South Carolina rolls past Southern Miss

COLUMBIA — Steve Spurrier was wrong. And you've got to believe he's just fine with that fact.

South Carolina's coach said repeatedly this week he expected a down-to-the-wire, sweat-it-out tussle with Southern Miss.

By late Thursday night at Williams-Brice Stadium, though, the stands were emptying. The game, never in doubt, was well out of hand.

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Southern Mississippi at USC

South Carolina opened its college football season with a win over Southern Miss.

Varying from the frustration of recent openers, USC's offense was efficient — and exciting — in a 41-13 rout of a Golden Eagles team that was expected to be competitive.

It wound up being Spurrier's best opener in six tries.

'It was just a good, solid game for us,' said Spurrier, now 6-0 in openers at USC. 'It was a good opening game for us.'

The 41 points are the most for the Gamecocks since they scored 44 in the 2006 Liberty Bowl, a shootout win against Houston.

Freshman running back Marcus Lattimore's debut featured a pair of second-quarter touchdowns and team highs in carries (14) and yards (54).

Quarterback Stephen Garcia added a pair of touchdown runs of his own, including a bruising 22-yarder in the first quarter to begin the team's scoring. He added another tough-nosed 3-yard scramble for a score in the third.

Garcia finished 16 for 23 for 193 yards — 106 of which went to sophomore Alshon Jeffery. Perhaps most importantly, Garcia did not take a sack — something the Ball Coach harped on in the offseason.

'I got rid of the ball,' Garcia said. 'No gain is better than a 5-yard loss. That's how I looked at it.'

Another freshman, Ace Sanders, made his presence immediately known. On his first touch, the 5-7 dart took a reverse pitch and went 52 yards to set up one of Lattimore's scores.

The run was the team's longest since 2006.

'I knew he was quick, but I didn't know he was that quick,' Garcia said. 'I got tired just watching him run. … We're going to use him a lot this year.'

Sanders later had a 31-yard reception as part of a 92-yard scoring drive that got started with one of Jeffery's game-high seven catches. The 46-yard reception on first down, a nice throw from Garcia and a better catch from Jeffery, took the offense from inside its own 10 to Southern Miss territory.

Early in the fourth quarter, freshman quarterback Connor Shaw added a 15-yard touchdown pass to D.L. Moore. Moore's fingertip grab pushed USC ahead, 41-6.

Spurrier didn't announce a starting quarterback until Tuesday, but Garcia played most of the night. Shaw didn't enter as a QB until the final two minutes of the second half, when USC held a 24-6 lead. Shaw didn't appear again until the fourth quarter.

With 35 runs and 30 passes, the offense showed balance, something that has sometimes been missing in Spurrier's USC tenure.

'That's a good stat for winning,' Spurrier said.

The offense will grab much of the attention, but the USC defense was pretty sturdy. Despite a lack of depth, down three starters because of injuries and a suspension, the Gamecocks didn't allow a touchdown until there were 93 seconds left in the game.

And it was set up by South Carolina's lone turnover of the night — an interception by third-string quarterback Andrew Clifford.

Golden Eagles receiver DeAndre Brown was expected to give the Gamecocks fits, but he had a single catch for 7 yards until he hauled in the 29-yard touchdown in the final minute and a half of the game.

The Gamecocks held him down despite the fact that one of their starting cornerbacks, senior Chris Culliver, was held out of the game due to an ongoing NCAA investigation.

Offensive tackle Jarriel King of North Charleston and tight end Weslye Saunders also didn't play, for similar reasons.

After the easy win, the team was reminded that the SEC opener against Georgia is next.

With its quick-pitch passing game, USC defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson said Southern Miss was 'playing soccer with helmets on.'

'He told us we're done playing the soccer team,' safety Akeem Auguste said. 'Now it's time for the real thing.'

For now, though, USC can enjoy the buzz of a solid opener.

When Spurrier is lamenting the fact USC couldn't score more, suffice it to say, it was a relatively good night.

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'We had 41 points with 11 minutes left,' Spurrier said. 'They sort of milked the clock on us. I was thinking, maybe, for the first time, we might score 50.

'We need to score 50 sometime. I think it's good to score 50 if you can. We couldn't do it tonight.'

But the Gamecocks, and especially their offense, did make a positive first step.

Reach Travis Haney at thaney@postandcourier.com, check out the Gamecocks blog at postandcourier.com/blogs/gamecocks and follow him on Twitter (@gamecocksblog).