Stephen Garcia Allowed to Participate in Voluntary Summer Workouts

Georgia fans are griping. The Rubber Chickens are stoked. This must mean that Stephen Garcia is back in action:

"Stephen is returning to the team on a probationary basis and still has to do some things here for the next two or three months to prove himself worthy of being a student-athlete at South Carolina," Spurrier said in a statement released by the university. "We will give him another chance and hopefully he can do the right things and represent the university in a first-class manner."

During this probationary period, Garcia will be allowed to participate in voluntary summer workouts.

I would assume the "things" Garcia has left to do include staying out of trouble and continuing to attend any mandatory counseling he's taking part in. Eric Hyman weighed in on the issue, defending the University's actions:

"Our main goal for Stephen at this time is to assist him in developing the decision-making skills that are needed for managing life in general, whether as a student-athlete, a person, an employee, a spouse or a parent," South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman said. "With assistance from others, we have developed a list of measurable guidelines for Stephen to follow.

"I want to make it clear those guidelines, which will remain confidential, are designed to help him live a successful life and are not some trivial hoops for him to jump through in order to find a way to reinstate him," Hyman said. "So the ball clearly rests in Stephen Garcia's hands."

While I'm sure the skeptics will disagree (I'm looking at you, Georgia and Clemson), I'm generally on board with the University's take here. The kind of assistance USC is providing should be better for Garcia in the long run, and providing that assistance is in line with USC's mission.

Welcome back, pal.