Together they sat at an interview table adjacent to the South Carolina State Bulldog locker room Saturday afternoon, a group of MEAC uber-talents.

In the middle sat quarterback Malcolm Long, the cannon-armed, chunky, former South Carolina Mr. Football who, through the first seven starts of his career, has shown that he has all the talent in the world and the ability to justify the way head coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough sometimes gushes over what he could be. To Long’s right sat wide receiver Oliver Young, the former Burke High quarterback turned college receiver, who has shown he can hit the home run with the best in the MEAC. Tailback Will Ford, the Bulldog with perhaps the best shot at making the jump to the NFL, sat to his left, and sitting to the far left was receiver Phillip Morris, the tall, lanky speedster whom Pough once compared to former NFL receiver Marcus Robinson.

In fact, Pough said he and his staff needed to figure out how to market Morris and Young as a tandem. In Saturday’s 24-23 Homecoming win over Norfolk State, Young hauled in seven passes for 101 yards and a touchdown; Morris stretched out and hauled in, perhaps, the biggest catch in the game -- a short pass from Long -- with 3:26 to go in the fourth that kept the chains moving when Norfolk State had no timeouts. For the better part of four quarters, Ford busied himself racing from 14th to 11th on the MEAC’s all-time rushing list, and Long was 15 of 17 passing for 189 yards.

Yet, Long tossed an interception in the end zone and Ford fumbled twice -- Pough took the blame for Ford’s turnovers -- and, in the end, Pough said the overall offense was the main reason why the game ended up being so close.

“Probably the deficit was their own doing,” the coach said. “I mean ... you turn the ball over on your own goal line. On one end, we turn the ball over on our own goal line, and on the other end, we turn the ball over going into the end zone. I mean ... the offense should have come back and done something to redeem itself because, I mean, let’s be honest, you know, they were the fault of a whole lot of the reason we were behind.”

Baddest MEAC team on the planet

Consider the foursome a sampling of what the Bulldogs have to offer fans ... the biggest, baddest MEAC team on the planet.

Don’t believe it? Well, scan through your trusty Bulldog Media Guide and check some of the guys out. There’s a long list of legitimate MEAC stars on the SCSU roster. And yet, for all that talent, South Carolina State found itself in position to lose another close Homecoming game Saturday, prompting one reporter to question whether the they had it in them to win the “big ones.”

The hair-raising end to the win over Norfolk State -- Pete Adrian is starting to become a real thorn in SCSU’s side -- could have very well shortened Pough’s life a little. At least that’s how he looked when he sat down and began sipping his Diet Coke in his postgame face-to-face with the media. For what it’s worth, if you count this one as a big one and it was obvious everybody in the SCSU locker room did -- and why not, it does put them in the MEAC driver’s seat -- then chalk up a “big one” for the Bulldogs. But, down on the field South Carolina State looked like they had all the tools in place to run Norfolk State right out of Oliver C. Dawson Stadium with their tails tucked between their legs. They should have. Shouldn’t they?

They were bigger, faster and stronger at just about every position, and yet, they found a way to let Norfolk State hang around. Of course, Pough said he expected it to be a close game. When one reporter asked the head Bulldog what he told his team at halftime he responded that he told them to “keep playing.”

“Close games don’t scare these guys,” he said. “We go into the game telling them that we think it’s going to be a close game. So, don’t go out there thinking you are going to blow these guys out and then all of a sudden you get out there and it’s a tough football game and you are looking all starry-eyed talking about, ‘What the heck is going on’?”

But, really, how did it end up being so close?

Adrenaline junkies

Right about here, it gets scary for South Carolina State fans.

To a man, Young, Long, Ford, Morris and team captain center Raymond “Duck” Harrison all agreed that they not only don’t fear the close game ... they thrive on it. For all those folks who left -- and yes, Long said he noticed and was bummed by the fans who came in and then filed out in the fourth quarter when they learned they were not the lucky winners of SCSU’s 42-inch flat screen television promotion, undoubtedly designed to put tailgating butts in Oliver C. Dawson seats -- there’s as good a reason as any to stay put. The Bulldogs have taken a liking to the adrenaline rush of these games.

Exciting? Yes. Troubling? A little.

Long related it to the “big high-school experience” that a lot of the Bulldogs came from as well as State’s recent history. The young men on the SCSU team, he explained, are used to hard-fought games by now. When he wasn’t on the field, Harrison, the team’s vocal leader, spent much of his time throwing his arms in the air and yelling “Let’s go” to teammates, fans ... anybody that would listen. He had a slightly different take on it all.

“I think we play better when it’s close,” he said. “When we get up ... we get too lackadaisical. When we face adversity, this year we have been stepping up to the plate. So, close games, if we win them all like this ... it doesn’t matter to me.”

The good and the bad

It’s true.

A win is a win is a win. But, it’s time for the Bulldogs to find that killer instinct. It’s time to forget the adrenaline rush and start putting teams away. If not, it could come back to bite them right in their rear ends.

Pough admitted as much after Saturday’s game. The biggest reason Saturday’s game was as close as it was was South Carolina State’s four turnovers. Take those away, and maybe, it’s a 38-23 game. Not quite as exciting, but surely better for Buddy’s health. Keep making the turnovers and it’s going to catch up.

“Oh yeah, it’s going to cost us,” Pough said. “I think everybody knows that. It’s sad that we can’t quite get the special teams and some of the skill kinds of things that we keep messing up and turning the football over on cleaned up.”

So, through seven games, the bad is the Bulldogs aren’t putting away teams they are obviously better than. But, the good, thus far, outweighs that. Long, Morris, Young, Ford, Harrison, Octavius Darby, Johnny Culbreath, Marshall McFadden, Tony White ... SCSU is loaded. And, yes, should a big game come down to the wire, well, this team now has its fair share of experience in that area.

But, perhaps the best thing of all through seven games was something that Morris voiced following the Homecoming victory.

“I think the difference is ... last year, during the same thing, the same time, a lot of guys had their heads down,” he said. “People were not into the game. This year, we were fired up on the sideline. Everybody was behind everybody, and I think that had a big part to do with (the win). You know, just coming together as a team.”

T&D Sports Editor Brian Linder can be reached via e-mail at blinder@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5553. Check out his blog, Welcome to Linderland, at www.thetandd.com.

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