Stephen Garcia Reinstated After Months-Long Suspension, Probation

Garcia was originally suspended an entire calendar season ago, leading to instant Steve Spurrier insight that lasted through SEC Media Days. HBC’s famously hate-love-hate relationship with all of his non-Heisman quarterbacks flourished throughout the endeavor. Garcia returned on a probationary basis in May, but then radio Columbia went dark on the matter.

With their star (yes, actually!) quarterback at the helm, the Cocks will be favored to win the SEC East. Wait, you say they already were favored to win the SEC East? It’s almost like everybody knew this day would come here sooner rather than later.

Garcia was suspended indefinitely on April 6 after being briefly suspended on March 15, all of which increased his total number of suspensions to ... /counts on fingers ... five. All are believed to relate to partyin’.

Considering Garcia is the most experienced quarterback on Carolina’s roster -- and in the entire SEC -- the team will strongly hope to have him calling signals in the fall. The Cocks have somehow found themselves with a SEC East title to defend, but another slip-up by Garcia could put that in instant jeopardy.

↵No. No, it does not.

↵HT: Garnet And Black Attack.

We know little more of Stephen Garcia’s indefinite suspension from South Carolina football on Thursday morning than we did when the news broke Wednesday night, but some South Carolina fans have already heard enough. We can understand this, really, since while Garcia’s neverending parade of misdeeds is a source of continued delight to us, they actually need him to play football. Over at Garnet & Black Attack, one Gamecocks blogger thinks the reports of Garcia’s drinking (denied by the quarterback himself, it should be noted) might actually be a weird relief if true:

Currently, 76% of respondents in a poll on the blog think Garcia should be dismissed from the football team.

The delightful Clemsonian wags at Block-C have discovered that there’s already a place in the natural order of things for Stephen Garcia’s totally inevitable suspension:

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Spurrier and Garcia have had one of college football’s weirdest relationships for years now, from the coach benching the passer to publicly casting doubt upon his assertions to referring to him like he’s some Chris Farley character.

So why was Stephen Garcia suspended indefinitely from South Carolina football? The obvious scenario you’ve certainly envisioned by now -- partyin’ -- has been confirmed by TheBigSpur.com’s John Whittle and others. The story has Garcia arriving to a 7 pm ET South Carolina leadership event of some sort already drunk.

However, Garcia told the Associated Press that the suspension did not involve arrests, drugs, or alcohol. But a man can get a buzz off a significant supply of Robitussin and vanilla extract, let’s recall.

Stephen Garcia’s brief suspension from South Carolina football spring practice apparently didn’t do the trick. Despite coach Steve Spurrier’s admission that he just can’t stay mad at the young pup, athletic director Eric Hyman has announced Garcia will be suspended indefinitely from the football program.

No specifics yet on whether this is explicitly related to the previous charge of cavorting before the 2010 Chick-fil-A Bowl, as Hyman terms Garcia’s misdeeds as having “exhibited behavior that is unacceptable for one of our student-athletes.” Well, all right then.

For more on the Cocks, visit Garnet And Black Attack.