HOWARD (1-7, 0-5) AT NO. 18 SOUTH CAROLINA STATE (7-2, 5-0) 7:30 p.m.

AT STAKE: The nationally-ranked Bulldogs look to move a step closer to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title and its first Football Championship Subdivision playoff appearance against a Bison team they’ve defeated five straight times.

LAST OUTING: SCSU def. Delaware State 23-17, Howard lost to Norfolk State 49-14

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

THE LAST TIME THEY MET: (Nov. 3, 2006) won by South Carolina State 59-21. The Bulldogs went to the nation’s capitol and handed out its own form of capitol punishment. Capitalizing on two early turnovers to take a 10-0 lead, S.C. State scored 31 unanswered points in jumping out to a 38-7 halftime lead. Quarterbacks Cleveland McCoy and Malcolm Long both threw two touchdowns each and Tre Young had 110 receiving yards in the victory.

SERIES RECORD: SCSU leads 27-10

FIRST MEETING: 1971

ALL-TIME RECORDS: SCSU (380-243-28); Howard (308-374-13)

FIRST SEASONS OF FOOTBALL: SCSU (1907); Howard (1893)

HEAD COACHES & RECORDS: SCSU’s Oliver “Buddy” Pough (54-23 overall, 40-12 MEAC) 6th season; Howard head coach Carey Bailey (5-12 overall, 2-11 MEAC) second season

CAREER MILESTONE: With a victory tonight, S.C. State head football coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough will become the second winningest head coach in school history behind Willie Jeffries, who once coached at Howard. He will surpass Bill Davis, who went 52-25-1 from 1979-85 and led the Bulldogs to their only two Division I-AA playoff appearances.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, VICTORY: Tonight marks the second straight game S.C. State will play before a nationally-televised audience on ESPNU. Under Pough, the Bulldogs are 9-0 in games aired by the ESPN family (ESPN2, ESPNU) and 15-0 in all nationally-televised games on cable.

RANKINGS: S.C. State is ranked in the Top 20 of all three FCS polls for the second straight week. The Bulldogs rank 18th in the FCS Coaches Poll and 19th in the Sports Network and AnyGivenSaturday.com polls. S.C. State is ranked first in the Heritage Sports Radio Network FCS poll and second in the Sheridan Black College Football Poll which includes Division II teams.

STREAKING: The Bulldogs’ current five-game losing streak is the longest under Pough and tied with eight teams for third longest in the FCS.

MR. NOVEMBER: The Bulldogs have won 18 consecutive games in the month of November under Pough and are 18-3 during his tenure. The last defeat took place Nov. 16, 2002 in a 23-9 loss to Morgan State.

FORD’S DRIVE TO THE TOP: With 3,179 career yards, S.C. State running back Will Ford is currently eight on the MEAC’s all-time rushing list. He needs 105 yards to surpass Delaware State’s Reggie Barnes for seventh place.

DID YOU KNOW: SCSU head football coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough led Fairfield-Central to a Class 3-A title in 1996...First-year Howard head coach Carey Bailey is a former letterman at the University of Tennessee who previously served as an assistant at the University of Minnesota, Oklahoma State, Middle Tennessee State, Tennessee State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Virginia Military Institute and West Virginia...Saturday’s win over Delaware State gives Pough a better than .500 record against every MEAC school...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...Howard has a total of 11 active players from the Palmetto State, including four (QB Floyd Haigler, DL Corey Berry, DB Dante Martin and LS Josh August) who played at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School and two (linebacker DeAngelo Moody and wide receiver Willie Carter, who’s out with an ankle injury) from Denmark-Olar. Assistant coach James Moses is an O-W graduate. SCSU place-kicker Aaron Haire is a former teammate of Haigler and August, while wide receiver Phillip Morris was teammates with Howard’s Martin at Georgia Military College...Under Pough, the Bulldogs are 49-6 when leading or tied at halftime and 5-17 when trailing.

HERITAGE SPORTS RADIO NETWORK

BLACK COLLEGE FOOTBALL

FCS TOP 10 POLL

1. South Carolina State

2. Grambling

3. Prairie View

4. Tennessee State

5. Morgan State

6. Bethune-Cookman

7. Hampton

8. Florida A&M

9. Jackson State

10. Southern

SHERIDAN BROADCASTING NETWORK

BLACK COLLEGE FOOTBALL TOP 10

1. Tuskegee

2. South Carolina State

3. Grambling

4. Prairie View

5. Bethune-Cookman

6. Tennessee State

7. Southern

8. Shaw

9. Morgan State

10. Florida A&M

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