ORANGEBURG, SC – No. 10 ranked South Carolina State (7-1, 5-0 MEAC) will try to remain perfect in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and maintain its position in the polls when the Bulldogs travel to Washington, DC Saturday to take on Howard (2-6, 0-5) in a 1 p.m. contest at Greene Stadium.
The Bulldogs sit alone at the top the MEAC standings with a perfect 5-0 mark and can move ever closer to defending their 2008 championship with a victory. A win would also give Coach Buddy Pough’s team its 17th consecutive league triumph, tying a mark set by Hampton.
SC State, coming off a huge 52-10 homecoming win against Delaware State last Saturday, is ranked 10th on all three FCS polls – The Sports Network, FCS Coaches and Any Given Saturday – and occupies the number one sport in all four HBCU polls.
Howard, meanwhile, is having a dismal season. The Bison have lost four straight, including last Saturday’s 41-6 setback at Norfolk State, and are on a 16-game MEAC losing streak.
On paper, it appears to be an easy game for the visiting Bulldogs, but don’t tell that to Pough, whose team has won sixth straight against the Bison, including a 56-0 victory at Orangeburg last season. Howard’s last triumph in the series was a 23-9 victory in Orangeburg in 2002, Pough’s first season.
“Howard is going to beat somebody pretty soon and it would really by ironic for it to be us,” Pough said during his weekly news conference Monday. “We appear to have it going, but add the fact that they have a lot of local kids (South Carolina) on their team. They will be aiming high to show us that they can play.”
Seventeen Palmetto State players are on the Howard roster, including 11 starters, with several of them from Orangeburg or the surrounding area.
Pough said, however, he did not expect his team to have a letdown against the Howard.
BULLDOG BITES: SC State RB Will Ford and WR Tre' Young are both chasing history. Ford, who earlier took over the school's career rushing mark -- surpassing Michael Hicks -- needs 369 yards to become the all-time leading rusher in the MEAC. Young, who erased the career receiving yards mark of 1,533 yards set by Charlie Brown, needs eight catches to eclipse the career mark of 116 held by Tavarus Morgan.
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