MEAC Foes Want Piece of Hampton

[TexasTerror]

Everyone wants a piece of Hampton this year. No doubt about it, they are the favorites to do what they've done in the MEAC the last two years. I'm very much looking forward to the 'all or nothing' game that the SC St-Hampton game has become the last two years. Can year three signal a change of fortune for the Bulldogs?

MEAC foes want a piece of HU
Opponents say Pirates are the team to beat and the team they most want to beat.
MARTY O'BRIEN
Daily Press

VIRGINIA BEACH -- Polls be darned, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference football players and coaches are virtually unanimous in their belief that Hampton University can be beaten. But none are quarreling with the Pirates' designation as consensus preseason favorite.

"It's like boxing," South Carolina State coach Buddy Pough said Friday, during MEAC Media Day. "You have to dethrone the champion on the field."

Pough is painfully familiar with the consequences of failing to do so. His Bulldogs' only two MEAC losses the past two seasons were to the Pirates, who earned the league's automatic berth into the Division I-AA playoffs. Pough's Bulldogs missed the playoffs despite consecutive 9-2 marks.

http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-meac72806,0,5052676.story?coll=dp-sports-local

[blukeys]

I'm not shocked. This is not a Man bites dog story.

[MACHIAVELLI]

The ICON will provide the blue print.

[RabidRabbit]

The ICON will provide the blue print.

This match-up between the two HBCU conferences' top programs is a major factor in measuring the strengths of each CONFERENCE for the up coming season. GREAT WEEK ONE BATTLE!

This rabbit will be following this one closely for voting!

[TexasTerror]

Pough's definitely not satisfied and here's another article about the team that has come in second in the MEAC to Hampton the last two years...

SCSU's Pough says second not good enough

By SPECIAL TO THE T&D
Saturday, July 29, 2006

VIRGINIA BEACH -- South Carolina State University head football coach Oliver "Buddy" Pough said the 9-2 seasons his team compiled each of the last two years may have looked good on paper, but the second-place finish behind Hampton in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference both times left a bitter taste in the Bulldogs' mouths.

"We were very disappointed that we finished second each of the last two seasons," Pough said during the MEAC annual football press luncheon. "We have to do better this year and that means winning the title. Being number two each of the last two seasons was just not good enough."

The prospects for his team this season appear to be very strong, said Pough, who has lost two conference games in as many years, both to Hampton -- losses that kept S.C. State on the sideline during the playoffs.

http://www.timesanddemocrat.com/articles/2006/07/29/sports/doc44cabf1d63337554021646.txt