A rain-filled week could conclude with ninth-ranked South Carolina State reaching the end of the rainbow.

Plenty of team and individual accomplishments are possible when the Bulldogs (8-1, 6-0) play host to Morgan State (5-4, 3-3) at 1:30 p.m. at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium. A victory would not just clinch a second straight Football Championship Subdivison playoff appearance for the first time since the 1981-82 seasons and a share of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title for the third time under head coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough.

The 18th consecutive conference victory would also set a new MEAC record, breaking the mark S.C. State currently share with Hampton (2004-06) at 17. S.C. State also owns the MEAC record for most consecutive games without a loss (19), going 18-0-1 between 1976-79.

Standing in the way is Morgan State, which ironically snapped the Bulldogs’ conference record streak without a loss in 1979. Since then, the Bears have dropped six straight overall, 26 of the 27 meetings and 12 of 13 at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium against S.C. State.

The last two meetings in Orangeburg, however, had been decided in overtime in favor of the Bulldogs. In 2004, it was a career-best 45-yard field goal by Michael Gaston which lifted S.C. State to a 38-35 victory which helped it earn a share of the MEAC title with Hampton.

Two years later, Morgan State rallied from a 21-0 deficit to force overtime, only to lose 28-21 on wide receiver Terrance Smith’s memorable one-handed touchdown reception. The scoring play has become known as the “Centennial Catch.”

Knowing a win gets the Bulldogs into the postseason, Pough is hoping to avoid needing another miracle play against the Bears.

“They just seem to always play us better here than they do up there (in Baltimore),” he said. “I told (Morgan State head coach Donald Hill-Eley) one time I thought it had something to do with their process on the road than at home. But heck, I don’t know exactly what it is. We seem to always get out ahead and then, from that point on, we battle for dear life and can’t seem to stop them.

“So, we’ll have probably our work cut out for us again and we just need to go out here with a killer instinct to end these guys. But it never seems to quite happen.”

A trio of Bulldog players will try to make school history happen today. Quarterback Malcolm Long needs just 228 yards to become the first S.C. State player to throw for 2,000 yards, 20 completions to surpass his own single-season record of 171 and four more touchdown passes to break Marvin Marshall’s school record of 17.

One of Long’s primary targets, wide receiver Oliver “Tre” Young, will set another school record with his next catch. The Charleston native is currently tied with Tavarus Morgan for most career receptions (116) and broke Charlie Brown’s career receiving yards record three weeks ago.

Then there’s running back Will Ford and his season-long quest for the MEAC career rushing record. With two regular-season games remaining, Ford needs just 262 yards to surpass Hampton’s Alonzo Coleman’s mark of 4,648 yards.

For all the attention gained by the offense, the Bulldogs’ defense has held their last five opponents to a total of 52 points. As a team, S.C. State leads the MEAC in points allowed (16), total defense (256.1), interceptions (12) and sacks (23).

“It’s pretty obvious we’ve got a lot of guys doing a lot of good things and you can attribute most of that to our defensive staff doing a good job of preparing a lot of guys to play and I think that means that you have good team morale over there because all of those guys know that they are going to get an opportunity to play,” Pough said. “It’s a defense which is coming into its own now. They’ve seen that they can pretty much stop people and we’re not necessarily that kind of defense where people can’t keep any yardage at all. We give up some yardage from time to time. But, in the crunch time, we do a nice of job of keeping people out of the end zone.”

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. Read his blog, Following the Bulldogs, and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

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