South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier was barely a minute into his news conference after the Garnet & Black game April 10 when he was asked if the 15 spring practices produced a backup quarterback to Stephen Garcia.
“A backup? We’re looking for a guy who can carry us all the way through,” Spurrier said. “I’m hoping Stephen Garcia will have a big summer of getting committed to really learn how to play. Stephen should be our best player, but sometimes he doesn’t act like it or perform like it.”
The Southeastern Conference is not expected to be overly loaded at quarterback this season, and this spring did nothing to ameliorate that perception.
At LSU, returning starter Jordan Jefferson was outplayed by backup Jarrett Lee. At Tennessee, Nick Stephens was the only returning quarterback but left the team April 8 after new coach Derek Dooley enhanced the practice reps for competitors Matt Simms and Tyler Bray. And at Georgia, Zach Mettenberger emerged as a challenger by completing 23 of 36 passes for 433 yards and five touchdowns in three spring scrimmages but was dismissed by coach Mark Richt after Richt learned more information about Mettenberger’s arrest March 7 near Valdosta.
Vanderbilt was inept offensively in its April 10 spring game no matter who was under center.
But not all news was bleak. John Brantley had an excellent spring game at Florida, while Nathan Stanley and Chris Relf did nothing to damage their starting projections at Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
At Auburn, four quarterbacks combined for 488 yards and three touchdowns at its A-Day game April 17, after which Tigers coach Gene Chizik said the competition will carry into preseason camp.
“We want to look at every day and every play (from the spring),” Chizik said, “because we want to name a starting quarterback as soon as we can.”
The SEC’s spring schedule ended Saturday with games at Kentucky, which has a three-man race, and Arkansas.