Center Raymond “Duck” Harrison insisted Saturday practicing through unforgiving temperatures during the recent heat wave in Orangeburg can only help the South Carolina State football team.
“Playing in heat will make you a little more mentally tough because you’ve got to push through it,” he said. “When we go to Colorado (the Sept. 1 season-opener against Air Force), the altitude they say makes it tougher to breathe. So I feel like if we can breathe in this heat, with the heat index showing 110, 115, it makes it a little easier for us.”
Yet even “Bulldog Tenacity” has its limits for head football coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough when it comes to the safety of the players. Saturday’s planned first full-fledged scrimmage at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium was cut short after just 50 plays.
“It’ s the hottest I’ve ever seen in my whole life,” he said. “In 32 going on 33 years (of football), the hottest I’ve ever seen it.”
The sight of heavily perspiring assistant coaches and equally drained players resting in the lockerroom was prevalent following the abbreviated scrimmage. With the artificial grass only augmenting the already high temperatures and making the playing conditions even more difficult, Pough had seen enough and ended the scrimmage after close to an hour.
“Logistically, I guess I should have probably moved it back,” he said. “I couldn’t figure out how to after we scheduled it and all the stuff we put into it, but it was just too hot. After I got into it and saw the effect it was having on our kids, under the circumstances, I just thought it was time to stop.”
Quarterbacks Cleveland McCoy and freshmen Malcolm Long and Dewain Clark all took turns against the first- and second-team defenses starting from the 30-yard line. Both Long and Clark were constantly under harassment by the defense and had little or no success leading the offense past midfield.
Photo: QB Malcolm Long
Meanwhile, McCoy orchestrated the offense’s lone scoring drive which was dominated by running back Jonathan Woods, who’s making his return after redshirting last season. The Texas native started the scoring drive with the best play of the scrimmage. After the defense initially contained his progress to the left, Woods cut back and turned upfield to his right for a 29-yard scamper. Woods then added two more tough runs of six and 12 yards to set up a seven-yard touchdown run by Jo Jo McFadden. The Fairfield Central product burst into the middle and broke away from several tacklers enroute to the endzone.“Jo Jo McFadden has had a really good preseason,” Pough said. “Woods has done good, so we’re still pretty good in the running back position. Our first group did some things. Defensively, it looks like we’ll be OK. It just shows that the possibilities are there. We just haven’t done enough yet to be sure of what we can possibly do.“
Running back Will Ford was not active as he rested his sore hamstring. Wide receiver Phillip Morris was also out of action with a hamstring injury, while newcomer Chase Robinson will miss 1-2 months while recovering from a broken foot suffered last week, according to receivers coach Tony Elliott.
By shifting around the schedule holding earlier morning practices and later afternoon practices during two-a-days, Pough hopes to make the “Dog Days” more workable for his team.
“We’re going to have to figure how to go at night or something,” Pough said. “I don’t know how that affects us overall when we have to actually go out and play but we’re going to have to move around our schedule some because under these conditions, it’s too big a chance with our kids.”
The mood was very much upbeat hours earlier as the Bulldogs took their team picture and met with the media. To a man and coach, the objective
for the season remains winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship and Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
“We’ve got to win our league,” Pough said. “We want to play good, we want to compete against the Air Forces and South Carolinas. What you do is you go in and want to play pretty much respectable and just kind of let the chips fall. If we go in and we play decent and we get beat, then I feel like we’ve done our best. I don’t want to go in and allow that game to be more than it is and then go back and lose the Bethune-Cookman game (Sept. 8). So we’ve been emphasizing the Bethune (Cookman) game.”
“The main thing for this season is just to finish,” McCoy said. “We completed one of our goals last season and that was to beat Hampton and then we lost the following week to Delaware State. The main thing is to finish each game and go out there and play every game hard because you never know what the outcome will be.”
“I expect to be undefeated,” said wide receiver Terrance Smith. “As a matter of fact, that’s every team’s expectations. But if we come short of that goal, I want to be darn near close. Right now, we’re just trying to focus on the little things. Learning the plays, learning the motions. When it comes to us being undefeated, all of that is going to come. We’re trying to be champions and to be a champion, you’ve got to practice to be a champion. You’ve got to walk like a champion. You’ve got to think like a champion. And that’s what we’re trying to buy into that concept right now.”
No comments:
Post a Comment