Sunday, August 19, 2007

Interactive Bulldogs, fans: ‘Meet the Players Day and Fan Fest’ lets supporters get ‘up close and personal’


By THOMAS GRANT JR., T&D Senior Sports Writer

Saturday was an interactive one for the South Carolina State football team and its supporters.

With The S.T.A.T.E. Club organizing various events for “Meet the Players Day and Fan Fest,” supporters had an opportunity to get “up close and personal” with the players and coaches.

The morning session had youngsters ages 4 to 12 competing in a punt, pass and kick contest as part of the “Fan Fest” taking place simultaneously as the team’s second scrimmage at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.

Following the well-attended two-hour session, fans flocked over to Dukes Gymnasium for lunch and player autographs.

The afternoon concluded with a special “Football 101” class held at Staley Hall. For 2-1/2 hours, close to 30 fans received an education on Bulldog football and an insight into the inner workings of the operation from SCSU head football coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough, coordinators John Hendrick (defense) and Joe Blackwell (offense/offensive line), team equipment manager Sidney Fulton and retired official Rodney Jenkins.

“I just tried to do what I could to give them as much insight as to what we were doing as possible,” Pough said. “I think what you do more than anything else is give the fans an overview of what we’re doing.”

For Class of 1968 graduate Rosa Evans, the “class” was more than informative as she received satisfactory answers to what she saw was a major problem last season for the Bulldogs’ offense.

“I was concerned about the fact we got too many penalties, delay of game,” Evans said. “I was glad to hear them say they were going to work on that and had improved that part because it did bother me last year how long it took for them to get the plays in the game.”

Both Blackwell and Pough stressed the offense in a state of transition from a pass-oriented spread offense to a pro set look with multiple pro sets. With Cleveland McCoy having a firmer grasp of the offense, Pough believes the Bulldogs will be as “good as they’ve been” since he took over in 2002.

Evans also asked Hendrick about cutting down on penalties and what the secondary has done to improve itself from its disastrous early start.

Pough insists he enjoys such interaction with fans even if it means having to address criticism.

“We’ve got a pretty knowledgeable group of fans,” Pough said. “I enjoy talking to them and that’s one of the things they can pretty much say about me is the fact that I’m not so thin-skinned about things that I don’t feel comfortable talking about the things that I do good or some of the things that we do bad. I’m not the kind of person that hides the fact that he messes something up because I do – quite often as a matter of fact. I just hope they give me another chance.”

Satisfied with the answers she received Saturday from Pough, Evans is even more hopeful the Bulldogs can win the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title outright. It’s a goal Pough believes he finally has the pieces in place to make possible.

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