No love lost in Columbia

This is one brutal assessment:

… Unfortunately, the motivational ploys used by Spurrier for four years have fallen on Garcia’s deaf ears. It was clear at Saturday’s spring game that Garcia’s progress in becoming the quarterback Spurrier desires has been stunted.

Spurrier said Garcia still has mechanical issues with his throwing motion. At times, the quarterback throws a better sinker than any of Ray Tanner’s pitchers. That can be corrected, as can his decision-making with dedicated film study.

What was more disturbing while watching Garcia was his lack of confidence. Backup freshman quarterback Connor Shaw looked more comfortable under center on Saturday than Garcia.

Why would Garcia be so lacking in self-assurance despite heading into his fourth season of college football? My guess is that it has something to do with constantly being told publicly by his coach that he has few redeeming values as a quarterback.

Hard to believe that the outcome of a minor bowl game would leave a scar on the OBC’s psyche, but it sounds like that’s the case.

… Give Spurrier credit for bringing in quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus a year ago to work with Garcia. During games – and maybe in practices as well – Mangus played the role of “good cop” to Spurrier’s “bad cop” when dealing with Garcia. It seemed to work.

Then an embarrassing performance by Garcia and USC in the Papajohns.com Bowl loss to Connecticut shook Spurrier. He has said often he might never rid himself of the bad taste left from being humiliated in that game.

Spurrier appears to be taking out some of his frustration on Garcia. Yet, Spurrier recognizes he enters next season with Garcia as his best – and maybe only – option at quarterback. Shaw might someday develop into an outstanding quarterback, but he is not likely to lead USC into SEC play as a freshman.

I don’t see it either, but then again, I’m not a visor-wearing head coach who’s already said it’s part of his job to be a bigger jerk this season.  I wonder how many Gamecock fans were expecting to go along for a ride in the SEC with a true freshman quarterback this season.  Not to mention how much they want to…

15 Comments

Filed under The Evil Genius

15 responses to “No love lost in Columbia

  1. Reptillicide

    I have an honest question. Why the HELL would any qb EVER want to play for Spurrier?

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  2. Normaltown Mike

    Said Spurrier “God smiled on the Gators…which is a real sonofabitch since I’m on Columbia”

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  3. Will Trane

    The Diamond Dawgs have been a disaster the past two seasons. Last nights performance was as bad you can get…perhaps. Serious consideration must be looked at with regard to the current coaching staff and future LOI. There are some quality baseball players in this state, but they are not showing up on the Dawgs roster lately. Freshman, sophomore, or whatever class, you have to perform better than that. If I was a player on this team that loss would stay with me the rest of my life. It would be something that would motivate me to make many teams pay down the road. Let’s see how much pride, determination, and discipline this staff and team can muster the rest of this season.

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  4. For years I’ve wondered why the hell Papa John’s would use the name of their website to sponsor a bowl instead of just, you know, the name of the company.

    And then I noticed that “papajohns.com” was automatically hyperlinked in the post above. Every time a blogger anywhere talks about the bowl, BAM, free links and hits.

    Genius.

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  5. 69Dawg

    We can only hope that the fact that Coach L is now coaching the DB at UGA will strike terror in the heart of Diego Garcia. Couple our new DB’s with we are going to bring the farm at a QB with a fragile psyche and it should be a fun day in Columbia.

    Once upon a time SOS could get QB’s he could mold in his own imagine then a strange thing happened, none of them became great at the next level and that was all she wrote. Urban beware this could happen to you.

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  6. Mayor of Dawgtown

    I have been waiting for the Cock fans to get tired of Spurrier’s schtick. When he was at FLA he could get away with it because they were winning championships. Now he is at South Carolina and they are not winning championships albeit they are better than they used to be. Sooner or later they will tire of Spurrier’s antics. I am betting on sooner if he doesn’t win.

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    • Rum-Dawg Millionaire

      I think you give them too much credit. Every, single, year, the gamecock fans say “this is the year.” And it doesn’t matter that there has been absolutely no signs of progress. They are the same team every year. 3-4th place. But talk to any Gamecock fan, they think “this is the year.” And if they go 7-5 or 8-4 this year, they will say “next year.”

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      • Mayor of Dawgtown

        South Carolina will have a losing season one of these days and that will be all she wrote. When your normal year is 7-5 it only takes a couple of screw-ups at the end that flip the outcome and 7-5 will become 5-7.

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  7. Vious

    Garcia was never known as a hard-worker and got arrested twice before he ever stepped onto the field.

    I never understood the hype with the kid as he has never shown a damn thing on the college field. Absolutely nothing special.

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  8. Aligator

    At UF Spurrier was a great coach as he had the athletes and his Shiite would work. not so much anymore and he is about at retirement age. if they go8-5 this year, he too will have succumbed to his own pride after all of these years … being a dick only works when you have the balls to back it up. USC has no balls ….

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  9. S.E. Dawg

    I’m not going to say anything about this kid at this point. When we hit Columbia, he’ll probably come out looking like another Joe Namath.

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  10. mac doggg

    CSS can be a bigger jerk ? Karma is just balancing things out. Man it is fun to watch.

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  11. shane#1

    The problem that I see with Garcia is that he is so inconsistant. I would rather coach a mediocre QB that knew he was mediocre. How can you game plan for a QB when you never know which QB will show up? One week Garcia looks like a mini Tebow, the next week he looks like Quincy Carter on crack. Go figure!

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