Since Saturday night I’ve had roughly a million thoughts about the South Carolina football season, and all but about seven of them involve the quarterback position.  I’ve read opinions on Spurrier/Garcia/Shaw from good professional writers, bad professional writers, bloggers, blog commenters, message board hounds, emailers and texters.

So, for this edition of Tusings, I’ll flush my brain of a few of these thoughts, and even tack on a couple of non-QB thoughts at the end.

The change from Garcia to Shaw had to be made. What your eyes tell you are confirmed by the statistics – Stephen Garcia is having a rotten senior season. A completion percentage hovering around 50 percent and a staggering nine interceptions against four touchdowns stick out the most. Sure, you can blame a suddenly porous offensive line, you can nitpick our route running, or you can question our (lack of) game planning or play calling, but too many bad throws and too many bad decisions have ultimately been his downfall.

Nobody knows what Connor Shaw is as a college quarterback, but the majority of Gamecock fans are ready to find out. It begins on Saturday against Kentucky, and there will be 80,000 sets of crossed fingers in Williams-Brice.

The timing is right. A couple of writers floated the idea that Spurrier didn’t want to make the change with a critical three-game road stretch coming up after Kentucky. My thinking was the timing couldn’t be more perfect – give Shaw a chance to get comfortable in the home environment against an inferior (I hope) team. If Garcia starts this week, lays another egg, then where does that leave you going into Starkville, Knoxville and Fayettevile? At least this lets you know if you have a viable option in Shaw. Plus, I know Shaw threw two picks in the fourth quarter against Auburn last year, but his play in an extremely hostile environment, in an extremely difficult situation, was actually not bad.  

“Garcia is trying to do too much.” Probably true. He knows what this season means to the Gamecock faithful, and he knows no matter what it is his last in Columbia, and he wants to win. Bad. This makes him willing to take chances we sometimes can’t afford. His last interception against Vandy (the flip to Alshon at the goal line) proves that. But with two of the top offensive weapons in the country, we need more solid, and less spectacular.

“If Shaw was ready (or any good), he would’ve been in there by now.” Disagree with the premise, because I don’t think we know the answer yet. Maybe I’m naïve, but I just don’t think Spurrier would start a season opener with a quarterback whom he either has very little confidence in, or a quarterback who sucks. As we’ve said in this blog many times, Spurrier believed Garcia gave us the best chance to win based on something he saw early in the East Carolina game, and he stuck with it through Auburn. It’s obvious he no longer believes that.

With that said, the decision to start Shaw over Garcia against ECU was a bad one. Or at the very least, it was handled badly. I don’t know if Garcia’s feelings were hurt or confidence was shot when the decision was made to start Shaw. I don’t know if Shaw’s feelings were hurt or confidence was shot when he was pulled in favor of Garcia. But it sure is easy to come to that conclusion based on how Garcia has played and the fact that Shaw has not played a meaningful snap since.  

“Shaw is going to go the distance.” Sounds like the right thing to say, but I couldn’t help but think that Spurrier said the same thing about Garcia going into the Outback Bowl after Chris Smelley stunk it up against CTU. (You are welcome to virtually boo me for that.)

We haven’t seen the last of Stephen Garcia. I have mixed feelings about this. The two reasons Garcia would get to play again are a) Shaw is truly dreadful or b) Shaw gets hurt. I want neither for that young man. But at the same time, I desperately want Garcia to come in late against CTU, lead three touchdown drives, including one that ends in a brahma bull like run through CTU defenders to win the game with less than a minute to go. Then I want him to be the MVP of both the SEC Championship Game and our BCS game, after which he climbs on a white horse in the Superdome, and rides out a conquering hero. That’s the only way this CAN end, right?

And a couple of other notes…

Auburn is ruining Michael Dyer’s future NFL career by giving him too many carries. So many carries for that poor young man – 41! That’s four more than Marcus had against Navy!  When will the madness stop?!?

South Carolina is ruining Marcus Lattimore’s NFL career by giving him too many…NO WAIT…not enough carries. I think we can all agree 17 carries is not enough to showcase Marcus’ considerable talent, but 37 is WAY too many for his poor little body to handle. I’m going to start a petition that Marcus gets exactly 24 carries per game, portioned out accordingly over four quarters (six per quarter for you non-math majors.)  That should make EVERYBODY happy, right?

Go Cocks.

In the review of the Auburn game, Buck rambles, Gman is almost speechless, and Tbone joins us from a church picnic (seriously). All this and much more on TRC Unleashed – Episode 8!

