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Associated Press

South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia runs away from Kentucky defender Ashton Cobb during the second half Saturday in Lexington, Ky. South Carolina won the game 24-17.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — When he arrived back in the locker room following South Carolina’s 24-17 win over Kentucky Saturday, quarterback Stephen Garcia checked his cell phone for messages. And there was Clemson’s new starting quarterback, Willy Korn, name just blinking away.

“We’ve talked through Facebook and all that stuff over the years,” Garcia said. “We haven’t really talked on the phone recently, but he texted me and I texted him back.”

With his 10 completions and 169 yard outing against Kentucky, Garcia caught the attention of head coach Steve Spurrier and was named starting quarterback for next week’s game against No. 4 LSU. Likewise, Clemson coach Tommy Bowden will start Korn at quarterback against Georgia Tech.

It’s a topic Garcia is ready to talk about.

“I’m gonna call him when I get back to Columbia,” Garcia said.

The red shirt freshman entered the game after then starting quarterback Chris Smelley got off to a slow start. Last week’s SEC Offensive Player of the Week was benched during the third quarter after two interceptions and a fumble put the Gamecocks (5-2, 2-2 SEC) down 17-14.

USC fell behind early with a Smelley interception return for a touchdown by Kentucky’s Trevard Lindley. The Gamecocks rallied to go up 14-7 on a Kenny McKinley 16-yard touchdown reception and a Captain Munnerlyn blocked field goal return for a touchdown. But Kentucky (4-2, 0-2 SEC) finished the first half with 10 unanswered points to go up 17-14 at the break.

“We played pretty lousy offensively. Chris just couldn’t hit anybody. I don’t know how else to say it. He was trying to hit them but his ball was just a little off,” Spurrier said. “Finally I said we’ve got to watch Stephen play. We’ve got to see if he can hit something.”

Garcia did just that, guiding USC (5-2, 2-2) on a drive that was capped by a Ryan Succop 42-yard field goal to tie the game at 17-17.

It was Succop’s only field goal as he finished the game just 1-of-5, and is now 2-of-7 over the last two games.

“It wasn’t bad snaps, it wasn’t bad holds. The snaps and hold were good. I just missed,” Succop said. “You try to go out there and do the same thing every time, just stick to your routine, and I had a bad day.”

On the Gamecocks next possession, Garcia guided the team on a six play, 58-yard drive that put Carolina up 24-17 on tight end Weslye Saunders’ first career touchdown. USC had a chance to go up 10 with another Succop field goal, but a miss left the door open for the Wildcats to rally.

But Chris Culliver’s second interception of the day sealed the win and allowed Carolina to earn its second consecutive conference win and fourth straight overall.

The Gamecocks will now head back home for a three-game home stand over the next month, starting with defending national champion LSU next Saturday.

Garcia hopes that Carolina will take the lessons from the last two weeks into the game with the Tigers.

“That’s going to be a big challenge. LSU, they’re one of the top teams in the SEC which therefore means top team in the nation. So we’ve got a pretty big challenge ahead of us,” he said. “But these two teams we’ve played the past two weeks haven’t been exactly a cakewalk. Playing at Ole Miss and at Kentucky and coming out with wins have been huge so we use the momentum, go forward and try to knock LSU off.”