Buddy Pough, the longest-tenured South Carolina State football coach in history, will take on a new role at the school a year after retiring.
Pough was named on Thursday as the interim athletics director during the school’s search for a new person to fill that role after Nathan Cochran left the university to pursue other opportunities, according to The Times and Democrat newspaper.
“On behalf of the Bulldog family, I thank Dr. Cochran for his service and wish him the best in his future endeavors,” Alexander Conyers, the SCSU President, said in a statement.
Before retiring at the end of the 2023 season, Pough had served as Bulldogs head football coach for 22 years and is the winningest coach in the program’s history.
He accumulated 15 winning seasons, three MEAC Coach of the Year honors, two National Coach of the Year awards, and two national HBCU titles, his last, a 2021 win in the Celebration Bowl over Jackson State.
Pough also briefly served as interim athletics director in 2023.
