Garcia gets another shot

Image courtesy of the Associated Press

Seriously, what in the hell is it going to take to get kicked out of USCe? Six chances? This kid has almost as many lives as Catwoman. Let's run through a list of suspensions:

1. Suspended for public drunkenness a month after enrolling in 2007.
2. Suspended for vandalizing a professor’s car two months after enrolling.
3. Suspended for underage drinking a year after that.
4. Suspended last March for having girls in his hotel room after curfew at the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.
5. Suspended a month later for drunken, disruptive behavior at an SEC-mandated leadership event.

Image Courtesy of the Associated Press

This has got to be a joke. As my buddy ECDawg of The Leather Helmet Blog (ps... read this... everyday Dawg fans) says "Garcia's longevity says more about Spurrier's failure to recruit another QB than it does about USCe disciplinary structure."

Chris Low on ESPN talks with Spurrier about Garcia getting another shot.

“One more, and he’ll be finished,” Spurrier said Wednesday.

For the record, Garcia has been suspended five times, including for all or parts of three spring practices.

His most recent suspension came after he became disruptive and was asked to leave an SEC-mandated life skills/leadership seminar in April. Garcia admitted to Spurrier that he’d been drinking prior to the event while celebrating a teammate’s birthday.

At the time, there were several associated with the program who felt Spurrier might send Garcia packing for good, especially considering how much Spurrier has publicly lamented Garcia’s lack of commitment and flimsy work ethic the past two years.

But Spurrier was singing a different tune Wednesday now that Garcia has been reinstated on a probationary basis for summer workouts.

“He’s made a life-change commitment,” Spurrier said. “He’s changed a lot about his life. He’s a changed person right now. Hopefully, he’ll stay that way.”

I have to agree with Matt Hayes for The Sporting News, Spurrier is enabling Garcia's behavior. I'd even go further, he's telling his recruits it's ok to be an alcoholic and destroy other people's lives. You can still play for me. We all make mistakes and we all get slapped on the wrist. How is this teaching this KIDS anything about the game of life? Check out more of Matt's article below:

And this is the player Spurrier has staked his reputation on? It’s so unbelievably out of character for a coach who — until this five-year joyride from Garcia — has never shied from disciplining star players for the smallest of mistakes.

Then again, it was strangely out of character for Jim Tressel to not forward a simple e-mail that would’ve saved his job and reputation.

Now, like it or not, Spurrier has hitched his legacy to a player who has been suspended more than any player in the history of college sports. I’m not exactly sure if that statement is 100 percent accurate, but has anyone in any sport been suspended five times?

Let me explain some Parenting 101 for the good folks in Columbia: If a child doesn’t fear consequences, he doesn’t fear doing the wrong thing. If you suspend a player five times, by the third time, the word “suspension” may as well mean “vacation.”

There’s no way around the reality of five suspensions. I don’t care the degree of the offenses or the manner in the way each was addressed.

This is the quarterback of the team, the extension of the coach; the one player who simply can’t do what he wants when he wants. The team follows his lead.