ORANGEBURG, SC – South Carolina State's second scrimmage of the spring was cut short after approximately 90 minutes Saturday at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium. Coach Buddy Pough called the scrimmage after center Tristan Bellamy, who has taken virtually every snap in spring drills, developed cramps. Backup center Erskine Johnson was slowed by an allergy.

'We wanted to go longer,” Pough said “But we have so many linemen out and Tristan (Bellamy) came up with cramps and Erskine (Johnson) has a little bit of an allergy issue so we decided to cut it short.”

During the one hour and 30-minute workout, the Bulldog offense was very effective at times as both junior Derrick Wiley and redshirt sophomore Richard Cue combined to direct several scoring drives against the usually vaunted SC State defense. Pough was glad to see the offense sustain its momentum from earlier in the week; however, he was disappointed that the defense was not very effective.

“We didn't have a lot going and didn't play nearly as effective on defense as we had hoped,” Pough said. “The tempo was significant and we held some key players out, so these factors affected the defense some, but we needed to get more from our backups.

“The offense appeared to sustain some momentum,” he continued. “Our quarterbacks showed some signs that they are catching on to what we are trying to do. We know the key for us will be designing our offense around their talents and the things they can do.

“But anytime, you have a new group on offense, you will have some issues as they have to learn a lot of new stuff and also execute it, so at times they may be a bit overwhelmed.”

It was the tenth practice for the Bulldogs, who have five remaining, including next Saturday's culminating Garnet and Blue contest which kicks off at 1 p.m.

The Bulldogs return to the field Sunday at 3:30 p.m. for a workout that will focus on correcting some of the issues from Saturday's scrimmage, according to Pough.

--30--