous game against Auburn on Sept. 25, Spurrier had angrily yanked Garcia out of the game after two fumbles in the fourth quarter. Spurrier inserted true freshman Connor Shaw with the game on the line against the Tigers. Spurrier was criticized for the move after the Gamecocks came up on the short end of a 35-27 score.
"We've got to teach Stephen to get whatever yardage he can and then get on the ground and protect the ball," Spurrier said on a conference call with reporters. "He can't run around with his head down and his eyes closed. He really hasn't done it for three years so I don't know if he will start now. I guess we just have to coach him better."
This was after Spurrier spent the summer verbally beating on Garcia like a rented mule. He questioned Garcia's work ethic, his attention to detail, his leadership, and just about everything related to playing the quarterback position. Spurrier told media members in the summer that he would definitely have two quarterbacks ready to go in 2010.
"And if one guy is not playing well then we'll be ready to give the other guy a chance," said Spurrier. His intent was clear: The year before he felt he was stuck when Garcia played poorly. This season he would have another option if Garcia couldn't or wouldn't get with the program. Spurrier called out Garcia publicly every chance he got.
Those who know the coach pointed out that he was doing everything he could to light a competitive fire under the laid-back Garcia. But some of Spurrier's critics wondered if he wasn't reaching a point of diminishing returns with this constant criticism.
"I've learned to develop a pretty thick skin over the past three years," said Garcia. "I know coach Spurrier is trying to get me to be the best player I can be. All I can do is keep working and trying to play the best that I can."
Garcia came to South Carolina with great credentials from Jefferson High School in Tampa. A lot of other schools (Florida, Oklahoma, Auburn) wanted this kid and when South Carolina signed him, it was with the belief that he would finally give Spurrier the kind of quarterback he needed to compete for an SEC East title. He had the pedigree and the smarts. Both of his brothers played at Harvard. His uncle Ernie played at Florida State.
Garcia graduated from high school early and enrolled in January of 2007. But he never got onto the field as a freshman due to various issues, some of them involving law enforcement. He was out of shape. He didn't really work on his game in the summer. He didn't watch a lot of video tape. Last spring he famously announced that he had "given up beer" and lost some weight in order to prove he was a team player. Spurrier was not impressed.
"It just could be," Spurrier said last summer to a few reporters, "that this is as good as Stephen can be. We just have to keep coaching him up, I guess."
But last Saturday, Garcia faced a moment of truth. On the first possession of the third quarter he missed a high snap from center and panicked at his own 2-yard line. Rather than get on the ground and hope to punt the ball away, Garcia threw it out of the back of the end zone for a safety. On the sideline Spurrier looked on in horror and wondered if his quarterback was going to have another meltdown and give the game away. Alabama used the field position from that mistake and kicked a field goal to bring the Crimson Tide to within a touchdown at 21-14 with a lifetime to go in the game.
"It was pretty scary. I'll tell you that," Garcia said.
In the past, Garcia had followed one bad play without another bad play or multiple bad plays. That is what would drive Spurrier nuts. But with Alabama breathing down his neck, Garcia led South Carolina on a 15-play, 82-yard drive for a touchdown and a 28-14 lead. The drive ate up almost eight minutes of the clock and gave the momentum back to South Carolina. That is when the monumental upset appeared to be real. Later on, Garcia threw a 45-yard pass to Alshon Jeffery to set up the final score.
"Stephen had a special day. The best he's had for us," Spurrier said. "He made the throws that he had to make when we needed them."
Some wondered why Spurrier wasn't more effusive in his praise of Garcia, given everything that has happened between them. But what you have to understand it that it was as close to gushing as "The Ball Coach" will ever come when the subject is his quarterback.
Now Garcia has to do something else he has not done consistently at South Carolina. He has to follow up the performance of a lifetime with another one this Saturday at Kentucky.
"In the SEC you don't have time to sit back and think about what you've done," Garcia said. "If you don't win the next game it doesn't really mean anything."
But this much is clear. If Stephen Garcia can play at this level or close to it the rest of the season, South Carolina has a real shot to go to Florida on Nov. 13 with the SEC East championship on the line. Garcia could play in The Swamp, only two hours up Interstate 75 from his home, with a chance to go to Atlanta. After everything he's been through, how sweet would that be?
"We've got a long way to go," Garcia said. "A very long way to go."
But Garcia has made a big step forward -- a step a lot of people thought he would never make.
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