ORANGEBURG, SC – SC State Thursday held the first of staggered two-a-drills with a 6:50 a.m. practice and a 7:30 evening workout that was shorten by threatening weather and some high-spirited action of some players, according to Coach Buddy Pough.

Pough called the morning workout, which was conducted in full pads, a pretty good, long session in which his team got a good bit of work done. The practice was as close to live action the Bulldogs have experienced thus far, Pough noted.

“We did a lot of team-style type drills,” said Pough. “We placed a lot of emphasis on shortage yardage and goal line offense, an area which caused us some problems last year and one which we have to improve in this year.”

The shortened evening session, which was conducted in shells, also featured some team-style drills and attention to special teams.

“We rushed a bit in our evening practice because we wanted to get ahead of the weather,” Pough said. “And, we finally cut it short after the rain started and we had some high-spirited action among some of the players.

Pough noted that his team was making progress but had a great deal of work left in order to become a good, cohesive unit. He said the goal over the next few practices was to develop a defense that could stop the run and identify those offensive players that would be used in the team's actual rotation this fall.

He expressed some concern about an injury to leading placekicker and punter Nick Belcher, who had his right leg (kicking leg) wrapped near the end of the drill.

“Belcher's injury is a bit of a concern to us,” Pough said. “It appeared he may have banged his knee. It's of concern because we appeared to have two good kickers (in Belcher and Will Roper), however, it looked like we only had one good punter (Belcher).”
The Bulldogs return to the field Friday morning for a 9 a.m. practice in full pads.
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