ORANGEBURG, SC – South Carolina State, Saturday, in a dress rehearsal for its Sept. 4 opener at Georgia Tech, conducted its final preseason scrimmage. The Bulldogs dressed in shells (shorts, helmets and shoulder pads) for the approximately two-hour workout in which the first team earned a 19-2 win over the reserves.

“We accomplished most of what we set out to do,” said SC State head coach Buddy Pough after the scrimmage. “It was our goal to come as close as possible to simulating game conditions to get a feel of how it's going to be next week against Georgia Tech.

“It was a dress rehearsal and we wanted to test our skills at the highest level as we worked on all of those abstract types of things that could occur in a game,” he continued. “We set our scrimmage at the time of day as next Saturday's game so as to get use to the conditions we will face. It's tough to deal with the elements (weather) this early in the year.”

Pough called next Saturday's game against the Yellow Jackets, the defending Atlantic Coast Conference Champions, an awesome challenge for his team.

“This team (Ga. Tech) is great in just about every aspect and it will be a tremendous challenge for our team. We have to play good on offense in order to have any kind of success. All of the teams that have had any success against them have been able to keep the football away their offense. We also have to be real sound on defense. They have some outstanding offensive players whom they will isolate a lot and we must be solid fundamentally on defense.”

SC State begins its in-season practice schedule Sunday with a light afternoon drill, beginning at 5 p.m.  The Bulldogs will take Monday off, which is customary for Pough's team and return to the practice field Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.

NOTE: Coach Pough will begin his weekly news conference Monday (Aug. 30) at 9 a.m. in the Rowe Hall Conference Room. For more information, call Sports Information Director Bill Hamilton (803-378-6165) or Asst. SID Kendrick Lewis (803-378-3715).

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