Steve Spurrier has spent the better part of spring practice publicly calling out and questioning his presumptive starter at quarterback, Stephen Garcia.
From putting his job up for grabs to -- the most damning -- questioning his work ethic, Spurrier has not been shy in criticizing the second-leading passer in the SEC, yardage-wise, in 2009.
Garcia has heard and read the words, and admits that they’ve left a mark.
“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty upset about it,” Garcia said according to The State. “I’m just going to have to use that as motivation and try to prove him wrong.”
The redshirt junior had a chance to silence his chief critic during the Gamecocks’ spring game, but failed to even remotely do so. The inconsistency that’s plagued him throughout the spring -- and brought the ire of his coach -- was evident again Saturday as Garcia went 8-of-15 passing for 79 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
While he softened his tone just a little bit, Spurrier once again challenged Garcia publicly to get better between now and the start of summer camp.
“We keep thinking Stephen is going to really get better. And something happens to him and he performs pretty similarly, it seems like, all the time,” Spurrier said. “But he’s got all summer to see if he can really try to iron out some things. ... We’re trying to work on his form. But maybe we can’t change his form, I don’t know.”