This is a day South Carolina State’s Markus James has specially marked on his calendar for a long time.

Having first place in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference riding on the outcome of today’s 2 p.m. contest against Hampton has only increased the junior defensive end’s anticipation level. As the lone Hampton native on the Bulldog roster, a victory over the Pirates would give James “bragging rights” in his hometown during the summer months.

“I’m pretty excited and motivated,” James said. “The meaning of the game, comparing our records and it’s a hometown team coming in here. Overall, it’s probably going to be a more exciting game than ‘Homecoming’ for us.”

Last year’s “Homecoming” game in Hampton was somewhat bittersweet for James. Playing in front of his father Oliver, who played wide receiver for the Pirates in the early 1980s, and numerous family members, James left the game in the second quarter with an injury.

The Bulldogs would rally behind quarterback Cleveland McCoy’s second-half touchdowns to pull out their first-ever win in Armstrong Stadium.

“It was exciting,” he said. “I had a lot of fans there. I got injured in the second quarter. My day ended early, but we ended up pulling the game out.”

For today’s showdown, James’ father and a couple of co-workers who are S.C. State graduates will be making the trip to Oliver C. Dawson Stadium. He’ll also get to reunite with former Bethel High School teammate and Pirate wide receiver Darius Mullen and linebacker Charles Robinson and running back Dennis Mathis from rival high schools Hampton and Phoebus, respectively.

Despite James’ family ties and earning All-District honors at Bethel as a tight end and defensive end, only S.C. State sought his services after a stint at Fork Union Military.

“I don’t know how they did their recruiting, but my (high school) games were right in their backyard where I played my senior year. I really didn’t get any interest from them at all. There’s no hard feelings behind that. I just wasn’t what they were looking for in the recruiting process, I guess.”

Hampton’s loss has proven to be S.C. State’s gain as the 6-2, 245-pound James is one of the team’s top pass rushers. A year after missing the final three games with an injury, James is currently tied with linebacker Marshall McFadden for the team lead in sacks with four.

No sack was more critical than the one James collected late in the game two weeks ago against Norfolk State, which helped preserve the 24-23 win.

James believes the “bye” week came at the right time. Not only did it give the Bulldogs an extra week to prepare for Hampton’s big-play offense, but allowed key players to receive some valuable rest time and recharge their batteries for a late-season run.

“We needed to retool some things and regain our focus,” James said.

“Considering how we played in the beginning of the year, we began to slack off and not working as hard. During the ‘bye.’ we used it to get our minds right and focused and keep our eye on the prize.”

A win today would put the Bulldogs in the driver’s seat for the conference title entering the month of November, where they have won 17 consecutive games under Pough.

Today’s game is

Youth/ROTC Day

The S.C. State Ticket Office is offering ticket discounts for today’s MEAC showdown at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.

As a part of Youth/ROTC Day, all youth 17 and under or college students with an ID card can purchase a ticket for $10. All general admission tickets will only cost $20.

For more information, contact the S.C. State ticket office at 803-536-8579 or 1-800-298-9157 or click on the S.C. State advertisement at www.thetand.com

-- 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. Check out his blog, Following the Bulldogs, at www.TheTandD.com, which will provide updates of today’s game.

 No. 22 Hampton at No. 24 S.C. State

AT STAKE: Following a bye week, the Bulldogs return to action to begin the stretch run of the season against the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference co-leading Pirates.

LAST OUTING: SCSU def. Norfolk State 24-23 on Oct. 11; Hampton def. Norfolk State 35-17 on Oct. 18

LAST YEAR’S RECORDS: SCSU (7-4, 6-2 in the MEAC); Hampton (6-5, 5-4)

THE LAST TIME THEY MET: (Oct, 20, 2007) Won by S.C. State 28-24. Cleveland McCoy threw for one touchdown and rushed for two more — including the game-winning score — to lead South Carolina State to its first-ever victory in Armstrong Stadium. The Bulldogs trailed at halftime and were down in the fourth quarter when McCoy ran 31 yards for a touchdown with 6:53 left in the game to seal the historic victory.

SERIES RECORD: Hampton leads 11-3

FIRST MEETING: 1937

ALL-TIME RECORDS: SCSU (382-245-28), Hampton (519-376-34)

FIRST SEASONS OF FOOTBALL: SCSU (1907); Hampton (1902)

HEAD COACHES & RECORDS: SCSU’s Oliver “Buddy” Pough (52-23 overall, 38-12 MEAC) 7th season, Jerry Holmes (5-1 overall, 4-0 MEAC) 1st season

CLIMBING THE CHARTS: With 2,933 career rushing yards, S.C. State junior tailback William Ford is currently 11th on the MEAC’s all-time rushing list. He needs just 19 yards to surpass Delaware State’s Michael Murphy (2,951) for 10th place and 74 yards to move past Florida A&M’s Rashard Pompey (3,006) for ninth place. Hampton’s Alonzo Coleman is the MEAC’s all-time rushing leader with 4,648 yards.

DID YOU KNOW: S.C. State head football coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough led Fairfield-Central to a Class 3-A title in 1996. He needs just three more victories to surpass Bill Davis for second place on S.C. State’s all-time coaching career wins list behind Willie Jeffries...First-year Hampton head coach Jerry Holmes played 12 seasons in the NFL as a cornerback for the New York Jets, Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions and USFL. He also coached defensive backs for the San Diego Chargers, Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns...SCSU has three former players (Deacon Jones, Marion Motley and Harry Carson) inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, more than all the Palmetto State’s Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Championship Division and Division II programs combined...SCSU defensive lineman Markus Jones (Hampton, Va.) is the lone Virginia native on the Bulldogs’ roster...Hampton has seven Palmetto State natives on the roster, including two University of South Carolina transfers (defensive back Sam Pope and defensive lineman Kendrick Ellis)...The Bulldogs are 3-3 against Hampton under Pough, who owns a .500 or better record against every MEAC team...Under Pough, the Bulldogs are 47-6 when leading or tied at halftime and 5-17 when trailing at halftime. One of those victories took place last year against Hampton.

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1. Tuskegee

2. South Carolina State

3. Hampton

4. Grambling

5. Florida A&M

6. Tennessee State

7. Southern

8. Prairie View

9. Bethune-Cookman

10. Albany State

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