Like Yogi Berra once said: "It's déjà vu all over again."

South Carolina State's football team finds itself coming off a 20-14 loss to Florida A&M Saturday. The loss dropped the Bulldogs to 1-4 on the season.

"Our guys don't have a great attitude, right now," SC State head coach Buddy Pough said Monday in his weekly press conference. "The fact that we've been here before is a tremendous help. We can do what we did last year, and they understand that."

After last year's loss to the Rattlers, SC State won five of its last six games including all five Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference matchups and advanced to the Celebration Bowl.

"There's no reason why we can't win out, but we have to win a game first," Pough said.

South Carolina State will welcome Virginia University Lynchburg to Orangeburg Saturday for its annual Homecoming game. VUL is currently winless on the season after falling to Savannah State Saturday 28-14.
"(Lynchburg) gave Savannah State all they could handle this past week," Pough said. "They are steadily improving, and we're going to have our work cut out for us."

Pough is still looking for answers on offense after his team was shut out the first three quarters against FAMU Saturday. The passing game showed signs of life in the fourth quarter as Corey Fields Jr. threw two touchdown passes to Shaquan Davis.

The Bulldogs had a chance to tie the game late, but an incompletion forced a turnover on downs allowing the Rattlers to run out the clock.

"We had our opportunities," Pough said. "We had the ball twice after getting within one score. That might be the most disappointing part of the day, we had this great story ready to be written and couldn't finish."

With the comeback, Pough hopes it created a spark that his offense will be able to carry over into this week's Homecoming matchup.

"I feel like there's a scenario where we can get ourselves going," Pough said. "But, I'm telling (this team) we have to figure out how to run the football some. We have to build some consistency with what we're doing on offense. We don't get enough big plays in the run game. We'll get four, five or six yards…but what we need is some 15 and 20 yard runs. We're not getting those and it's discouraging."

The Bulldogs rushed for 24 yards on 20 carries against the Rattlers Saturday. Virginia University Lynchburg is currently giving up 173 yards per game rushing to opponents this season including 272 yards to North Carolina Central.