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These are suppose to be happy times for South Carolina State head football Oliver “Buddy” Pough.
With three games remaining, the Bulldogs (7-2, 5-0) are closing in on their first outright Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship under Pough and first Football Championship Subdivision playofff appearance since 1982. The current five-game winning streak has S.C. State ranked in the Top 20 of all three FCS polls.
Saturday’s 23-17 win over defending conference champion Delaware State was also S.C. State’s 18th consecutive victory in November and improved Pough to 15-0 in nationally-televised games on cable as head coach. He also needs one more victory to surpass Bill Davis as the second-winningest coach in school history behind Willie Jeffries.
A growing list of injuries, however, threaten to derail S.C. State’s special season. No injury concerns Pough more than the sprain on the non-throwing shoulder of starting quarterback Malcolm Long. On Monday, Pough acknowledged the possibility of Long missing Thursday’s nationally-televised home game against Howard and even the rest of the season because of the injury. Long visited a team doctor Monday morning and his status was uncertain at press time.
“We’re making plans right now to possibly limit him or not play him,” Pough said.
If Long is unavailable, backup DeWain Clark will move into the starting lineup. The North Carolina native had a strong spring camp, but has struggled in brief appearances against Football Bowl Subdivision teams Central Florida and Clemson in completing just 2 of 4 passes for only 25 yards.
Clark’s promotion would also mean activating redshirt freshman Derrick Wiley. With the more mobile Clark at the helm, the Bulldogs would implement a more run-oriented offense similar to the scheme used the previous three seasons with Cleveland McCoy.
“We’ll be a little bit different kind of team,” Pough said. “It would be a more like a Cleve gameplan as opposed as a Malcolm gameplan. We haven’t quite gotten there yet. We’re still trying to determine things.”
The health prognosis is slightly better for wide receiver Tre Young, who injured his ankle on the second play of Saturday’s 23-17 victory over Delaware State and did not return. Pough said Young’s ankle did not show significant swellness overnight and he’s hopeful of returning to action this Thursday.
Other players dealing with physical ailments include linebacker Julius Wilkerson (ribs), defensive lineman Keyon Brooks (concussion) and offensive tackle Nygel Pearson (elbow, ankle) and wide receiver Phillip Morris (thigh bruise). With the short work week, Pough plans to limit the physical contact in practice and having the players work out without pads.
Regardless of the outcome of the season, Pough does not plan to use the injuries as an excuse.
“This is football,” he said. “This is part of the game and I don’t know if you can cry when these kind of situations come about. You’ve got to kind of prepare yourself because these things will happen and that’s why we practice and play some of the people that we do. People are always talking about how many people you need for a football team. Well, you’ve got a lot of guys who are one snap from being on the field. He may be a third-team quarterback or third-team wideout, but one guy gets hurt, the next guy gets tweaked somewhere of that nature, then where you’
re at. So the numbers that you have that you carry in a program to have a chance to weather these kind of storms is pretty significant.”
S.C. State has defeated the Bison five straight times, including last year’s 59-21 rout in Washington, D.C. Since that loss, Howard (1-7, 0-5) has dropped eight straight conference games and 10 of its last 11 games overall.
Nevertheless, Pough expects a Bison team with nine Palmetto State players on the roster motivated to play the spoiler role.
“You’ve got all kinds of players,” he said. “You have the Denmark kid (wide receiver Willie Carter, who’s out the rest of the season with an ankle injury), you’ve got the Orangeburg kids. (Quarterback Floyd) Haigler (of Orangeburg-Wilkinson) is a guy that I spent a lot of time recruiting. You’ve got (Corey) Berry (of O-W). You’ve got several kids on that team from this neck of the woods.
“They’ve got (assistant coach) James Moses, who coached here, and whose dad cuts my hair. So we’ve got connections to the whole operation that’s so deep that they’ll come in here and you can bet that they’ll do all they can to upset the apple cart.”
Thursday’s game is also the final regular-season home game for S.C.
State. The school is offerring $10 tickets for citizens 55 and older and those students who wear their Greek fraternity and sorority colors and letters.
“We hope that we’ll get a great sellout,” Pough said. “It gives a whole lot of people who ordinarily wouldn’t have a chance to see a day game...an opportunity to see us play. We’ve got a tremendous product here. We’ve got a lot of activities going on around the game, fireworks and that kind of stuff. I would hope that this community, this state would come out and enjoy themselves and support us Thursday night.”
BISON AT BULLDOGS
WHO: Howard (1-7, 0-5) at South Carolina State (7-2, 5-0)
WHERE: Oliver C. Dawson Stadium
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
TV: ESPNU (Channel 160 on Digital Time Warner Cable, Channel 148 on The Dish Network and Channel 609 on DirecTV)
RADIO: WQKI (102.9 FM) and WOIC (1230 AM in Columbia)
ANY GIVEN SATURDAY
WEEK 10 POLLS
1. James Madison
2. Appalachian State
3. Cal Poly
4. Northern Iowa
5. Montana
6. Richmond
7. Villanova
8. Southern Illinois
9. Weber State
10. New Hampshire
11. Wofford
12. Elon
13. Massachusetts
14. William & Mary
15. Furman
16. Central Arkansas
17. Western Illinois
18. McNeese State
19. South Carolina State
20. Harvard
21. Tennessee-Martin
22. Maine
23. South Dakota State
24. Colgate
25. Tennessee State
FCS COACHES POLL
1. James Madison
2. Appalachian State
3. Cal Poly
4. Northern Iowa
5. Montana
6. Richmond
7. New Hampshire
8. Villanova
9. Southern Illinois
10. Weber State
11. Elon
12. Wofford
13. Massachusetts
14. Central Arkansas
15. McNeese State
16. William and Mary
17. Furman
18. South Carolina State
19. Western Illinois
20. Tennessee-Martin
21. Harvard
22. Tennessee State
23. North Dakota State
24. Northern Arizona
25. Liberty