Corey Jenkins passed for 166 yards and a touchdown as No. 21 South Carolina opened its season with a 34-24 victory over New Mexico State.

The win was the Gamecocks' 18th in 25 games since 2000 and their second in as many meetings with New Mexico State.

"The opening game is always scary," South Carolina coach Lou Holtz said. "They played us even, they played as well as we did. We found a way to win, that was the important thing."

Jenkins, making his first career start, connected on his only score with 3:38 left in the third quarter, hitting James Adkinsson for 44 yards to cap a quick 64-yard drive. It was Adkinsson's only reception of the game.

"(Jenkins) did an excellent job," Holtz said. "He threw well after the first quarter."

Daniel Weaver kicked a 29-yard field goal with just under three minutes left in the first half to put the Gamecocks (1-0) ahead for good, 13-10.

Weaver opened the scoring with a 36-yard field goal with just over nine minutes left in the first quarter.

New Mexico State (0-1) was led by Eric Higgins, who ran for 111 yards on nine carries, and quarterback Buck Pierce, who rushed 13 times for 79 yards and a touchdown.

"We played really hard tonight and just came up short," Higgins said. "We ran the ball well, but we have a quarterback that can pass the ball as well as we can put it on the ground."

Pierce completed 17-of-26 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown. His 34-yard strike to Alex Davis with just over seven minutes to go in the first half forged a 10-10 tie.

"We had a couple of bad plays on our side that hurt us," Pierce said. "That seems to make the difference in games like these. We just need to learn to take our mistakes and move forward and get a little better each time."

After Adkinsson's TD reception gave the Gamecocks a 10-point lead, New Mexico State's Walter Taylor went over from the 1-yard line, completing an 81-yard drive with 95 seconds left in the third and making it 20-17.

But Daccus Turman scored on a two-yard run just over two minutes into the final period to give South Carolina some breathing room. Andrew Pinnock added a two-yard score and ran for the two-point conversion with 9:03 to play.

Pierce's touchdown was a 13-yard keeper with 3:29 remaining and capped the scoring.