The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference got its first real look at South Carolina State's future quarterback.

Bulldogs freshman Malcolm Long earned honorable mention honors from the MEAC on Monday. An earlier report on www.thetanddd.com and in Tuesday's print edition of The T&D erroneously named Long as the MEAC Rookie of the Week. Long, a former South Carolina "Mr. Football" out of Gaffney High School wasted little time in making an impression while earning his honorable mention recognition.

Leading 24-0 in the second quarter against Howard allowed the Bulldogs to give Long his most significant time with the first-unit. The Gaffney native proceeded to complete a 73-yard touchdown pass to Oliver "Tre" Young and he made a 50-yard completion in the fourth quarter to set up his second career touchdown pass.

"You got a chance to see what we hope is a sign of things to come," SCSU head football coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough said. "He had a couple of balls that he threw that were real nice balls and it's going to be fun to work with his development over the next few months."

Long finished the day 5 of 8 passing for 174 yards and two scores. For the season, he's 12 of 26 passing for 251 yards and one interception and has a passing efficiency rating (144.94) which would lead the MEAC if he played in more than five games.

Despite Long's numbers, expect Pough to still utilize him sporadically behind starter Cleveland McCoy with two games remaining.

"We still have a lot of work to do to get him to the point where he can play at the level that Cleve plays at," he said. "Once you get them softened up some, it's always easy to go out and kind of beat up on people after somebody else has already gotten to the point where they're just trying to get through the game. But Cleve's our guy and we think Malcolm is going to be our guy. You're better off when you understand your role and can got out and work at making sure that role is successful."

Teammate and center Raymond "Duck" Harrison was named Offensive Lineman of the Week after spearheading the team's blocking performance that paved the way for 448 yards of total offense, 207 on the ground. He also added five pancake blocks, four domination blocks and six cut blocks in grading out at 91 percent in the Bulldogs.

T&D Senior Sports Writer Thomas Grant Jr. can be reached by e-mail at tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5547. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

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