Connor Shaw Gets the Starting Quarterback Nod for South Carolina's Season Opener

Well, it looks like the old ball coach is up to his old tricks again.

Taking a page out of his Florida Gators manual, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier has surprisingly decided to go with inexperienced sophomore signal-caller Connor Shaw, instead of returning senior starter Stephen Garcia, at quarterback to start South Carolina’s opener against East Carolina on Saturday.

Spurrier, who made the announcement tonight on his radio show, said that Shaw earned the right to start by outplaying Garcia in camp.

Garcia, who has been a constant visitor to Spurrier’s doghouse throughout his career due to his troubles with alcohol, was just recently reinstated to the team after being suspended for a fifth time in the spring.

It looks like the plan is to start Shaw and play him for the first quarter, then throw Garcia into the game in the second quarter and take things from there.

Spurrier developed a reputation for flip-flopping his quarterbacks during his days down in Gainesville, so this doesn’t come as a shock, but you do have to wonder what the motivation for this type of move really is.

Shaw, a former three-star recruit, has only thrown 33 passes in his career thus far, and the last time he was subbed in for Garcia against Auburn last year, he basically cost the Gamecocks a chance to win the game by throwing two terrible interceptions.

So is this just a ploy to motivate Garcia and keep him on his toes, or does Spurrier really feel that Shaw gives the team the best chance to win?

This is a South Carolina squad that enters the season as a Top-15 team, with aspirations of winning an SEC championship.

No matter what you want to say about Garcia, the fact is he guided the team to the SEC championship game in 2010, even though a lot of the credit has to go to his two main offensive weapons, RB Marcus Lattimore and WR Alshon Jeffery.

Sure, Spurrier can afford to experiment a little against East Carolina, a team that statistically had the worst defense in the country last season, but the coach better settle on a quarterback quickly, because in Week 2, South Carolina has to make a trip to Athens for a crucial SEC East battle with the Georgia Bulldogs.

Whether it’s Shaw or Garcia who ultimately ends up winning the job still remains to be seen, but what we do know is that the South Carolina-East Carolina matchup just got a whole lot more interesting.