This should not come to a surprise to anyone that follows South Carolina football, quarterback Stephen Garcia has been allowed to participate in summer workouts starting today and re-join the team. Coach Spurrier hinted this was coming last week. Today is the start of Summer Session I at USC and the start of summer workouts thus the timing of the press release today from the University.
Coach Spurrier and USC AD Eric Hyman made it known that there is still some things for Garcia to complete as this is a “probationary” situation. Garcia is to be re-evaluated before fall ball. But nonetheless, this is great news.
USC is not a legit contender to repeat as SEC East champs.
Here are the contents of the school’s press release for your reading pleasure:
COLUMBIA, S.C. (May 30, 2011) – Senior quarterback Stephen Garcia will be allowed to participate in voluntary summer workouts with the football team, it was announced today. Garcia had been serving an indefinite suspension from the program since April 6.
“Stephen is returning to the team on a probationary basis and still has to do some things here for the next two or three months to prove himself worthy of being a student-athlete at South Carolina,” said head coach Steve Spurrier. “We will give him another chance and hopefully he can do the right things and represent the University in a first-class manner.”
“Being a student-athlete at the University of South Carolina is a privilege, not a right,” said Athletics Director Eric Hyman. “We explain to all of our student-athletes that there are consequences for their actions. Our main goal for Stephen at this time is to assist him in developing the decision-making skills that are needed for managing life in general, whether as a student-athlete, a person, an employee, a spouse or a parent. With assistance from others, we have developed a list of measurable guidelines for Stephen to follow. I want to make it clear those guidelines, which will remain confidential, are designed to help him live a successful life and are not some trivial hoops for him to jump through in order to find a way to reinstate him,” added Hyman. “So the ball clearly rests in Stephen Garcia’s hands.”
Garcia’s status will be evaluated again prior to the start of fall camp. The team is scheduled to report to camp on Tuesday, August 2, with the first full squad workout set for Wednesday, August 3.
Garcia has started 28 consecutive games for the Gamecocks and owns an overall record of 17-13 as a starter. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University in May. The Gamecocks are coming off a 9-5 season in which they captured the SEC Eastern Division title for the first time in school history.
