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The State/
Kyle Parker and Stephen Garcia
GoGamecocks.com
Morris: Future bodes well for Garcia, Parkers
Both Qbs should give fans in South Carolina a rare treat
Posted on 09.16.09
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GARCIA’S 2009 STATISTICS
PASSING| Game | Com.-Att.-Int. | Yds. | TDs. |
| N.C. State | 13-22-1 | 148 | 0 |
| Georgia | 31-53-1 | 313 | 2 |
| Totals | 44-75-2 | 461 | 2 |
| Game | Att. | Yards |
| N.C. State | 8 | 16 |
| Georgia | 10 | 42 |
| Totals | 18 | 58 |
TOUCHDOWN PASSES
vs. Georgia
6 yards to Tori Gurley
13 yards to Brian Maddox
-------------------------
PARKER’S 2009 STATISTICS
PASSING| Game | Com.-Att.-Int. | Yds. | TDs. |
| Middle Tenn. | 9-20-0 | 159 | 2 |
| Georgia Tech | 15-31-2 | 261 | 3 |
| Totals | 24-51-2 | 420 | 5 |
| Game | Att. | Yards |
| Middle Tenn. | 7 | 25 |
| Georgia Tech | 7 | 4 |
| Totals | 14 | 29 |
TOUCHDOWN PASSES:
vs. Middle Tennessee
43 yards to Jacoby Ford
33 yards to Marquan Jones
vs. Georgia Tech
63 yards to C.J. Spiller
9 yards to Dwayne Allen
77 yards to Ford
FOOTBALL FANS ACROSS the state witnessed the first blooms of budding star quarterbacks this past week at South Carolina and Clemson. For now, Clemson redshirt freshman Kyle Parker appears to be a step or two ahead of Stephen Garcia, his redshirt sophomore counterpart at USC.
Yet there is every reason to believe Garcia and Parker could lead this state’s football fans on a three-year quarterback run never before seen here. Both possess enormous potential. Both are extremely talented. Both are in the infancy of their college careers.
“Stephen’s improving,” Steve Spurrier said of Garcia, who completed 31 passes for 313 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday in USC’s loss at Georgia. “He had a lot of good plays the other night, and a lot of not-so-good plays. ... He’s improving. ... He’s got potential.”
Two nights earlier, Parker showed off to a national TV audience in a loss at Georgia Tech when he passed for 261 yards and three touchdowns.
“He did grow up a lot,” Dabo Swinney said. “He made some mistakes and things that he’s going to have to learn from, minuses that he will correct. But he made a lot of big plays. ... I think he’s on his way to being a very, very good player for us.”
Parker’s background in football serves him well. His father, Carl, a former wide receiver in the NFL, coached Parker at various stops through middle and high school. Additionally, Parker happened to play at Bartram Trail High in Jacksonville, Fla., the same year renowned quarterbacks coach Carl Smith was at the school.
Smith, a veteran of 23 seasons of pro football and currently the quarterbacks’ coach for the Cleveland Browns, was out of coaching in 2007 and 2008. He worked during the 2007 season with Parker in Jacksonville.
“He’s been well-schooled and really understands football,” Swinney said of Parker. “He really understands defensive coverages, fronts and alignments. He can recognize blitzes. He’s done a great job of getting us in and out of the right (pass) protections.”
This from a freshman who has played two games of college football.
“He’s unbelievably mature,” Swinney said. “He’s like a junior running around out on the field. ... He’s way ahead of any freshman I’ve been around from a quarterback standpoint. It’s not often you’re around a freshman quarterback anyway that’s actually starting. But of the two or three I’ve been around, he’s really pretty special.”
Garcia’s maturation as a quarterback, which has accelerated over the first two games of this season, was stalled through his first two seasons by a lack of fundamentals, according to Spurrier.
“He’s working at it,” Spurrier said. “Again, he didn’t come in here as a polished quarterback, and fundamentals are something that really were not stressed to him until he got here. So, we’re working on the fundamentals of throwing, running, playing quarterback.”
Like Parker, Garcia also has the arm strength to make every necessary throw. The test in Spurrier’s offense is for a quarterback to throw an out pattern from one hash mark to the opposite sideline. Garcia can make it.
Where Garcia struggles is throwing balls to his right side. Those throws tend to sink. Also, when he throws on the run, Garcia sometimes fails to rotate his shoulders and his passes lack zip.
Garcia has worked tirelessly this past offseason and this fall to learn the game and how to manage it. He called a few audibles at the line of scrimmage in the first half against Georgia. He also is getting better at standing in the pocket and making check-down reads of receivers.
“He’s come a long way,” Spurrier said of Garcia, “and he’s got a long ways to go.”
In both quarterbacks, fans got just enough glimpse into the future this past week to see that the USC and Clemson offenses could be in good hands for a while.
This past week was only the beginning. Better things are yet to come from the two budding stars.
Listen to Morris Tuesdays from 4-5 p.m. on ESPN Radio 93.1 FM.
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