Opener provides few answers

OPENING GAMES AGAINST mid-major, non-conference opponents are all about answering questions in preparation for playing the big boys. Unfortunately for South Carolina, many of the preseason questions went unanswered in its victory against Louisiana-Lafayette.

Or, at least they were not answered to Steve Spurrier’s liking.

“Our team needs to really improve if we’re going to have a chance next week and the week after,” Spurrier said. “But that’s OK. We’ve played lousy before and won, although we didn’t play that lousy.”

His mixed assessment was probably much like that made by the announced crowd of 78,234, which probably expected a blowout and instead saw a Louisiana-Lafayette team — a 29-point underdog —- in position to challenge USC in the fourth quarter.

The overall feeling seemed to be that USC looked good at times, and not so good at others. As Spurrier kept repeating during his postgame comments, hey, at least it ended with USC on the winning side of the ledger.

Be thankful for that.

As far as answering questions, let’s start with an offense where the three overriding concerns prior to Saturday had to do with USC’s line, its need for a second and third receiver and the play of its backup quarterbacks.

For the most part, the line play earned respectable marks. It showed it can clear holes for running backs as well as protect the quarterback. If you think that is pretty basic, then you did not watch enough USC football a season ago.

The O-line appeared to follow its assignments against any defensive look thrown at it by Louisiana-Lafayette, and generally kept the jerseys of quarterbacks Chris Smelley and Tommy Beecher clean.

“Our line played decent,” Spurrier said.

USC rushed for 195 yards, which was a marked improvement over the Gamecocks’ previous two opening-game performances. USC managed 32 yards rushing against Central Florida two seasons ago and 81 against Mississippi State last season.

Perhaps even more importantly, the offensive line allowed Louisiana-Lafayette two sacks, one of which was the result of outstanding pass coverage and the other was a quarterback scramble resulting in a 1-yard loss.

As for the other receiving targets behind go-to guy Kenny McKinley, well, the Gamecocks did not find even one. Of the 21 passes USC completed, all but three went to McKinley (six catches), running backs or tight ends.

Until wide receivers Freddie Brown (two catches for 18 yards), Moe Brown (one catch for 17 yards), Chris Culliver and Mark Barnes step up, it appears USC will go to its tight ends and running backs. That might work for a while, but sooner or later USC must find someone besides McKinley who can stretch an opponent’s defense and create the kind of mismatches Spurrier loves to exploit.

Then there were the backup quarterbacks. They combined to complete 21 of 29 passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. Both proved capable of stepping in, if needed, for Blake Mitchell, who is likely to start against Georgia on Saturday after serving a one-game suspension.

While Spurrier was non-committal about Mitchell’s status, Beecher was not.

“Blake’s definitely our leader and starting quarterback,” Beecher said. “We’re looking forward to seeing Blake out there.”

It will not matter much who plays quarterback if USC’s defense does not show marked improvement. The defense, as it was prone to do a season ago, allowed Louisiana-Lafayette to drive the field twice and permitted gobs of rushing yardage (252 to be exact).

“Very average, very average,” said Tyrone Nix, USC’s defensive coordinator. “A lot of room for improvement. Sometimes you expect that in the first game. We just expected to play a lot better.”

Part of USC’s problems on defense had to do with Louisiana-Lafayette’s option-like tactics, mainly a running quarterback. A season ago, Wofford’s triple-option attack proved difficult to deal with, and the Terriers threw a scare into USC.

Just like a season ago, though, USC made defensive stops when it needed on Saturday. Louisiana-Lafayette reached the USC 2- and 5-yard lines in the fourth quarter, yet failed to score.

So, there you have it. The offensive line looks much further along than a season ago. No receivers, other than McKinley, stepped up. Smelley and Beecher are capable backups. And the defense looked about like it did a year ago.

Starting safety Brandon Isaac, who contributed six tackles including one for a loss, was asked to grade the defense’s performance. With his answer he could easily have been speaking for the offense as well.

“I would give us a C,” Isaac said.

That average performance worked fine against Louisiana-Lafayette. It will not against Georgia.

Listen to commentaries by Ron Morris weekdays at 8:05 a.m., 2:05 p.m. and 5:58 p.m. on WCOS-AM 1400