Story by Rixon Lane

After capturing their first FCS college football national championship in 2010, the Eastern Washington Eagles have claimed the top spot in The Sport Network’s FCS preseason Top-25 poll. Appalachian State comes in at the number two slot.

William & Mary ranks 3rd, Georgia Southern 4th, and Delaware is ranked 5th. Wofford starts the year with the number eight ranking.

The South Carolina State Bulldogs are ranked 23rd to start the season. Coastal Carolina and Furman landed in the “Others Receiving Votes” category. The Chanticleers received 25 votes, while the Paladins had 10.

AUDIO: Buddy Pough

Coach Pough finds himself in an unfamiliar position.  Long time starting Quarterback, Malcolm Long, for the first time in a long time will not be dawning the red, white and blue uni’s.  Derrick Wiley, who has been patiently waiting his turn to get on the field, will finally get his chance.  Coach Pough will have a tough task trying to put Wiley in a position of success without the MEAC’s leading returning receiver. Jr. Wideout, Lennel Elmore, who was ruled ineligible.

Coach Pough also tells Phil what he expects from his team in the end, and gives his view on where the prognosticators pick the Bulldogs to end up finishing in the conference. 

Tomorrow we refill the Pinto and head to Clinton S.C. to visit with Head Coach Harold Nichols of the Presbyterian Blue Hose.

“It was a good night for us,” said Pough, following the approximately two hour session. “The weather was very cooperative, almost like a cooling trend and I think it made a difference…we took advantage of it.

“I thought we really looked good on offense until right near the end when the defense stepped up and showed some dominance,” he continued. “I think our guys realize the urgency of things, and that it’s important that we work hard against each other so we can all get better.”

Tuesday’s workout, which was conducted in shorts and helmets, included group work , special teams and passing drills. He noted that all three quarterbacks vying to replace three-year starter Malcolm Long, got in a lot of reps during the drills. He thought all threw the ball well, but expressed a little concern with their accuracy.

“I think our quarterbacks understand they have to work hard to get better,” he said. “I’m confident that they will continue to improve and develop more consistency and accuracy in their throws.”

Pough, when reminded of the spat of deaths during football workouts in recent days that included three high school players and a college coach, said the Bulldog sports medicine staff was doing everything possible to make sure the players are monitored carefully.

“It’s scary (those deaths),” Pough said, “But we are being very careful, making sure we have plenty of breaks. We have a great medical staff and our guys appear to be handling the weather conditions well and I hope that we can continue to do so.”

SC State returns to the field Thursday for its third practice, beginning at approximately 7 p.m. The workout will be the first in shoulder pads. SC State will follow the same schedule on Friday, and then conduct its “Media Day” Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m.

Almost 100 players were on hand for Tuesday’s practice, which was conducted in shorts and helmets and concentrated mostly on conditioning.

Pough noted his team appeared to be in reasonable good shape but added that he and his staff considered it a sense of urgency that his players hit the ground running and learn quickly because of the many unknowns for a team that lost 11 starters, among them the Bulldogs’ three-year starting quarterback, three starting offensive linemen and the starting linebacker corps.

The team suffered another blow on Tuesday as Pough reported that redshirt junior wide receiver Lennel Elmore, who led the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in receiving with 48 catches, has been declared ineligible for the 2011 campaign.

“I’m excited about the season but there are so many unknowns on this team,” Pough said. “I don’t have a clue at this point of how we are going to do. I know one thing, we must get ready quickly because we have an early schedule about as tough as we’ve ever faced.

“There are always great expectations here at SC State,” continued Pough. “We want to win our conference and get to the playoffs, but we have to find out early who wants to play and who can help this team. We probably got about 35 new guys between signees and walk-ons and some of them will have to be ready to play.

Pough’s team, which has won or shared the last three MEAC titles and made three consecutive appearance in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, face a challenging start to the 2011 campaign.

The Bulldogs open the season Sept. 1 at Central Michigan, one of two Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams on the schedule, travel to Bethune-Cookman Sept. 10 to take on the Wildcats who snapped SC State’s 21-game MEAC winning streak last year with a 14-0 win at Orangeburg and shared the league title with Pough’s team and Florida A&M, then make a second trip to the Midwest to face a second FBS opponent in Indiana at Bloomington Sept. 17.