Brindise leaving Carolina, QB position again in flux

Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier has always been a mercurial sort with quarterbacks, all but saying he’ll pull starting quarterback Stephen Garcia this year if the slightest thing goes wrong. He did the same all the time at Florida, not the least of which with Noah Brindise. Zac, Noah’s little brother, has been on the Gamecock squad for three years, including a redshirt year in 2007 when he was with the practice squad. But in 2008 and 2009, he didn’t see any action on the field.

Now he’s gone.

Brindise asked to be released from the USC football team, and had his wish granted. He’s expected to enroll at Western Carolina. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be a big deal. Players leave and transfer during the offseason all the time. This summer, Star Jackson, who was one of the top quarterbacks coming out of high school, left Alabama for Georgia State, which is just starting its first year of competitive play. Of course, the big reason there is that Jackson was likely to be third string this year, and that he couldn’t break through to solidify the No. 2 spot behind starter Greg McElroy.

The problem at Carolina, though, is that recently quarterbacks have been high-tailing it out of Columbia. Aramis Hillary and Reid McCollum have both left the team this year. At one time, quarterbacks really wanted to be coached by Spurrier. The Head Ball Coach was able to take damn near anyone and turn them into excellent college players. Now whatever Spurrier is able to do during recruiting is being undone after the players join the team.

Maybe the HBC can turn it around or fix the problem that has these guys taking off for the Football Championship Subdivision. But it seems more plausible to us that Carolina fans will get tired of this song-and-dance, and Spurrier will get tired of the bullshit — probably at the same time. Unless there’s some spectacular string of winning coming up, we say this circus closes down the big top before the 2013 season begins.