The 'dean': SCSU's Buddy Pough enters 13th season looking to get to next level

South Carolina State University head football Buddy Pough
 is entering his 13th season as head coach of the Bulldogs.

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina  -- Well before becoming the “dean” of Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference head football coaches, Buddy Pough was treated like one by his colleagues upon arriving in 2002.

“Because (former S.C. State head football coach Willie) Jeffries was chair of the head coaches committee when I came into the league, they just kind of grandfathered me into that position where I had most of the responsibilities,” he said. “And as I stayed longer, they just wouldn’t move me.”

Pough now enters a 13th season at his alma mater as the conference’s longest-serving active football coach. It’s a distinction he “earned” following Morgan State’s dismissal last November of Donald Hill-Eley, who entered the MEAC along with Pough in 2002 and is now the offensive coordinator at Norfolk State.

The Bulldogs’ sideline leader is also the second-longest active coach in the state of South Carolina behind Wofford’s Mike Ayers (26 seasons) and in black college football behind Albany State’s James “Mike” White (14 seasons).

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