Finish the job.

It’s been head coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough’s season-ending mantra to his South Carolina State football team every year since his arrival in 2001. The Bulldogs have responded by posting a 24-4 record in the month of November, including 23 consecutive conference victories.

Closing out the regular season with another win today over North Carolina A&T could have playoff locale implications for the two-time MEAC champions. Having clinched a second straight Football Championship Subdivision postseason berth, the seventh-ranked Bulldogs (9-1, 7-0) now aspire to earn a first-round home game while extending their conference-record winning streak to 19.

“It’s a good feeling and I’m proud of our kids, proud of our coaches, proud of our organization in general and the university and I’m really happy with the fact that we’ve achieved this goal,” Pough said. “But, it’s just kind of a hollow feeling of sorts just because what we’re really looking for is more. We’d like to get into the playoffs and really make some real hay there to really get something accomplished in that way. So we’re about the task now of making sure that we finish up real strong. North Carolina A&T is really good and maybe the most improved team in our league and we’ve got our work cut out there and then after that, we’ll go about the task of figuring out where we go next.”

Since falling to S.C. State 49-9 on Nov. 22, 2003, North Carolina A&T has gone 14-54, had four head coaches and posted five straight losing seasons. First-year Aggies head coach Alonzo Lee was the team’s defensive coordinator in that game and sees today’s matchup as a chance to reverse the pendulum in the rivalry.

“The world is round and things do go in circles,” Lee said. “There’s no doubt about that. The bottom line is I can’t say what ultimately happened and why that turned about, but I believe the same turnabout is going to happen again.”

For that to occur, North Carolina A&T (5-5, 3-4) must try to slow down a Bulldogs’ offense which has

outscored opponents 86-13 in the first quarter. It’s been a balanced attack with record-setting efforts on offense from quarterback Malcolm Long, running back Will Ford, wide receiver Oliver “Tre” Young and placekicker Blake Erickson.

Long became the first Bulldog in school history to throw for 2,000 yards in a single season in last week’s 37-13 win over Morgan State, while Young earned MEAC Offensive Player of the Week honors after amassing 313 total yards of offense en route to setting the school career record for receptions (121).

Erickson connected on three field goals to break Cedric Oglesby’s school record for field goals in a season with 12. As for Ford, the school’s all-time leading rusher needs 155 yards to surpass Hampton’s Alonzo Coleman’s MEAC career rushing yards (4,648).

Defensively, the Bulldogs rank first in the MEAC in four categories (rushing, scoring, total defense and sacks). They face an Aggies’ offense which is averaging just 17.3 points per game, has produced just one 100-yard rushing game (Dontavius Payne) and are ranked next to last in passing offense.

Freshman quarterback Lewis Kindle did earn MEAC Rookie of the Week honors in the Aggies’ 31-27 loss to Florida A&M two weeks ago after throwing for 206 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for another score in his first start.

This is the first contest in Orangeburg between the two schools since 2001, when the Bulldogs rallied for a 15-14 victory. S.C. State has won eight straight games in the series and are 7-0 under Pough.

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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