‘Time heals all’: Steve Spurrier, Stephen Garcia reflect on QB’s tumultuous USC career

Before South Carolina played Georgia in Athens 13 years ago, coach Steve Spurrier called Stephen Garcia into his hotel room.

When Garcia arrived, he joined the head coach, USC athletics’ Dr. Jeffery Guy and another staffer.

“Why can’t I get my quarterback to shave his beard?” Spurrier asked the room.

At the time Garcia sported about jaw-length curly brown hair and some scruff on his face. And, at the time, he didn’t want to shave. “Coach,” Garcia said, “I look like a freaking whale when I shave my face. ...We’re about to play Georgia in two hours. I’m not shaving”

Spurrier didn’t like that answer.

“All right, let me make this very simple,” he said. “If you don’t shave your face, you’re not playing.”

“Well, sh**,” Garcia said. “Where’s the razor then?”

South Carolina beat Georgia 45-42 that day in 2011 behind an 11-for-25, two-interception and one-touchdown performance from Garcia. Defensive end Melvin Ingram scooped up an Aaron Murray fumble (forced by a Jadeveon Clowney sack) on the 5-yard line and ran it into the end zone to put USC up 45-35. Afterward, Spurrier asked Garcia if he knew why they’d won that day.

“Because you shaved your face,” the Head Ball Coach said, answering his own question after Garcia tried to credit Ingram for the victory.

Gamecock alums Garcia and Patrick DiMarco had Spurrier on as a guest for the second episode of their “Tailgate Talks” podcast released Wednesday. The two former roommates reminisced with each other and their former coach about the good ole days of South Carolina football during the hour-long show. They also recounted some of Spurrier and Garcia’s best run-ins over the quarterback’s tumultuous career at USC.

Spurrier talked on-field highlights of his tenure, epic wins never before seen at South Carolina. Of his players: “Our guys graduated. They did well, and most of them stayed out of trouble. I think a few went wayward occasionally, right Stephen? But nothing too big I don’t think.”

When asked specifically about his relationship with Garcia, Spurrier said, “Stephen had a lot of good games, and Stephen had a lot of fun as a student there, I heard.”

That sums it up pretty well, albeit incredibly vaguely. Garcia played for the Gamecocks from 2008-2011, leading the program to some of its most celebrated victories: over No. 1 Alabama, No. 4 Ole Miss and the SEC East-clinching win over Florida in 2010. He was also suspended five times and eventually kicked off the team in 2011, a decision Spurrier said on the show was made jointly with then-athletic director Eric Hyman because Garcia “failed a drug test.”

Garcia looked back on those days with a sobering sense of self-awareness. He confessed to Spurrier wishing he’d listened more as a young man. Wishing he’d shaved his face, cut his hair, wore collared shirts and slacks.

“Time heals all,” Garcia remembered Spurrier say after his dismissal. At the time, the fiery quarterback didn’t understand his coach’s words. Garcia was too distracted by his desire to “scorch some freaking earth.” But now he’s a father with a 16-year-old son named Memphys at home. Garcia said he was grateful for the relationship he and Spurrier have now.

DiMarco joked on the show that Garcia received “17 strikes.” One such strike led to a suspension when USC was in Atlanta for the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Garcia had too much to drink and got caught with girls in his hotel room late after curfew, DiMarco said.

“I wish I was a fly on the wall in Coach Spurrier’s room when they broke the news to him,” he added.

Garcia and DiMarco also recounted Spurrier’s wit and cheeky criticisms, something all players were subjected to. When going over game tape during team meetings, he would point out errors and ask whichever young man what was going through his head in that moment. Then Spurrier would concede:

“It’s not your fault. It’s my fault for putting you in the game.”

Or: “It’s not your fault. I’m the guy who offered you a scholarship.”

Both former players remembered trying to sneak off to the bathroom when they knew one of their mistakes was coming up. But Spurrier would pause the tape until they returned.

“What were you thinking there,” Garcia said, raising the pitch of his voice and mixing in a little Southern twang. It was a worthy Spurrier impression.

Despite all of Garcia’s trouble with the rules, he and DiMarco said coach Spurrier only had three big ones:

▪ Don’t drink the dark stuff.

▪ Don’t hit women.

▪ No F-bombs or GDs.

“I already broke two of those rules,” Garcia said, referring to Nos. 1 and 3, “between the brown stuff that’s in there.”