DATE: Saturday, October 11, 1997            TAG: 9710110498

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: ORANGEBURG, S.C.                  LENGTH:   47 lines

INTANGIBLES FAVOR SPARTANS, BUT THE COACH ISN'T BUYING

Except for the fact that this is a road game for Norfolk State, all the intangible advantages appear to belong to the Spartans in today's game against South Carolina State.

The Spartans are coming off a bye week. In their previous outing, they played by far their best game of the year in throttling Morgan State 48-6.

``We've actually played pretty well the last two games,'' Spartans coach Darnell Moore said. ``We just turned the ball over too much against Delaware State.'' The Spartans committed six turnovers in falling to the Hornets, 24-21.

The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have posted a 4-0 record courtesy of a remarkable string of last-second heroics - an overtime victory, another with 30 seconds remaining, and a third with no time remaining.

South Carolina State coach Willie Jeffries acknowledges that his team probably can't continue pulling games out in this fashion. Nor is he sure he wants them to.

``I don't know if my heart can take much more of this,'' he said.

Despite the Bulldogs' undefeated record, the team has struggled to play solidly on offense and defense in the same game.

The Bulldogs staggered offensively in their first two games but survived thanks to a defense that held then-nationally ranked Furman to just 19 yards of total offense in the first half. The Bulldogs also made two fourth-quarter goal-line stands in that game to preserve a 17-6 victory.

With quarterback Reggie Curry recovered from a hamstring injury, the offense has come alive the last two weeks. Now it's the defense that's having problems. South Carolina State has given up 56 points in its last two games, including two touchdowns in the fourth quarter that allowed Morgan State to force overtime last week.

South Carolina State's home-field advantage should be significant, given that this is the Bulldogs' homecoming game and a crowd of more than 22,000 is expected.

But this game is the Bulldogs' only remaining game with no national or MEAC implications. Despite their record, the Bulldogs do not have a Division I-AA national ranking. A victory over NSU probably wouldn't help in this regard. And, the game doesn't count in the MEAC standings.

All of this bodes well for the Spartans if you believe in the power of intangible benefits. Moore, of course, doesn't buy any of it.

``I can't get caught up in stuff like that,'' he said. ``I just want to take care of what we need to do.''

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