fcs playoff schedule 2009

Inside the locker room of a 7-7 game at halftime with North Carolina A&T, the foreboding words of his mother were on South Carolina State head coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough’s mind.

Earlier in the week, M.T. Pough cautioned her son about letting history repeat itself. It was six years ago when the Bulldogs routed North Carolina A&T 49-9 to hand the Aggies a devastating loss prior to opening play in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

Even with the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship trophy already at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium awaiting presentation from conference president Dennis Thomas, the thought of deja vu in reverse occurring inspired a sense of urgency in Pough as he addressed his team. There was no talk about running back Will Ford closing in on the conference career rushing record or playing host to a first-round home playoff game.

“I just told them that if you don’t go out and play good the second half, that we’re going to get beat and we’re basically going to lose the whole season right here,” Pough said.

S.C. State would take heed of Pough’s words by scoring a season-high 21 points in the second half. In the process of the Bulldogs pulling away for a 28-10 victory over the Aggies, Ford achieved his season-long quest with 23 carries for 156 yards and a touchdown in passing Hampton’s Alonzo Coleman on the MEAC all-time rushing list.

“It’s a blessing,” Ford said. “Until it happened, I was proud of working towards the record. Now that it’s here, it really puts a smile on my face. It gives me something to be thankful for.”

What mattered most for seventh-ranked S.C. State (10-1, 8-0) was finishing the regular season with seven straight wins and a conference-record 19th consecutive victory as it looked to solidify its case for a home game. Despite completing 18-31 passes for 222 touchdowns and adding to his single-season school record for touchdown passes with two touchdowns, both to Charleston native Oliver “Tre” Young, and rushing for another score, quarterback Malcolm Long struggled much of the day with three interceptions.

The first pick came as the Bulldogs appeared headed to starting another game with a first-quarter score. As S.C. State reached the North Carolina A&T 18, Long’s pass was intercepted and returned 48 yards by the Aggies’ Justin Ferrell to the 37-yard line.

North Carolina A&T capitalized off the short field position with a one-yard touchdown run by Tony Coles. The 7-0 lead with 5:42 remaining in the first quarter marked the first time all season the Bulldogs had trailed at home.

The first-quarter anomaly continued as the Bulldogs failed to score in the first quarter for only the second time this season. With 11:27 left in the second quarter, defensive lineman Jayson Ayers picked off Aggie quarterback Lewis Kindle to give the Bulldogs’ offense a scoring opportunity at the 31-yard line.

It took five plays before Long connected with Young for a 12-yard touchdown with 9:03 remaining to tie the game. It was Long’s school-record 19th touchdown pass of the season, but not the end of his first-half struggles. Late in the first half, Long’s pass intended for Terrance Smith was juggled into the hands of North Carolina A&T’s Jeremy Graham.

The Aggies moved the football to the S.C. State 35, but were unable to score as Kindle was sacked on consecutive plays to end the first half. He was sacked seven times by the S.C. State defense, three by LaTaris Douglas.

Nevertheless, it was a “Mother knows best” halftime for Pough.

“Anytime you’ve been warned and you still go out and do what you were told not to do, then it stings even more,” he said. “But what do you do? We couldn’t do much about it at that point. The only thing we could do was try to figure out to put some things together and get some success.”

After a lackadaisical first half, the Bulldogs opened the first 15 seconds of the fashion half in explosive fashion. On the first play from scrimmage at the N.C. A&T 49 following a short kickoff and false start penalty, Young caught a short bubble screen pass from Long and sprinted downfield for the score.

“It was just really all about us not being completely focused coming into the game,” said Young, who had six catches for 123 yards. “After that first half, we came in the locker room and got focused and came out in the second half.”

“We had to come in here and regroup,” Long said. “We were taking them for granted. A&T is a real good football team and we were kind of sleeping on them at first. We had to come in and regroup.”

S.C. State’s next scoring drive took five plays from nearly the same length. This time, it was Ford who broke free for an 18-yard touchdown with 10:20 remaining in the third quarter to extend the Bulldogs’ lead to 21-7.

The Aggies once again forced another interception by Long off a deflected pass. Nick Clement came down with the pick at the S.C. State 33 and Aggie wide receiver Wallace Miles, who also handles placekicking duties, sent the 39-yard field goal just over the crossbar to make it 21-10 entering the fourth quarter.

As the Bulldogs moved deep into North Carolina A&T territory, Young helped put the Bulldogs in position to add to their lead. As Long’s pass floated towards Young, it was slightly tipped by an Aggie defender, Young managed to stretch out his arm to make the one-handed snag of the football while keeping his feet inbounds at the one-yard line.

Long plunged into the end zone on the next play to increase S.C. State’s lead. After a slow first half, Ford managed to work his way into position of moving into a tie with Hampton’s Coleman.

With 1:32 remaining, Ford picked up only two yards on a fourth and two at the North Carolina A&T 29. However, it was enough to earn the Travelers Rest native sole possession of the MEAC rushing record.

As the clock reached zero, the Bulldogs began to don their MEAC Championship shirts and gathered at midfield as Thomas presented S.C. State President George Cooper, Athletics Director Charlene Johnson and Pough the 2009 regular-season title trophy.

As proud as Pough was to hoist his third MEAC championship to the crowd of 12,936 fans, he quickly turned his focus to the FCS playoffs.

“I was real excited about the fact that we won the conference last week,” he said. “That’s not what we’re after right now, guys. To be perfectly honest with you, we are all about trying to go further and that’s a tough sell sometimes to yourself because you know you really need to be more satisfied with just accomplishing the goals that we’ve accomplished. But we’re all in on this national championship thing deal now and if it comes short, then I feel like we’re failures.”

Bulldog Bites

Saturday’s attendance gave the Bulldogs a school-record regular-season average of 17,023 … S.C. State improved to 62-6 when leading or tied at halftime. The Bulldogs are now 25-4 in the month of November under Pough … Ford surpassed 1,000 yards for the third time in his career … North Carolina A&T has held to 58 rushing yards and 118 passing yards … Prior to the game, 21 seniors were recognized by the school … The Aggies’ Quay Long led all tacklers with 8, while David Erby had seven tackles for S.C. State … This was the ninth consecutive victory by S.C. State over North Carolina A&T and Pough improved to 8-0 against the Aggies … The S.C. State players will gather at The State Room in the Andrew Hugine Suites to watch the FCS playoff brackets released on ESPNews (Channel 147 on Digital Time Warner Cable, Channel 800 on The Dish Network and 207 for DirecTV.)
Source:thetandd.com