There are no second thoughts going through South Carolina State head football coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough’s mind about opening the season against a Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) team.
Even with the lopsided nature of the 31-point loss to Air Force, Pough still believes the trip to Colorado Springs, Colo. was a great experience. In fact, Pough said the game provided a valuable lesson for his team which he hopes pays dividends in preparation for Saturday’s Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opener at Bethune-Cookman.
"You learn the one big lesson and that is you’ve got to handle your business," he said. "You can’t go out there and think it’s just going to happen because you’re talking a win. You actually go out and do the things that give you an opportunity to actually win. So, I think that’s the lesson."
Overall, the Bulldog players were in good spirits during Wednesday’s practice at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium. With the memory of last year’s 45-21 rout at the hands of the Wildcats still burning vividly in the team’s memory, Pough expects the Bulldogs to come out hungry for redemption.
"I think we’re in a good frame of mind," Pough said. "I think our guys understand that we’ve got a tough game ahead of us and we’re prepared to get after it."
Two areas the Bulldogs hope to get improved play from is at offensive line and the secondary. After opening holes early for running backs Will Ford and Jonathan Woods, the reshuffled offensive line was unable to protect quarterback Cleveland McCoy, who was sacked five times, from the blitzing Falcon defense.
Pough would not be surprised if Wildcats’ head coach Alvin Wyatt employs a similar strategy."We expect to see some of the same kind of stuff," he said. "We’re a zone-blocking team. If we do it right, we’ll be okay."
As for the secondary, after making great strides following the Bethune-Cookman debacle in which quarterback Jarrod Rucker threw for 367 yards and five touchdowns, the group could not contain Air Force’s Shaun Carney, particularly on third-and-long situations.
"I hope (we do) a lot better," Pough said. "Hopefully, we can put them in better situations than we put them in last year so that they can perform better."
SCSU defensive backs coach Mike Adams said the Bulldogs’ secondary will be much more ready this time around should the Wildcats decide to get away from their "Wyatt-bone" option attack.
"This year, I think the biggest thing is we’ve got to understand that we have experience and we know where they want to attack us," Adams said. "So our guys have been preparing all week for things we think their offense can do to us against our scheme and some of the things that we were able to do last year. And so, I think our guys are much more prepared and really, the biggest factor is having experience for some of our guys back there."
If last year’s game was not enough to motivate SCSU, several players during the preseason expressed umbrage with what they saw as slighting comments made by Wyatt during the MEAC preseason luncheon. When asked, Pough said words will have little to do with the outcome.
"You’ve got to block and tackle," he said. "You talk all you want to talk, but then what happens is after we get started is you actually don’t have much of an opportunity to say much. You’ve got to go out and actually do. It’s neat motivation leading up to the game. But after we get to the game, it’s a football game."
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