Shaw quarterback of future for Gamecocks

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- No one can explain it, but Connor Shaw has always had the desire to be just a little bit different than everyone else around him.

Example: Growing up here, about a half-hour northeast of Atlanta and an hour north of Athens, Shaw was surrounded by Georgia fans.

But the red, black and barking didn't suit him.

At age 7, he told his dad he wanted his bedroom painted blue and orange.

Florida colors. Ahem, no, Steve Spurrier colors.

"That wasn't the most popular

choice," Shaw said. "But that didn't bother me."

Back then, no one could have possibly predicted how things would pan out for Shaw. Or for Spurrier.

Spurrier traded in that blue and orange for the burgundy and gold of the Redskins and then South Carolina's garnet and black. (No, Connor's room didn't correspondingly change shades.)

Those latest hues brought Spurrier last fall to, of all places, Flowery Branch.

Spurrier, along with a few assistants, had come to court Shaw for the Gamecocks.

"It was kind of a mind-blowing opportunity," Connor said. "Here's my childhood idol, right in front of me."

Connor's dad had told Spurrier that Connor was a Florida fan as a kid.

Spurrier asked him if that were true. Connor smiled.

"No," he said. "I was a huge Spurrier fan."

The room broke up in laughter.

But that day had a lot more weight to it than Connor's one-liner.

Spurrier was so impressed by Shaw that he offered him a scholarship on the spot.

The awe was mutual. The Shaws were all but blown away by how firm and sure the Gamecocks were about Connor.

"They came in with guns blazing," said Lee Shaw, Connor's father and the head football coach at Flowery Branch High. "That was impressive. They meant business. As a parent, not even as a coach, I felt like my son was the most important piece of their puzzle at that time."

Shaw could be sliding into South Carolina's picture sooner rather than later. He plans to graduate early and enroll at USC in January.

Because of NCAA rules, Spurrier obviously cannot talk about Shaw by name just yet. But that doesn't mean he didn't at least recently refer to him.

"We have a sharp quarterback committed next year," he told ESPN.com last week, "and we're excited to see what he can do."

Other officials inside the football office are similarly excited about Shaw's arrival. They confidently say he could push for immediate playing time.

But Shaw still has a fall to play for the Flowery Branch Falcons before he even steps foot on campus.

One thing Shaw says he's always liked about Spurrier is his intensity on the sidelines.

That's easy to say when he's getting after Danny Wuerrfel or Rex Grossman or Stephen Garcia.

But what about when it's Connor Shaw on the receiving end of a visor spike?

Interestingly, new South Carolina quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus has been an intercessor about the coming transition.

Mangus played for Spurrier at Florida from 1990-92. He was a grad assistant at Florida after that. He joined the Gamecocks staff in January.

And, by chance, Mangus got to know the Shaw family a couple of years ago when he was recruiting Connor's brother Jaybo for Middle Tennessee. (Jaybo wound up at Georgia Tech.)

"Everyone thinks he's such an arrogant, intense guy to be around," Mangus told Connor. "But once you get to know him, he's so laid back and he's cool to hang around."

But is Shaw ready to handle what current players describe as a roller-coaster ride? Even Wuerffel was famously yanked from a game or two in his illustrious career at Florida.

Shaw says the answer is yes. He can take it. He's mentally built for it.

Why? Simple: He's a coach's son.

"My dad, he's not afraid to get in your stuff to correct you," Connor said. "I'll go to South Carolina knowing, pretty much, how it's going to be. Playing on Saturdays, the fire's going to get hotter. But I think I'll have an idea about it when I get there."

He says it's a good and bad thing, playing for your dad. If he has a question after practice, he can ask over dinner or while they're watching some kind of game. It's not uncommon for the Shaws to have a 2 a.m. film session after Friday night games.

But if Connor has a terrible practice or game, there's no real escape.

"I still think it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said. "I think it's an advantage."

A couple of former Spurrier quarterbacks seem to back the dad theory.

Shane Matthews and Jesse Palmer were also around football-savvy dads.

"It's difficult to play for your dad," Matthews said. "Some people can handle (Spurrier's) criticism and some people can't. I could because I am harder on myself than he'll ever be."

And you can see that raw, gritty toughness in Shaw. His voice and body language tell you loudly, even though you've never seen him play a down.

Shaw was a starting receiver as a freshman. He was an all-state receiver as a sophomore.

After only a season at quarterback, at least one SEC school had come knocking.

"When he became the guy," his dad said, "it just kind of opened up for him."

South Carolina is still in search of its first solid, steady quarterback to play for Spurrier. Shaw burns to be that guy.

"It's my intention and goal, and I'm sure it's Garcia's, too," Shaw said, "to be the first quarterback to win an SEC championship at South Carolina."

As you learn more and more about Spurrier's quarterbacks -- past, present and future -- you learn that it's far more about their minds than arms.

Those that flourish working with Spurrier have a very specific psyche. They respond to the challenges and rise above the ridicule.

"The guy that can handle that kind of pressure, the guy that wants to be the man," Lee Shaw says, "will be Spurrier's next quarterback."

Yes, he's still months away from even being at South Carolina. But could it possibly be Connor? Is there any way it could be him?

"Absolutely," his dad says. "I've got all the confidence in the world that Connor can be that guy."

Reach Travis Haney at thaney@postandcourier.com and check out the South Carolina blog at www.postandcourier.com/weblogs/gamecocks.