By THOMAS GRANT JR., T&D Senior Sports Writer
Having completed a physically grueling training camp, South Carolina State head football coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough knows what to expect effort-wise from his team in Saturday’s season-opener against Air Force.
How that translates into competing for the first time in school history against a Football Bowl Subdivision foe on the road remains a mystery for Pough and his coaching staff.
"This the best-conditioned team we’ve had since I’ve been here and it appears that we’ve got some talent," said Pough at Monday’s press conference. "Whether or not it’s going to transcend into a team that goes out and plays good, solid cohesive football is what the next portion of this year’s schedule will let us know. And what better situation to find out if our guys can actually fight through a tough setting than what we’re going into Saturday."
Along with travelling out west and facing an opponent which enjoys a vast advantage in resources and scholarship players over other Football Championship Subdivision programs, Pough said the Bulldogs still do not have a solid idea as to what type of Falcons team to expect under new head coach and former Houston Texans assistant coach Troy Calhoun.
"What really makes this a little bit strange is the fact that we just know so little about what they actually are doing," he said. "We don’t have any film. We don’t any way of knowing of how they’re going to attack us or how we need to attack them because of the fact that everything out there is new. Their staff is totally new and we can only go by what he’s (Calhoun) done in some places in the past. I don’t think he’ll try to run the Houston Texans’ offense. I don’t think he’ll try to run the Houston Texans’ defense. So we’ve got to work to really find what has been a part of their staff’s past history to get an idea of what they possibly may be."
Having completed a physically grueling training camp, South Carolina State head football coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough knows what to expect effort-wise from his team in Saturday’s season-opener against Air Force.
How that translates into competing for the first time in school history against a Football Bowl Subdivision foe on the road remains a mystery for Pough and his coaching staff.
"This the best-conditioned team we’ve had since I’ve been here and it appears that we’ve got some talent," said Pough at Monday’s press conference. "Whether or not it’s going to transcend into a team that goes out and plays good, solid cohesive football is what the next portion of this year’s schedule will let us know. And what better situation to find out if our guys can actually fight through a tough setting than what we’re going into Saturday."
Along with travelling out west and facing an opponent which enjoys a vast advantage in resources and scholarship players over other Football Championship Subdivision programs, Pough said the Bulldogs still do not have a solid idea as to what type of Falcons team to expect under new head coach and former Houston Texans assistant coach Troy Calhoun.
"What really makes this a little bit strange is the fact that we just know so little about what they actually are doing," he said. "We don’t have any film. We don’t any way of knowing of how they’re going to attack us or how we need to attack them because of the fact that everything out there is new. Their staff is totally new and we can only go by what he’s (Calhoun) done in some places in the past. I don’t think he’ll try to run the Houston Texans’ offense. I don’t think he’ll try to run the Houston Texans’ defense. So we’ve got to work to really find what has been a part of their staff’s past history to get an idea of what they possibly may be."
Photo: SCSU Receiver Corps.
Pough does know about senior quarterback Shaun Carney. The four-year starter, who was selected to the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award "watch list for the third straight year, ranks third in career total offense at the Academy with 5,824 total yards. He also ranks eighth in rushing with 1,924 yards, third in passing with 3,900 yards, second in touchdown passes with 30 and reminds Pough of former Coastal Carolina quarterback Tyler Thigpen.
"The Carney kid for them is a special player," Pough said. "He has been not only a good passer, but he’s been a real athletic guy. He seems to be a fit for what would be the possibility of what they do with that kind of style guy. You’d think that he’d be a guy that you would have to really pay some special attention to. It’s no telling all the special things you can do with him."
The element of surprise could work in SCSU’s favor especially if Pough believes the Falcons take a light-hearted approach to the game.
"I can’t see them being awfully concerned," he said. "They know that we are a lower level team. There’s a good possibility that they feel like they would be able to take us on pretty easily. They’ve got a good chance probably to have all of our film so that they have a real good idea about what we are actually going to try to do to them. I would not think it would scare them a bunch. We don’t do anything really unusual, anything that’s going to stress them out more than what they would be ordinarily be stressed out by maybe one of the medium-level teams on their schedule. So I would think that they might think they have an easy time with us."
Furthermore, Pough does not see the Falcons becoming discombobulated should the Bulldogs make an early statement.
"You’re talking about an outfit of men who are practicing to not only play football but they jump on bombs for a living," he said. "I don’t know if you’re going to scare those kinds of people. I don’t know if hitting them in the mouth is what you want to do. I think what you want to do is you want to get in there and find a way to hang in this football game in a way where you have an opportunity to win at the end. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and we hope that our guys can hang in there and not give them any big plays for scores. And then at that point, we can possibly be in the game and have a chance at the end."
In order to make that happen, look for SCSU to make the most use out of its roster of available defensive linemen. Because of the group’s lack of significant size, Pough believes by going three-deep will keep them from getting exhausted and get the highest quality of play.
The offense has had to deal with a litany of injuries. Offensive tackle Nygel Pearson is out again for 2-4 weeks with a broken hand, while a similar injury has wide receiver Tron Jackson sidelined. Meanwhile, Terrance Smith and Phillip Smalls remain questionable.
For all the great anticipation for Saturday’s contest, SCSU continues to have a firm eye towards the Sept. 8 game at Bethune-Cookman. Even with a loss, Pough wants to come out of the Air Force matchup with some positive carryover.
"I think going out and competing is the measure that we probably use to determine if the game was a success or not," he said. "If we go out and play well, if we go out and execute what we’ve been working on in camp in a way where we’ve had some success, then I think that gives us some momentum to go into our next week and feel positive about our situation."
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