[Tuck4Bama]

Spurrier hopes Saturday goes well enough Gamecocks can hide some of their trick plays

By JOSEPH PERSON - jperson@thestate.com

Steve Spurrier has a simple explanation for his sparkling record in season openers: Most of the time his teams beat inferior opponents.

After beginning last season with an SEC road game at Mississippi State, South Carolina kicks off the 2007 slate Saturday against Louisiana-Lafayette, the type of small conference school Spurrier’s Florida squads feasted on as an opening course.

Spurrier, in his third year at USC, is 16-1 all-time in opening games. The lone loss came in 1989 in Columbia when the Gamecocks knocked off Spurrier’s Duke squad 27-21.

That game represented one of only five times a Spurrier-coached team began its season against a school from a BCS conference.

“I started usually getting the schools where we opened up at home, not against as big an opponent,” Spurrier said this week.

The State | 08/30/2007 | USC wants to keep it simple