It's REALLY gonna happen this time

posted by David Cloninger, 10/17/2008 10:45:00 PM

“Knock ’em dead, kid.”
------------------------- MOTLEY CRUE

Here we are, three weeks from when we thought it was going to happen, and it’s finally going to happen.

Stephen Garcia will make his first collegiate start tonight when South Carolina tangles with No. 13 LSU.

I’m excited. I want to see if last week’s brilliant performance at Kentucky was just a fluke or if Garcia can sustain that kind of spark, that energy, for an entire game. And then if he can do it for the rest of the season.

Knowing Steve Spurrier, I’m absolutely confident Chris Smelley will see the field again sometime this season. The facts of the matter do not lie – Garcia, as talented as he seemed to show last week, is still just a freshman and has to learn the different ticks and tacks of several opposing defenses. That’s going to take time.

But my opinion is that Garcia will play the majority of snaps this season because Spurrier’s finally got his guy under center. Smelley will always have more experience – at least, until Garcia catches him – but the performance last week proved what many of us pretty much already knew.

Garcia can make the throws that Smelley can’t – or won’t – make. Garcia is just raw enough to play completely unafraid, even after he was sacked three times in a quarter and a half. For whatever reason, the Gamecocks just clicked when Garcia entered the game.

USC needed someone to take charge in the huddle, to get everybody on the same page and play with some “want-to.” That was the most impressive statistic beside the accuracy and poise Garcia showed last week.

It’s as if he walked onto the field, slapped the other 10 players upside the head and said, “Dammit, let’s go.” And the team responded.

I keep hearing the name Steve Taneyhill brought up in comparison to Garcia, and while it’s still far, far too early to hold Garcia up to that standard, I can see some of the same traits. Even though the ponytail is long gone (sigh), Garcia has the same kind of moxie that Taneyhill had, a fearless attitude that USC could use more of.

I’m sure Garcia will screw up sometime tonight – he’s only human. The sticking point is how well he responds to it, if he’ll let one mistake turn into several because he’s thinking about it too much or if he’ll continue calling that same play until it works.

I think he’ll be fine. Just don’t be disappointed if he doesn’t throw for 400 yards and five touchdowns.

And hope to whatever higher power you believe in that he doesn’t follow some other USC notables through history, who have played one fantastic game and then taken five steps back the next week.

It’s been quite a week in the Palmetto State, the seemingly automatic top story of Garcia starting pushed almost off the stove. Garcia isn’t the only in-state freshman quarterback making his first start today.

But he’s the only one who believes a Scottish broadsword is a much more desirable possession than anything you could find in a truckstop.

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