Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low
For a guy who couldn't seem to make any good decisions off the field his first year and a half on campus, Stephen Garcia sounds remarkably grounded.
And how ironic that it's all the good decisions he made a week ago in a winning relief effort that finally has him where he and South Carolina fans expected him to be a long time ago.
| |  |
| | Andy Lyons/Getty Images |
| | Stephen Garcia is hoping to make the most of his opportunity as a starter. |
The Gamecocks' starting quarterback.
"When I first signed here, I definitely thought I'd have an opportunity," said Garcia, one of the most heralded, and yet, enigmatic prospects Steve Spurrier has signed at South Carolina. "Coach Spurrier didn't promise anything other than that I'd have an opportunity. Talking to the other recruits, they said the same thing. All they did was promise an opportunity, and you've got to make the most of it.
"When I first got here, I didn't really make the most of it. But I'm trying to do that now."
Talent has never been the issue for Garcia, a redshirt freshman. More so, it was whether he could stay out of trouble off the field.
His transgressions -- everything from multiple alcohol-related incidents to keying a professor's car -- certainly didn't rise to the level of hardcore crime. But it was the culmination of the instances that caused him to miss the last two spring practices and nearly get him booted from the university.
Garcia, a Tampa, Fla., product, was suspended from school earlier this year and had to undergo counseling sessions and meet other requirements before he was allowed back in. He was cleared to return just before the start of practice in August.
Hanging by a thread, Garcia knew it was on him to prove that he was going to be an asset to the university and not the detriment that he had been up until that point.
"I owed it to coach Spurrier and the university for sticking with me and not kicking me out of school," Garcia said. "I'm really appreciative that they didn't do that. I definitely thought this day would come. I didn't know when, but I definitely knew it would come."
Not only did it come, but it does so against the defending national champions this Saturday night on national television (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET). LSU isn't in the best of moods, either, after being flattened last week by Florida.
On the flip side, South Carolina is on its best roll of the year after winning its fourth in a row last week, thanks to Garcia coming off the bench in the third quarter and rallying the Gamecocks to a 24-17 victory at Kentucky.
He was 10-of-14 for 169 yards and a touchdown. Although he was sacked three times by the Wildcats, Garcia's ability to move around and scramble gives South Carolina a dimension it didn't have with Chris Smelley and Tommy Beecher earlier this season.
Plus, Garcia is one of those quarterbacks who doesn't mind taking on defenders.
"[The coaches] tell me to hold onto the ball a little higher and tighter more than they tell me to slide," said Garcia, who's South Carolina's second leading rusher with 109 yards in three games (averaging 4.2 yards per carry). "But in that UAB game when I ran the ball 18 times, they were telling me to slide after the game. It's hard for me to try to do that, but I'm going to try to teach myself how to do that, although I really wouldn't want to."
The other thing Garcia is doing is keeping a low profile around campus, which means keeping his once trademark long hair cut and steering clear of the party scene that got him into trouble in the first place.
His priority is being the player and being the quarterback he came to South Carolina to be -- and not the sideshow.
"Learning how to be a starting quarterback in the SEC is one of the most difficult things I've had to teach myself," Garcia said. "It's a lot harder to learn how to play quarterback than deal with the media. But like I said, I'm just trying to figure it all out one day at a time and not take it too fast."
Don't think he's not bubbling over with anticipation, though.
"Yeah, don't let my calm demeanor fool you," Garcia said. "I'm still jacked up right now. I'm just ready to go out there and play. Simple as that. I just want to go out there and play."
It's been a long time coming.
