By THOMAS GRANT JR., T&D Senior Sports Writer
After just one practice Sunday, South Carolina State head football coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough all but declared his team physically fit to start the 2007 campaign.
Whether the Bulldogs are mentally ready for the 100th regular season in school history is a different matter for Pough entering his sixth season. The two-hour, 20-minute session saw the returning and new players conduct various offensive and defensive fundamental exercises under the watchful eye of their position coaches and Pough.
“We did report in pretty good shape and our guys seemed to have a lot of enthusiasm,” he said. “It’s sad to say though that enthusiasm doesn’t necessarily translate into great play quite yet. We’re a long, long ways away, but today was a big day of individual fundamentals. We broke our special teams down. We tried to work on some parts of it, trying to get those things understood fundamentally and assignment-wise. We brought most of our offenses and defenses down, just trying to get a feel for where we ought to be ... at the start. We seem to be working at it. We just have a lot of work to do.”
Sunday marked the first time since April that the coaching staff had an opportunity to work with the players. During July, the Bulldog players took part in conditioning workouts and non-contact passing drills amongst themselves at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium. The high attendance level for the summer workouts was reflected with the players’ showing in the conditioning tests held earlier in the day.
With the team’s overall fitness satisfactory, the goal over the next three weeks, according to Pough, is implementing the offensive and defensive schemes and fine-tuning the players’ fundamentals heading into the Sept. 1 opener against Air Force.
“Anytime you get the chance to work on some of those things, to work on some of the terminology and that kind of stuff, it helps a good bit,” Pough said. “But, it’s not quite the same as having a staff out there overseeing and making sure they’re working the proper techniques and steps and assignments and that kind of stuff. Although I see some of benefits, we still have a long way to go.”
At least nine freshmen signed in February took place in Sunday’s practice, including quarterbacks Malcolm Long and Dewain Clark. Both shared snaps with starter Cleveland McCoy and all had success throwing long passes to redshirt junior wideout Phillip Morris.
Other true freshman at practice were linebacker Julius Wilkerson, tight end Sean Lampkin, defensive backs Devonne Quattlebaum and Donovan Richard, wide receiver Richard Christie, offensive lineman Shenaniah Thompson and Orangeburg-Wilkinson teammates quarterback Devin Frederick, who just signed with SCSU, and tight end Jonathan Saxon.
When asked which newcomers could contribute immediately, Pough indicated it was too early to access the possibilities. However, he was optimistic about some of the players making quick progress.
The newcomer making the most “noise” Sunday was first-year defensive coordinator and former Benedict College head coach John Hendrick.
Picking up where he left off in the spring, Hendrick brought his fiery brand of enthusiasm and motivation to a receptive Bulldog defense.
Afterwards, Hendrick praised how well the defense had retained much of what they learned from the spring.
“I’m kind of a high-strung guy,” he said. “I would love for them to be high-strung players because that kind of tends to lead you to having a frenetic type of defense. I think the big thing today was we added a couple of more things that we didn’t do in the spring.
“I think we might have put in 55-60 percent of the defense (in the spring). Now, we’ve picked up about 75 percent of the defense. We won’t have everything completely in this defense until a year or so down the road. But 75 percent of it will be in for this season and there’s some things we’ll hold back because I don’t think we’ll need everything, and I don’t want to overload our guys with everything I think that’s in my mind about the defense. I’m really happy with how much they’ve retained. I’m thrilled with that, but I think we really need to get to another higher level of intensity.”
Returning players like linebackers LaTavis Henderson and Tony White, BANDIT Marshall McFadden and defensive back Markee Hamlin are the type of leaders Hendrick believes will help the defense further develop its work ethic.
SCSU will continue fall practice today through Thursday at 3:10 p.m.
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