What happens when our own need for entertainment outstrips our ability to make good decisions?  In a larger sense, when does conflict, whether it be reality television, athletic contests, or even warfare, reach a point where the execution of the conflict forever changes the participants (and the spectators)?

 The Hunger Games (Scholastic 2008) addresses this malleability in our fragile psyches.  The novel, written by Susan Collins for the young adult demographic, tells the story of Katniss Everdeen, an athletically gifted young woman from humble origins.  Through the operation of an oppressive societal tradition, Katniss is forced to participate in a Survivor-style national entertainment show, but with a deadly twist:  the competition is to the death, and only the winner survives.

 Katniss has a rare combination of good looks, charisma, and athletic ability, but her talents are raw and unfocused.  To address this weakness, she is tutored by Haymitch, an irascible past champion well on in years.  Haymitch bullies, cajoles, threatens, ridicules, and embarrasses Katniss, all in the hope of turning her into a champion herself.  While the novel is filled with exciting contests, victories, and tragedies throughout, it is this relationship between coach and student that underscores Collins’s thesis best:  In training Katniss in such a domineering and humiliating public manner, Haymitch damages Katniss in a way that cannot be reversed.

 By the novel’s end, the charismatic hero is reduced to a paranoid, conflicted shell of her former self.  Her former outgoing personality is reduced to an embittered and sullenly damaged ego.  The coach may have bent his pupil to his will, but in doing so, he destroyed the very essence that made the player outstanding.

 Regardless of your age, read The Hunger Games and learn from this cautionary tale of potential, promise, ambition, competition, and moral hazard. 

 Or just watch a South Carolina football game, and see the exact same thing.

As I sit and watch CTU dismantle VPI, making me even more bitter, here are some quick, barely researched, not fully formed thoughts from this afternoon’s abysmal 16-13 loss to Auburn:

It is finished. I am Buck, and my thoughts do not necessarily reflect those of the other members of TRC, but it is absolutely, positively time to bench Stephen Garcia. I was talked off the ledge last week, but after today I truly believe if we are going to meet ANY of our goals this season, it will not happen with #5 at the helm. I love the man, I love what he has done for our football program (the good stuff, that is), and I love the material he has given us for this blog.

But enough is enough. In this, the most important football season in our history, our offense has been, if I may quote the HBC, putrid. Even Alshon Jeffery in the post-game backed at least a tire of the bus over Garcia when he said (paraphrased), “we were open, I guess he didn’t have enough time or something.” I understand the OL hasn’t played very well. I also understand the play calling has been questionable at best. But the most high-profile, potentially high-impact change you can make is at the quarterback position, and at this point really shouldn’t be a difficult decision. Garcia has been awful, and there are no more acceptable excuses for sticking with him. Nobody is more sorry to say that than me.

HBC needs an OC. I know it will never happen, but I wish Steve Spurrier would completely relinquish the offense to someone. Every Saturday I watch offensive teams that are sharp, operate with a purpose and have some sort of an identity…and then I have to watch South Carolina. And I’ve watched it for seven years. Confusion. Penalties. Ill-timed timeouts. If we are going to fail offensively, I’d at least like to know what we are TRYING to be.

Speaking of ill-timed timeouts. Twelve seconds left, you just picked up a first down, and you call your final timeout – with the clock stopped. There’s no way to know what would’ve happened with ten seconds and one timeout versus the twelve second and no timeouts we wound up with, but it sure seemed like a stupid decision at the time. And actually, it seems like one now too. And don’t bitch about getting screwed by the refs. If we make a few plays earlier in the game we don’t have to worry about getting screwed in the first place.

“We’re not a very smart team.” I’m pretty damn tired of hearing that also.

Ingram for Heisman. Well, at least All-American. Losing to unranked teams at home on national television doesn’t do much for your Heisman campaign. Unfortunately, that pretty much dooms Marcus’ chances as well.

Byrd is the a word. Dameire Byrd touched it once that I recall on a reverse, and then was the intended target on a Garcia armpunt, but didn’t have quite the impact for which I was hoping. Bruce Ellington had one huge catch, but we’re still searching for another offensive option outside of #1 and #21.

All is not lost, but it sure feels like it at the moment. We still control our own destiny, but we’ve now lost our two-game edge over UGA, and absolutely need to take 2 out of 3 against MSU, UT and Arkansas. And not lose to Florida. And hope UGA loses another conference game.

Ah, hell, when does basketball baseball season start?