It's not his old, Florida "Fun-n-Gun" — yet. But Spurrier thought enough of his attack on Thursday night, he was shooting to hang half-a-hundred on Southern Miss.
"I was thinking for the first time ever here we might score 50," Spurrier said.
Instead, the Gamecocks coach had to settle for a 41-13 victory that was his 18th straight win in college openers.
Quarterback Stephen Garcia and freshman runner Marcus Lattimore had two touchdowns each as South Carolina posted its most points since winning the 2006 Liberty Bowl 44-36 over Houston.
Back then, Spurrier thought he and the Gamecocks were close to big-time success. After all, they had won their final three games and backed that up by starting 2007 with a 6-1 record.
South Carolina had gone 14-17 since and left Spurrier shaking his head at times about his mission to turn the Gamecocks into Southeastern Conference champions.
After this one, Spurrier has to like some of the offensive weapons he's got.
Lattimore, considered the top high school rusher last winter, had a terrific college debut with scoring runs of 3 and 7 yards.
Sophomore receiver Alshon Jeffery had seven catches for 106 yards and speedy freshman Ace Sanders had a 53-yard run, the Gamecocks' longest in four years.
At the center of it all was Garcia, who shook off months of Spurrier touting first-year backup Connor Shaw with a solid showing against the Golden Eagles.
Garcia got things started with a gritty, 22-yard scoring run. He also had a 3-yard touchdown carry where he crashed hard into a defender but reached to get the ball over the line.
Did Garcia grab the starting job for good? Not even he'd jump to that conclusion given the head ball coach's whims.
"We're going to come in and watch film tomorrow," Garcia said. "I hope I played pretty well. I think I did."
The victory also brought South Carolina something to cheer about after a restless summer.
Spurrier and the Gamecocks have been dogged by the NCAA the past two months. Standout tight end Weslye Saunders, a central figure in the probe for possible contact with agents, did not play because of an unrelated team suspension.
Then South Carolina scratched two starters — left tackle Jarriel King and cornerback Chris Culliver — right before kickoff, although the athletic department would not say why.
Spurrier said it was a relief to have only King and Culliver gone because earlier Thursday it looked like several more players might have had to be held out. While Spurrier hoped the missing players would be back in time for next week's Southeastern Conference opener with Georgia, the Gamecocks were not clear of the NCAA yet.
Spurrier said there are issues with "a couple of guys and we'll see how that turns out in the next couple of days."
Southern Miss kept the Gamecocks offstride early on, forcing a punt on South Carolina's opening series and quickly driving to the Gamecocks 22.
That's when momentum changed for good.
Akeem Auguste broke up a third-down pass that settled into the hands of safety DaVonte Holloman and South Carolina followed with a solid drive of its own led by Garcia.
The junior was 4-for-4 passing for 51 yards on the series and finished things with a gritty, 22-yard TD run.
Then South Carolina's youngest guns took control.
Speedy Sanders had his back-breaking end around to the Southern Miss 9. Two plays later, Lattimore bounced through for his first college score from 3 yards out.
Lattimore, considered the country's top tailback prospect last February, got the call a series later. This time, he picked his way through Southern Miss defenders for a 7-yard scoring run as South Carolina led 24-6 — its most points by halftime since the 2006 Liberty Bowl.
Garcia, who ended 16 of 23 for 193 yards, has always seemed to be on the wrong side of Spurrier. The Gamecocks coach touted the competition between fourth-year junior Garcia and first-year player Shaw throughout the offseason.
Garcia may have put such talk to rest temporarily with his play against Southern Miss.
Golden Eagles coach Larry Fedora followed Spurrier as Florida's playcaller in 2002 and tried to out-scheme him with a no-huddle, flood-the-field attack.
But Southern Miss twice bogged down in the red zone after the early pick, settling for two field goals.
Playmaking receiver DeAndre Brown was covered up most of the night by South Carolina's secondary. The junior, who caught 114 passes his first two seasons, didn't catch one against the Gamecocks until the final period when Southern Miss trailed 41-6.
Brown had the Golden Eagles' only touchdown, a 29-yard scoring catch with 1:33 left.
"Early in the game I felt very confident, very calm," Southern Miss quarterback Austin Davis said. "Our tempo, our communication was good. We made a few mistakes in the red zone and the score got away from us."
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