Air apparent

USC comes out slinging in Spurrier's long-awaited debut

By Joseph Person
The State
Published: September 1, 2005

The visor and the setting were different, but the Steve Spurrier era at USC began much like it did at Florida - with an unheralded quarterback leading the way.

But instead of piling up points and rolling to an easy victory, the Gamecocks had to sweat it out Thursday against a Central Florida team that has the nation's longest active losing streak.

Making his first college start, Blake Mitchell passed for 330 yards and three touchdowns as the Gamecocks hung on for a 24-15 victory against UCF. An announced crowd of 82,753, the fourth largest for a USC opener, piled into Williams-Brice Stadium for Spurrier's first game.

Just as he did in his Florida opener in 1990, Spurrier began the game with a no-huddle offense. And much like Shane Matthews shredded Oklahoma State for 332 passing yards in the Gators' 50-7 victory that day, Mitchell used his right arm to carve up UCF.

But Spurrier put the safety lock on his Cock 'n' Fire offense in the second half when the Golden Knights, who were 21-point underdogs, made a game of it.

"But we're 1-0 and we're not going to sit around and cry about it, because we could have lost the darn thing," said Spurrier, who improved to 15-1 in college openers. "It looked easy early, and then all of a sudden it got tough."

Mitchell, a redshirt freshman from LaGrange, Ga., made it look easy during the first two possessions, completing his first seven passes and firing two touchdowns before his first incompletion. He completed 18 of 23 passes, and his passing yardage was the most by a Gamecocks quarterback making his first start, eclipsing Syvelle Newton's 324-yard effort in a 34-3 win over South Florida on Sept. 18, 2004.

Mitchell's 23 passes were one more than he threw as a backup to Newton and Dondrial Pinkins in 2004.

"Twenty-three times is probably more than I've thrown in a (high school or college) game, but I've got to get used to it," Mitchell said. "It doesn't bother me to throw it 23 times."

In fact, Spurrier said he probably should have called more throws for Mitchell, who did not attempt another pass after his 25-yard touchdown to Newton put USC up 24-3 with 6:35 left in the third quarter.

All four of USC's second-half possessions began with a running call, with the final three drives covering 2 yards or fewer.

"Blake really opened up super, and we just couldn't get the ball much," Spurrier said. "He zipped some good balls in there. Maybe we had some better plays on early. Who knows? But we really didn't have a lot of plays."

Part of the problem was USC's inability to hold on to the ball. The Gamecocks lost three second-half fumbles, including two by their special teams, to allow UCF to run 52 plays to USC's 15 in the second half.

But the Gamecocks' defense minimized the damage with stops in the red zone. The Golden Knights drove inside USC's 25-yard line six times but came away with 13 points.

Knights quarterback Steven Moffett tossed a 13-yard touchdown to Mike Walker to cut the Gamecocks' lead to 24-10 with 12:59 remaining. After Matt Prater's 29-yard field goal pulled UCF to 24-13, Newton fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and the Knights recovered on the Gamecocks' 20.

UCF drove to the 1, where it faced a fourth-and-goal with 2:15 remaining. The Knights' Dontavius Wilcox tried to leap into the end zone from 2 yards out, but linebackers Ryan Brown and Ricardo Hurley hit him at the peak of his jump and stopped him short of the goal line.

USC punter Josh Brown stepped out of the back end zone, taking a safety that made it 24-15 with 57 seconds left. After a free kick, UCF drove as far as the Gamecocks' 2 before time ran out.

"I said all during preseason, there's no question it's night and day difference from last year," said UCF coach George O'Leary, who was 0-11 in his first season in Orlando. "We're a much better team."

Still, USC's players know they will be facing a different type of team next weekend at Georgia.

As cornerback Johnathan Joseph said, "I'm glad we had Central Florida instead of Georgia for the first game."

Reach Person at (803) 771-8496 or jperson@thestate.com.

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