Even before last weekend's hard-fought 17-0 loss to Central Florida, South Carolina State's next two contests against Benedict College and Bethune-Cookman were declared by head coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough 'life or death' games.

The poor showing offensively against the Knights has only further added to the urgency Pough is approaching in Saturday's home opener against the Division II Tigers.

"We lose to one of these teams in the next two weeks, then it's death to us and we're approaching it that way."

While the "Lowcountry Classic" matchup with the Wildcats is the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opener for the Bulldogs, the importance of the Benedict game is more for a confidence standpoint. Having decisively defeated the Tigers (1-0) in the previous three meetings by an average margin of 43.3 points - all taking place as part of the Palmetto Capitol City Classic - anything less would be considered a setback for S.C. State (0-1).

"Offensively, we've got some work to do and we've got to get it done in a hurry because our schedule approaches us in a way this could be a big deal for us if we don't get something done pretty quickly," Pough said.

"Benedict's an 'all or nothing' kind of deal for us . Either we win the game and we need to win big or it becomes an embarrassment for us.

We're almost in the same situation that Central Florida was in the previous week. We've got everything to lose and nothing to gain. So we've got to do a really good job of getting our offense going."

In getting shut out for the first time in 15 years and in a season-opener for the first time in 20, the Bulldogs collected just five first downs, committed two turnovers and were held to 124 total yards. Adding to S.C. State's frustrations was the overall strong effort of the defense which limited Central Florida to just seven points through three quarters.

"It's pretty obvious that anytime you get into a game such as that and you've got a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter, that's exactly what you go in attempting to do," Pough said. "The bad thing about it was that we didn't get it done and the worst part about it was we didn't score.

It was a less than spectacular debut at starting quarterback for Malcolm Long, who struggled with first-game jitters, the wet elements and an experienced Knights' defense which prevented the Bulldogs from spreading the field.

Things were especially difficult for running back Will Ford, who was held to one of his lowest totals as a Bulldog. Nevertheless, Pough saw enough on a c ouple of 'spectacular' short runs by Ford and the effort shown overall by the offense playing most of the game against Central Florida's first-team defense left him optimistic for the rest of the season.

"I'm proud of my kids," Pough said. "Even when I look at our film and I see we didn't score, it was not because of lack of effort. Our kids really moved around well. I thought we look good as a football team, we just didn't quite execute enough on offense to make things come together. But even when we were not executing good, we still moved around good and I was happy with our athleticism and some of the other kinds of things so we've got some things to build on."

Kickoff for Saturday's game at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium is 6 p.m.

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