Oliver “Buddy” Pough sat down in front of the media Saturday night in the bowels of Williams-Brice Stadium, took off his South Carolina State visor and took a sip of a Diet Coke.

“I thought our kids played hard,” he said as he looked up at the reporters gathered in front of him. “I thought we did play as hard as we could. Now, we didn’t play sometimes as good execution wise, but I thought our kids played hard the whole time ... and we didn’t win. But ... I can tell you I was proud of the fact that our kids played hard.”

In retrospect, there was little the Bulldogs could have done to change the final outcome, a loss. But, plenty was there to be proud of, and with a few breaks, the score could have been very different. In the final drive of the first quarter, Long let go of a pass from his own 2 and 38 yards later Tre Young stumbled to the ground with the ball.

“If he puts a little more air under that ball, that’s 99 yards,” Pough said with a smile.

A reporter corrected him, informing him that it would have only been a 98-yard score.

“Ninety-eight ... we are going to call it 99,” Pough said with a laugh. “A little more air ... but, let me tell you what, it takes a little bit of a cool guy to stand up in your end zone and throw that because let me tell you something, they have a couple guys on that team that can get to you. So, you better hurry up and get that sucker out of there.”

The Gamecocks did get to Long in the fourth quarter when Clifton Geathers made contact with the quarterback’s arm, sending the ball fluttering into the arms of South Carolina defensive lineman Eric Norwood.

“I will tell you the truth, we were about to score on that play,” Long said. “Tre beat his man on the post route and there was no safety in the middle of the field. I just got my elbow hit a little bit.”

So, as funny as it may sound, the feeling around he Bulldogs’ football game postgame may have been more promising following the 38-14 loss to the Gamecocks than it was in last week’s 27-10 win over Winston-Salem State.

“Everybody was probably shocked the first half to see the scoreboard was tight,” S.C. State wide receiver Terrance Smith said. “It shouldn’t be a shocker to our team. As good as we are, we can do this against anybody. We should be able to beat a division-one team instead of being satisfied with a score on a D1 team or a D1 level. We have to take this as a building block and just keep building.”

Long owes the O-line dinner

When it was mentioned to Long that he was still in one piece following Saturday’s game after so much had been made of the pass-rush prowess of Cliff Matthews and Norwood, the quarterback started grinning.

“The offensive line has been doing real good all year,” he said. “We didn’t give up a sack last year, I’m very proud of those guys. I might take them out next week.”

“I’m going to tell you what, check this out, they didn’t have a sack and that is big in our thought process because of the fact that we were able to hold up under the pressure that they have,” Pough said. “We have got enough stuff for you, that if you really want to get after us, we can get you off of us. These guys are about as good a pass rushers as there are in the country and we were holding up under the pressure.”

Smith does double duty

Smith showed off his big-play prowess at wide receiver Saturday night, finishing with three receptions for 56 yards.

But, the former Aiken standout, also saw a good bit of action at defensive back where he played last season.

“They just give me that chance in the Red Zone,” he said. “They want me to come in and beat up some of those big receivers and tight ends.”

Banged up

Pough said that he was concerned about his team’s depth as injuries mount for the Bulldogs.

Defensive end Markus James injured an ankle Saturday and guard Jake Johnson injured a leg.

 

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