Pough: SCSU Bulldogs ready to find out what kind of team they have

ORANGEBURG, South Carolina -- South Carolina State head football coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough is as excited as anyone to see how his Bulldogs perform in the season opener against Southern in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Sunday.

It’s partially the fact that it’s the MEAC/SWAC Challenge game and will be a bowl-type atmosphere for his players.

But, more important than that, it will be a new season with a new mix of players who can write their own history, separate from the disappointing 5-6 campaign that S.C. State posted in 2016.

“2017, I’m looking forward to this,” Pough said at his first weekly press conference of the season, on Monday. “This is a big deal for us and a big opener.

“We had kind of a rough year last year. So we are looking to kind of make some amends that way. Got a little bit better schedule, got home games this year. With six home games, that’s like a new sensation, after playing so much on the road last year.”

The Bulldogs only need to pack bags for this weekend to face a Jaguars team that was 8-3 in 2016, before hosting Charleston Southern (Sept. 9) and Johnson C. Smith (Sept. 16) in back-to-back weeks on Willie E. Jeffries Field inside the friendly confines of Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.



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