Stephen Garcia’s Carnival Is Over @ USC

If you live in Columbia, SC, you’re well aware that the South Carolina State Fair is rolling into town. What you didn’t know was coming, however, was a more bizarre and wacky sideshow from the guys that perform across the street @ Williams-Brice.

Today, GamecockNation was all abuzz about the video of Coach Spurrier calling out (w/o actually calling out) Ron Morris of The State Newspaper for fabricating the news and being an overall poop on Spurrier’s program. In all of this, Spurrier walked out on his own presser… twice.

Eclipsing the Spurrier vs. Morris affair, however, was the dismissal of 5th year senior Gamecock quarterback, Stephen Garcia. The quarterback was stripped of his duties as a football player for failing an alcohol and/or drug test. Unfortunately for Garcia, the alcohol/drug test came not long after the fella lost his grandfather, threw a crazy number of interceptions on national TV, was blamed for the loss to Auburn (1st loss of this season), and lost the starting job he won (back) in USC’s first game.

The moment the news regarding Garcia was announced, the Twittersphere and Facebook went nut balls. In the name of space and time, I cherry picked a couple of Tweets. While I don’t think either of them are perfect statements, I have to admit to having shared these fleeting thoughts:

@5daybender @USCMark2001 bottom line is big time programs don’t have these shenanigans in the middle of the season #embarrassed
@ToddKincannon @fitsnews And you know, some guys need liquor and whores to succeed. Tiger. Joe Namath. Maybe Garcia’s in that category.

When it comes to flat out quarterbacking, Garcia leaves USC as #3 all time for yards and completions. He’ll leave #2 in the “WIN” category, with 20 (I think these stats are correct).

Years ago, I blogged that Garcia was the man for the job. At the time, Beecher and Smelley just didn’t have the spark or spunk that Garcia seemed to have. Turns out, that was right. Also turns out that there’s just a little too much off-field spunk to mess with.

Godspeed, Stephen Garcia. Nice wins, 5+ suspensions, terrible bowl performances, and an unreal 2010 season dot your legacy at Carolina. As you connect the dots moving forward, we all hope you’ll represent your Alma mater well in future endeavors.

Now that USC’s #1 sideshow has exited the tent, the State Fair can get back to providing Columbia with the bizarre and weird stuff. The Gamecocks in the meantime, hopefully, can get back to X’s, O’s, and W’s.