After five weeks at home and then three home games followed by a pair of byes, South Carolina State head football coach Buddy Pough looked forward to a weekend road trip.
His Bulldogs will have that opportunity Saturday at noon when they visit Delaware State for the Hornets’ homecoming and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
“Sometimes, you’ve got a better advantage on the road than you do at home,” Pough said during Monday’s MEAC coaches’ conference. “You get your guys sequestered away, and they don’t have to worry about intrusions on their process. We’ll fly in, eat some good food, walk around, and then play the game. The road is no problem for me.”
Pough’s Bulldogs wrapped up their non-conference schedule with a 2-4 mark heading into the game against DelState, 1-5 and coming off a bye week after a high-octane 51-44 loss at Central Connecticut State Oct. 7.
“Our goal, like the other teams in the conference, is to win the MEAC,” Hornets head coach Lee Hull said. “All of the goals that we’ve started out with, we can achieve them.”
Hull sees an even match-up with S.C. State, a team the Hornets defeated in overtime 27-24 last season. He also wanted to give Pough his flowers as a great football coach.
“This is Coach Pough’s last MEAC go-round, and if it wasn’t for him, a lot of us wouldn’t have the positions that we have now,” Hull said. “He’s a legend in not just Black College Football, but all college football and a great guy.”
Pough was also complimentary of DSU’s skill players on offense.
“Those two running backs Coach Hull has [Marquis Gillis and Wade Inge] can make your day miserable, and we’ve got to find a way to stop their quarterback [Marqui Adams], who can move around and do everything,” he said.
“They could make our day real ugly up there.”
