The South Carolina State football team had a good performance in picking up their first win of 2023 last weekend, and now they’ll have a week off to prepare for their next opponent.
“It’s almost as if it was a gift from above,” Bulldogs head coach Buddy Pough said of another bye week following SCSU’s 31-10 win over The Citadel in their home opener on September 23. “We’ll try to fix the issues we’ve unearthed through these first four games. We’ve got Virginia Lynchburg and Tennessee Tech coming down the pike, so we’ll prepare for both games this week and then get ready to start our conference schedule.”
The Bulldogs, now 1-3, got an outstanding game from grad student quarterback Corey Fields Jr., who threw for 301 yards (completing 19 of 25 attempts) and two touchdowns and also ran for 55 yards, and Pough was very pleased with his signal caller’s efforts.
“He was back to 100 percent,” Pough said of an early season foot injury that had been bothering Fields this season. “He’s an excellent tactician, involved with our offensive staff and planning. You could see it in his play. We thought he had an excellent game, and now he’s starting to develop his all-around game. He had a couple of nice runs, so I’m looking forward to seeing just how far we can get with him for the rest of the year.”
Defensively, the Bulldogs’ new-look formation under new defensive coordinator Thomas Howard is starting to take shape, and The Citadel got to see it up close and personal, collecting only 202 yards of total offense, compared to a whopping 556 yards for the South Carolina State offense.
“Two things about our league; you’ve got to run the ball and stop the run,” Pough explained. “I’m excited about Coach Howard’s defensive style; he’s a great young coach. Once we get familiar with this new defensive style, we’ve really got a chance to turn the tide.”
And getting a much-needed win goes a long way to righting the Bulldogs’ ship.
“We’re excited that we played rather well. We caught them at a time that was beneficial to our side of things,” Pough said. “It was a good win for us. Anytime you’ve been lacking for one for as long as we have, it’s been a long time coming.”
