For anyone who is a regular reader here at Crystal Ball Run, you know that of everything that happened last weekend, the one thing I couldn’t help but take away was the sad state of Stephen Garcia’s playing career. It was a mix of disappointment, surprise, anger and resentment, with my feelings fluctuating from “I can’t help but feel sorry for the other 84 guys in the locker room,” to at the same time, feeling sorry for Garcia himself. For all of the personal demons that he has worked to correct, his football career was going up in smoke.
Something had to change at South Carolina, and on Monday night it did. That’s when Garcia was sent to the bench, and officially replaced as a starter by Connor Shaw.
As Steve Spurrier explained in his press conference:
“As most everyone knows our quarterback play has not been as good as we hoped and we’ve got to do something.” Spurrier said. “It wasn’t that hard a call. At some point, we’ve got to do something to shake up this offense and this is the first step.”
Well, that settles that.
On the surface, Spurrier was right; this wasn’t a hard call. At best, Garcia’s play this year would be described as “bad,” and at worse, “A disgrace to football,” but rarely at any point would anyone have called him “good,” or even “competent.” His numbers on the season lay that out pretty clearly, with Garcia tossing just four touchdowns and nine interceptions, while completing just 51 percent of his passes. As things stand, South Carolina ranks 101st in college football in passing at 174 yards per game, a number that is simply inexcusable when you have a future first round NFL Draft pick at wide receiver in Alshon Jeffery. Not to mention a handful of other dangerous weapons in the passing game.
And really, given the amount of talent on this offense, the Gamecocks recent output is inexcusable as a whole. Looking at the raw stats doesn’t tell the entire story, since on the season they’re averaging a very misleading 31 points a game. Why is that number misleading? Because after scoring a combined 101 points against East Carolina and Georgia to open the season, the Gamecocks have followed it up with three straight duds, averaging just 20 points per game in wins over Navy, Vanderbilt and Auburn. Given that all three of those games were all at home, and none of those opponents were even close to the toughest that South Carolina will face this year (Arkansas, Florida and Clemson remain on the schedule), something needed to change. And it did Monday.
Now that all of the Garcia chatter is out of the way, the more important question becomes, “Will Connor Shaw be any better.” Truthfully, it’s hard to say.
Shaw was named the starter for the Gamecocks opener against East Carolina earlier this year, and was so bad that it forced Spurrier’s hand into bringing Garcia off the bench to save the day. In that game Shaw was just 3 for 9 passing, and on his career he’s thrown just 44 total passes. The nine attempts against East Carolina was a career high.
Beyond that game however, was maybe Shaw’s best known appearance came last year, when he relieved Garcia against these same Auburn Tigers, at Auburn. After Garcia had fumbled on back-to-back possessions, Shaw was thrown into the fire, and couldn’t help throw to the other team. He had two interceptions in his short time of work.
Regardless, this job is now his, as South Carolina’s season continues to spiral out of control.
As Steve Spurrier said, South Carolina needed to do “something to shake up the offense.” Consider Shaw the shake that will try to solve the Gamecocks woes.
Whether Shaw proves to be the best man for the job remains to be seen. But right now, he is the better man.
Follow Aaron on Twitter @Aaron_Torres.
