After traveling over 1,400 miles back and forth to Florida in a span of seven days to earn two victories, the 15th-ranked South Carolina State football team could use an early break.

With today’s “bye,” the Bulldog players and coaches looked to recharge themselves before beginning a full-fledge run at repeating as Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion. Following Thursday’s practice, the team took two days off before returning to work Sunday at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.

“This is it for us as far as the season is concerned,” S.C. State head football coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough said. “For the next nine weeks, we’ve got the regular routine for the rest of the year. We’re going to the stretch run, so it’s pretty obvious that if you’re going to get any R and R between now and the end, this is it.”

The break comes at a time when the injury bug has started to creep up on the top-ranked team in college football. On Tuesday, the team learned starting center Casey Fortune would miss the rest of the season with ligament damage to his left knee suffered in the 24-3 win over Bethune-Cookman.

Since learning the news about Fortune, junior college transfer Sam Timothy has worked to assimilate himself into the starting job. Pough said he was pleased with Timothy’s effort in the second half against Bethune-Cookman and is looking to see more improvement.

The Bulldogs are also grooming in a backup role true freshman Tristan Bellamy (6-3, 265 lbs.) of Strom Thurmond, whom Pough sees as the future ‘heir apparent’ at center.

“He’s really a big, athletic guy and he’s going to be the guy,” he said. “I’m just hoping that it’s not going to be this year.”

Linebacker Donovan Richard also injured his knee in the Bethune-Cookman game, but is expected to be ready for the Sept. 26 home-opener against Winston-Salem State. Safety Markee Hamlin should also be healthy by then after suffering an ankle injury in Wednesday’s practice.

The last three practices have seen the Bulldogs try to fine-tune an offense which has struggled to run the football and seen numerous missed opportunities. Getting the ‘bye’ now, in Pough’s opinion, gives the team a chance to correct those problem areas of the offense.

“That’s all we did this week was to try to figure those things we feel like we’ve got to correct to be a better football team,” he said. “I think we’ve pinpoint some issues. I think we’ve got to make sure that we just continue to work to get better at those particular things that we feel are our problems.”

Defensively, the Bulldogs received a needed boost from the play of linebacker David Erby. The reigning MEAC and Heritage Sports Radio Network Defensive Player of the Week leads the team with 19 tackles and has helped fill the void left in the absence of linebacker Marshall McFadden.

“He’s got a real good knack and nose for the ball,” Pough said. “Losing some of the people we’ve had - Marshall’s down, Donovan Richards went down in that game this past Saturday. Hopefully, he’ll be back. But in both cases, you get a more definite need for somebody to come to the plate and stand up for that particular position and he has. So it was a well-needed rise to the top for him and for us.”

While some players were planning to head back to their respective hometowns, Pough plans to use his free Saturday being a football fan.

“We’ll watch a little bit of (University of) South Carolina,” he said. “Watch a little bit of Clemson. I think we get a chance (Thursday) to see Miami and (Georgia Tech) and see Howard and FAMU. It’s pretty much a little bit of everything.

“The best thing about being home is you see a chance to watch all the good games. If a game’s not good, you go to another one. Just keep on flipping until you see the one which fits your fancy.”

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. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

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