2018 College Football Team Previews: South Carolina State Bulldogs
South Carolina State Bulldogs
Location: Orangeburg, South Carolina
Coach: Oliver “Buddy” Pough (120-64)
Stadium: Oliver C. Dawson Stadium (Capacity: 22,000)
CSJ Projections:
6th: MEAC
8th: South Carolina
13th: HBCU
99th: FCS
229th: Division I
2017 In A Sentence: Though still 3-2 at home, a rough 2017 season that didn’t start until mid-September (thanks to hurricanes) saw the Bulldogs go 0-5 outside of Dawson Stadium to suffer a 3-7 campaign.
Biggest Shoes to Fill: Redshirt senior LB Darius Leonard was everything to the Bulldog defense last season, leading the team in tackles (114), tackles for loss (12) and sacks (8 1/2).
Key Player: QB Dewann Ford, Jr. battled through some inconsistency but still led the Bulldog offense for 1,772 yards passing and 8 touchdowns. Ford needs to clean up his game in order for the Bulldogs to get back to the top of the MEAC.
Fearless Prediction: Some tools are there to make a run at the MEAC championship, but they’ll need to win some road games to do it, and their back-to-back games against Georgia Southern and UCF to start the year could be brutal tests. Getting through that gauntlet with a minimum of injuries will be critical.
Chuck has been writing about Lehigh football since the dawn of the internet, or perhaps it only seems like it. He’s executive editor of the College Sports Journal and has also written a book, The Rivalry: How Two Schools Started the Most Played College Football Series.
Reach him at: this email or click below:
