South Carolina State football holds fifth practice

By SCSU Sports Information
Tuesday, April 01, 2008

South Carolina State continued spring football drills Monday as the Bulldogs conducted the fifth of 15 scheduled workouts.

A good bit of Monday's workout was devoted to correcting mistakes from the team's first scrimmage this past Saturday, according to head coach Buddy Pough. The Bulldogs also devoted some time to fundamentals, sharpening execution of assignments, red zone offense and defense, and third down-and-medium execution.

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Pough said overall execution was fair but that his team appeared sluggish in the beginning before coming alive near the end of the workout.

"We didn't look particularly sharp during the early part of our practice," said Pough. "Our execution was only fair at best, but we did pick things up a bit near the end of the workout.

The team concluded Monday's workout with emphasis on special teams, specifically punting and placekicking.

Pough noted that Orangeburg native Aaron Haire continues to handle both the punting and placekicking and that he was doing an adequate job with both chores.

"Aaron is doing an adequate job so far of handling both punting and kicking for us" he said. "He is punting the ball well and his placekicking is improving. And, we think that he's at the point where if he had to do both this fall, he could. But we are hoping that our young recruit (Blake Erickson of Pensacola, FL) will be able to do the kicking."

An added event for the team on Monday evening included a 7 p.m. session with Tuesday's scheduled Honors and Award Convocation speaker, Dr. Calvin Mackie, an award-winning mentor, international speaker and successful entrepreneur.