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Prepare For Punchlines: South Carolina’s Quarterbacks Coach Arrested, Suspended

South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia’s many run-ins with the law, and program rules – many of which involve alcohol – are practically the stuff of legend at this point. So when many people saw a headline this morning containing words and phrases like “South Carolina,” “quarterback,” and “arrested,” they might have thought Garcia ran afoul of the law once again. Well, thankfully for Gamecocks fans, he didn’t. The bad news for Gamecocks fans: his position coach did.

G.A. (George Alfred) Mangus, South Carolina’s quarterbacks coach, was arrested early this morning in Greenville, S.C. The charge: nuisance conduct. Here’s why:

The police incident report states two officers saw Mangus urinating on the street curb and the road as they drove north on Main Street in an unmarked car.

The officer writes he “observed him to be unsteady on his feet and he had a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from his person.”

The officer adds his “speech was slurred and was uncooperative in providing straight answers” when questioned by GPD officers.

Well, that doesn’t sound so great. And if you’re wondering if people all over immediately took note of the irony of the position coach of a player with such a history of alcohol-related misconduct himself getting in trouble for apparently alcohol-related misconduct: yes. Yes, they did. South Carolina said it was aware of Mangus’ arrest, but there’s no word yet on whether the coach will face any disciplinary action. Considering that “[t]eam policy calls for any player arrested to be immediately suspended,” though, it only seems fair for Mangus to face some kind of consequences. and it was recently announced that Mangus will be suspended “until this matter is resolved.” We’ll see how long that takes.

Either way, Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier can’t be happy. His master plan is finally coming together (SEC championship game appearance, fantastic young running back in Marcus Lattimore, an incoming defensive end [Jadeveon Clowney] recently named by Rivals as the best high school prospect in the last decade), and his staff can’t even totally keep it together. We’re still high on South Carolina’s football future…but the immediate future, we’re afraid, is going to be full of cracks about how no one in the program involved with quarterbacks seems able to avoid drinking and doing inappropriate things.

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