S.C. State coach prepares team for Gamecocks

ORANGEBURG

When your coaching existence is founded around order, a little upheaval tests your resolve and maybe reveals a little of your character. Buddy Pough was not fazed in the least by the unexpected happenings 10 minutes before the start of his 2:50 p.m. practice on Tuesday.

As he descended the steps from his second-floor office and walked out the back door of Rowe Hall, Pough quickly noticed his golf cart was missing. He would have to walk 300 yards to the practice fields and do so having been informed that his shirt was on backward.

Pough generally drags one leg when he walks, the result of having one hip replaced this spring. The other is to be replaced on Dec. 13. He recognized the unplanned exercise was probably good for him and might help shed some calories from the six pack of soft drinks he already had drank that day.

When told the Stars and Stripes outside Dawson Stadium was not flying at half-staff as all others on the South Carolina State campus were in honor of 9/11, Pough did not blink. He figured he had a couple of minutes to spare, only to find that the flag was tied too high from the ground.

As he turned to head toward the practice fields, an S.C. State fan drove by, opened his car window and shouted, "Hey, coach, I've got my mortgage riding on Saturday's game."

The fan drove on, and Pough laughed.

"Well, you might be living on the street, buddy."

Life is different for the S.C. State football coach this week. Never before has his school played against South Carolina. Never before has the program received this much media attention. Heck, for Pough's Monday morning news conference, there were three print journalists — instead of the usual one — on hand.

Never before has Pough been inundated with ticket requests like he has been this week. He received 10 complimentary tickets from the athletics department and purchased 16 more for distribution to friends. For this game, Pough says he has taken about 50 requests, some coming from folks he has not heard from in years.

None of the attention, or the distractions, seems to change Buddy Pough, who punctuates just about every statement with a hearty laugh. By midday on Tuesday, his shoes were off and his stocking feet were resting on his desk in room 213 of Rowe Hall.

"Not because I want to," Pough says, and laughs, when recalling that he awoke that morning at 4:30, fresh off his usual 5½ hours of sleep. At 15 minutes past 5, Pough and his wife, Josie, were off on a 50-minute walk around their Orangeburg Country Club neighborhood.

By 7, Pough was in his office. That's the precise time his assistant coaches meet with players. Since he does not coach a position, Pough is free for the first 90 minutes of his work day to take care of housekeeping matters.

On this day, he took off to see his mother in Orangeburg across town. Pough brags that he gained his interest in athletics and in coaching from his mother, Marjarie, who was an outstanding basketball player and coach in Orangeburg. He delivered her peaches, beans and okra, gifts from a generous Johns Island booster who occasionally drops a fruit and vegetable basket at Pough's office.

"Sometimes I feel like the team doctor," Pough says with a laugh. "They pay me with whatever they have."

By 8:30 sharp, Pough was leading his coaching staff meeting. The agenda on Tuesdays is to set the practice schedule. Classes and labs sometimes play havoc with the schedule, and for that afternoon's workout a kicking session had to be moved from the beginning to the end of practice because a kicker's class ran into the start of practice.

That was an excused tardiness. Few others are for Pough, who says: "I'm on time. My time is always right. I can't be late." He does not laugh about promptness.

Jonathan Pry, an assistant who coaches quarterbacks and running backs, logs all tardiness on his yearlong discipline chart. Pough has a point system for his players. One tardiness, even by one minute, equals one point. Two points and a player misses the first quarter of the next game. Five points and he is sidelined for an entire game.

At 9, the coaches broke into offensive and defensive meetings. Pough always sits in on the offense meeting, this time as coaches watched videotape of USC's game a season ago against Florida. The staff attempted to determine USC's defensive personnel for different alignments to see if it could detect tendencies in play calling.

At 10:42, Pough participated in the weekly media teleconference with Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference coaches. Then, in quick succession, he conducted an interview by telephone with a member of the print media, a radio interview in his office and a television interview outside the building.

"Things are so chaotic around here, we can't afford to go out," Pough says of box lunches that are delivered from the school cafeteria to the coaching staff Tuesday through Thursday.

Before you knew it, Pough had changed clothes and headed to practice on a day when he invited former coach Willie Jeffries to speak to his team.

"Being that this is one of the biggest weeks we've had here in a long, long time, I thought I'd bring in a gentleman to talk to you," Pough says to his team. "This guy is probably the best coach who has ever coached here and is the face of the program. This game means a lot to him and to S.C. State fans."

Jeffries kept his comments brief.

"I'm not worried about the USC Gamecocks," he said. "The team I'm worried about is this one, and how this team plays. Good luck, be prepared, know your assignments and we'll be fine."

Jeffries then gathered the team and broke the huddle with a chant from his 19 years of coaching at the school: "One, two, three, win!"

Pough recognizes his team is not talented enough to defeat USC, but that does not mean it can't be well-prepared and well-coached. For the staff, that means working through supper every night. Pough usually pays for pizza and subs, and his staff eats while grading every player from Tuesday's practice and studying more videotape of USC.

By 10 p.m., Pough was headed home. By 11, he was in bed. He says he will not lose a lot of sleep over the prospect of facing a nationally ranked opponent on Saturday. Heck, when you awaken less than six hours later, there's not that much to lose, anyway.

Listen to commentaries by Ron Morris weekdays at 8:05 a.m., 2:05 p.m. and 5:58 p.m. on sports radio 1400 The Team.

Buddy Pough bio

Family: wife, Josie; sons Lee and Oliver III

College: S.C. State, earning Bachelors and Masters degrees; played offensive line for the Bulldogs

Coaching career: Assistant coach at Orangeburg-Wilkinson; assistant coach at S.C. State; head coach at Keenan and Fairfield-Central high schools; assistant coach at USC; named head coach at S.C. State in 2002.

Record at S.C. State:

7-5 8-4 9-2 9-2 7-4 1-1Total 41-18