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Gerry Melendez/gmelendez@thestate.com/The State
USC quarterback Stephen Garcia
GoGamecocks.com
Morris: Two leaders, ready or not
Korn has had luxury of waiting in the wings; Garcia must show maturity now
Posted on 10.17.08
BOTH ARRIVED ON campus nearly two years ago, highly touted and wet behind the ears. Quarterbacks Stephen Garcia and Willy Korn represented the future of South Carolina and Clemson football.
That future is now, or at least Saturday. Garcia gets his first start against LSU at Williams-Brice Stadium. Korn gets his against Georgia Tech at Memorial Stadium.
One brings enough maturity to be handed the keys to the team's car as its leader. The other has obvious maturity issues, to the point that his head coach still does not trust him.
That played out earlier this week. Tommy Bowden announced on Friday that Clemson needed a spark to its offense and Korn could provide that by starting in place of senior Cullen Harper.
Sunday evening, as Clemson left its practice field, Korn immediately walked to the team's graveyard, where tombstones salute the Tigers' most significant road victories over the years. It is where Bowden met daily with the media following practice for much of the past 10 seasons.
"That's my spot, rookie," Bowden said, poking fun at Korn. Bowden clearly was comfortable enough with Korn to let him jump into the media frenzy fray. There was no behind-the-scenes coaching of Korn on how to conduct himself with the media.
Korn has been around this block before. His Byrnes High School team in the Upstate played games on national television. Too many times to mention, Korn faced microphones and cameras while leading Byrnes to a 39-3 record and two state championships.
Korn's father said the more difficult challenge for Korn when he arrived at Clemson was dealing with not being in the spotlight. From the outset of his arrival at Clemson in January of 2007, the coaching staff realized it had a young man mature beyond his age.
It probably helped Korn's situation that much of the media attention this week shifted to the changing of the coaching guard. Still, interim coach Dabo Swinney gave every indication he was comfortable in turning the offense to Korn.
Not so much with Garcia.
By Tuesday of this week, Spurrier had announced that his new starting quarterback would be available to the media only once. That was Tuesday morning. Later in the afternoon, Spurrier twice asked if Garcia's session went according to plan.
"He didn't say anything crazy did he?" Spurrier asked members of the media.
Spurrier has ample reason to be concerned about anything Garcia does, on or off the field. Let me go to my save/get key to explain. Here it is: Garcia had three arrests or citations in a 15-month period that resulted in him missing two spring practices as well as this year's summer workouts with the team.
So, it is understandable that Spurrier pointed to the list of "Top 10 Rules For Spokespeople" that hangs on the team meeting room wall as Garcia's guide.
Spurrier also coached Garcia on the subject.
"Just a little bit. Just a little bit," Spurrier said. "(I told him) just be humble and try to be appreciative of where you are right now. He could easily have been kicked out of this school for the things that happened.
"But our university hung in there with him and put a lot of requirements on him and he's fulfilled them. He's in a position right now that hopefully he's smart enough now to take advantage of it."
Spurrier said things were far different in the early 1960s when he played quarterback at Florida. A couple of newspaper reporters and perhaps a TV station or two covered the Gators then, compared to the flanks of reporters, radio personalities and TV cameras that cover every move of his USC team.
Still, Spurrier could have used his career as an example of how a quarterback should conduct himself. Of course, that was long before Spurrier became a brash young coach who popped off on just about any subject. As a player, Spurrier's boldness was apparent only on the football field, like when he called on himself to kick a 41-yard field goal to beat Auburn in his Heisman Trophy winning season of 1966.
Now, he turns to a quarterback whose only noticeable actions prior to leading USC past Kentucky on Saturday were off-field discretions. There is an adage in football that a quarterback who makes bad decisions off the field usually does the same on the field.
Spurrier can only hope Garcia has grown up enough over the past few months that he has caught up to Korn, who has made enough sound decisions off the field to earn the complete trust of his coaching staff in running Clemson's offense.
Listen to Morris Tuesdays from 4-5 p.m. on ESPN Radio 93.1 FM
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