By Roscoe Nance
The record book now says Oliver “Buddy” Pough is No. 1 on the South Carolina State all-time winning list for Bulldogs football with 130 victories.
But the way Pough sees it, Willie Jeffries – his former coach and boss, mentor, advisor and friend – will always be the top dog, regardless of what the numbers say.
“Nobody will ever pass Coach Jeffries,” Pough said. “You know that. He’s so special to all of us, not only at South Carolina State, but all around the country. Everybody will always think of him when they think of South Carolina State football.”
That’s not false modesty on Pough’s part. Jeffries is beloved throughout college football and has earned a place in history. He became the first black coach to lead at Division I-A (now FBS) program when he became head coach at Wichita State in 1979. He is enshrined in seven halls of fame (including the MEAC Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame), and he guided the Bulldogs to six MEAC championships while winning 128 games in two stints at the helm (1973-78 and 1989-2001).
Pough, 66, says he owes much of what he has accomplished as a coach to Jeffries.
“I don’t know if he’s been more of a mentor or a father figure for me,” Pough said. “It’s been two-thirds of my life that I’ve been associated with him in some shape, form or fashion. There has not been a move that I made in my coaching career or a decision that I made that was real important that he hasn’t had a hand in.”
The best advice Jeffries has given him?
“You got to do it your way,” Pough, who now sits at 130 wins after this past Saturday’s triumph over Bethune-Cookman, said. “You got to be yourself. You’re gong to take a lot of ideas from the people you played for or worked with or had some kind of association with. But you got to do it the way you got to do it.”
That advice held Pough in good stead recently as the Bulldogs hit a rough patch while suffering through three consecutive losing seasons. Calls for him to step down or be fired were rampant. There were reports that 2018 would be his last season, and Pough says he seriously considered calling it a career last year.
But his love for what he was doing, being so close to breaking Jeffries’ record and knowing what that would mean to those close to him led him to return.
The Bulldogs’ strong finish in 2018 – they ended the season winning four of their final five games – with a core group of young players made it a no-brainer for him.
Pough, an offensive lineman for Jeffries and later an assistant coach on his staff, has compiled an enviable record of his own. He has led the Bulldogs to five MEAC crowns, four FCS playoff appearances and two Black College National Championships during his 18-year tenure.
“It was a long time coming,” Pough said of the milestone victory. “I thought it would have come sooner.”
That said, Pough pretty is much taking the milestone in stride. After the Bulldogs had dominated Morgan State 24-10 to make him No. 1, team members lifted him on their shoulders and carried him several yards from the sidelines before he told them to put him down so he could shake hands with opposing first-year coach Tyrone Wheatley and accept his congratulations.
Next, Pough and the Bulldogs headed to the band section of Willie Jeffries Field, where the Marching 101 played the alma mater. Finally, Pough made his way to midfield, where a stage was set up and Jeffries and school officials presented Pough with the game ball and a plaque.
He was clearly touched by the moment and the show of affection, but for the record, he said, “It’s kind of a non-issue sort of deal with us. It was a bigger deal for my friends and that kind of stuff.”
For Pough, what was most meaningful about the win was it kept them in the race for the MEAC championship. The Bulldogs (5-2, 3-1 MEAC) are battling Bethune-Cookman and two-time defending Black College National Champion and MEAC champion North Carolina A&T State for the crown. Bethune-Cookman was unbeaten in conference play before the Bulldogs took care of them; North Carolina A&T State, like the Bulldogs, has one conference defeat as the two teams square off in Orangeburg, S.C. this Saturday.
The path to the title and a berth in the Celebration Bowl against the SWAC champion in December for all three is simple. Win out and the title is theirs. But head-to-head match-ups will tell much of the tale, making for an interesting run to the finish.
“I was hoping we’d be in this position,” Pough said. “You’re confident in the fact that you can play with most of the people in our league. You got to believe there’s going to be a little bit of give and take as the season goes on.”
Pough made an auspicious debut at South Carolina State in 2002, when the Bulldogs handed him a 26-20 overtime win against Tennessee State to open the season. It was the first of many impressive victories. When asked about his maiden win, Pough had a difficult time remembering the details about it and the rest of his wins as well.
“They’re all kind of the same,” he said. “The games that we lost are the ones I remember.”
The memory of the Bulldogs’ 9-6 loss to North Carolina A&T State still haunts Pough like a bad dream come to life. South Carolina State’s defense dominated the Aggies, holding them to 145 yards total offense and limiting star running back Tarik Cohen to just 58 yards on 22 carries.
The Bulldogs were nursing a 6-2 lead in the fourth quarter, thanks to a pair of field goals, when disaster struck. South Carolina State went into punt formation on 4th-and-6 at the Aggies’ 36. But instead of kicking, the Bulldogs ran a fake punt and threw the ball instead of executing the pooch kick that was supposed to have been called.
The Aggies intercepted the ball and returned it to South Carolina State’s 31 with 2:52 remaining in the game. They scored the only touchdown of the game with 1:39 left.
Hello, heartbreak.
“They couldn’t have scored against us in a hundred years,” Pough said, reliving the moment as if it were yesterday.
The loss cost the Bulldogs a share of the conference championship and ended a run of six crowns in 11 seasons.
Pough’s 18-year run at South Carolina State makes him the longest-tenured active black college football coach. He is hard-pressed to explain his longevity.
‘Stupidity, stick-to-it-iveness, needing a job?” he said. “How about liking where you are? I got no answer. Enjoying yourself? I don’t have a day that I don’t want to come to work. I’ve been driven by the opportunity to come and do what I do every day. They keep letting me come, and I keep coming. So I’m still working.”
Only Benedict’s Mike White, who previously coached 14 seasons at Albany State, has more head coaching experience with 19 years on the sidelines.
Pough says he hasn’t given any thought to how much longer he will continue coaching. Those numbers seem to have caught him unaware of just how long he has been at it.
“Maybe I need to go ahead and go to the house,” he said. “As long as you don’t give a man an idea about doing something, he might not come up with it on his own. But that’s not what I come to work for, thinking, about going home. But I tell you what. If I don’t win a couple games in these next few, I won’t be back.”