Breaking down the game

•  Series | Coastal Carolina leads 7-2

•  Weather | 57 degrees and mostly sunny

Key number: 12.3

VMI ranks last in the Big South Conference in scoring at 12.3 points per game and last in total offense at 278.5 yards per game. The Keydets haven’t scored more than 17 points in FCS competition this season and will likely have trouble keeping pace with a Coastal Carolina team averaging 26 points per game.

Key matchup

The ground attack has been the weak link of Coastal’s offense the last couple seasons, but the Chanticleers are coming off a season-best 201-yard rushing performance from last week. It was especially impressive coming against a stout Stony Brook defense, and maybe just maybe the Chants have turned the corner in this department. VMI offers another opportunity for big gains on the ground, so consider it a favorable gauge to see if Coastal can replicate that performance. The Keydets let Charleston Southern rumble for 307 rushing yards last week and yielded 403 rushing yards a couple weeks earlier to FBS foe Navy. For what it’s worth, the Chants are 39-5 all time when rushing for at least 200 yards.

Quarterback

Aramis Hillary is having a terrific senior season while ranking 16th among FCS players in total offense (281.0 yards per game) and leading the Big South with 1,543 passing yards to go with a solid 10-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Hillary has gone 140 passing attempts without an interception dating back to the third game. … On the other side, junior Eric Kordenbrock may be a veteran of VMI’s system now, but he has been erratic this season while throwing for three touchdowns and eight interceptions and completing 54.1 percent of his passes for 1,045 yards (174.2 per game).

•  Edge | Coastal Carolina

Running back

At this point, it looks like the Chants will roll with a three-headed ground attack led by senior Jeremy Height (363 yards, five touchdowns). Junior Lorenzo Taliaferro (197 yards in 44 attempts) and junior Travis Small (32 yards in seven carries last week in his season debut) both offer different skill sets and give the Chants nice depth here. … VMI, on the other hand, has struggled on the ground this fall, ranking sixth out of seven Big South teams in rushing at 95.3 yards per game. Sophomore Jabari Turner leads the Keydets with 296 yards on 3.8 per carry.

•  Edge | Coastal Carolina

Wide receiver/tight end

Coastal junior Matt Hazel is among the Big South leaders in receptions (second with 55) and receiving yards (third with 422) while junior DeMario Bennett (29 catches for 342 yards) and junior slot threat Niccolo Mastromatteo (23-232) have also been steadily productive. … James Rogers, a 5-foot-11 sophomore, leads VMI with 19 catches (155 yards), while 6-foot-3 senior Aaron Lewis tops the team with 204 receiving yards.

•  Edge | Coastal Carolina

Offensive line

The VMI offensive line has kept Kordenbrock pretty clean this season, allowing eight sacks through six games, but the Keydets aren’t getting much push up front while averaging a paltry 3.1 yards per rushing attempt. It’s a young unit with sophomore Emmanuel Cooper starting at left tackle, redshirt-freshman Nate Murray at right guard and third-year sophomore Andy Marcotte at right tackle. … Coastal has been blessed with good health up front while starting the same five offensive linemen – led by senior center Pat Williams – each game. And maybe the Chants figured out a thing or two over their bye week to explain their rushing outbreak last week. If they can create those same kind of holes and replicate that performance, this becomes an even more potent offense.

•  Edge | Coastal Carolina

Defensive line

VMI operates out of a 3-4 look and has gotten moderate production from senior linemen Shawn Chapman (3 tackles for loss) and Charlie Jones (4.5 tackles for loss). Coastal, meanwhile, continues to struggle against the run – albeit while facing some of the better rushing attacks in the FCS – and ranks next-to-last in the Big South in rush defense (217.7 yards per game). Additionally, the pass rush has been quiet for the Chants with seven sacks through six games.

•  Edge | VMI

Linebacker

Coastal sophomore Quinn Backus enters the week second in the Big South with 11 tackles per game, while junior teammate Mike McClure ranks fourth at 8.3 per game. … VMI starts three redshirt-sophomores and a fourth-year junior at linebacker and all four rank in the top-13 among Big South players in total tackles. But the unit has been far from smothering.

•  Edge | Coastal Carolina

Secondary

Statistically speaking, VMI boasts the second-best pass defense in the Big South while holding teams to 186.2 yards per game through the air. But those stats are a bit skewed. For instance, Charleston Southern threw the ball only seven times (with six completions for 139 yards) against the Keydets last week. Navy also had its way with VMI on the ground and attempted only 14 passes for 107 yards. That said, junior free safety Adam Morgan is a solid player and has two interceptions. And interestingly enough, sophomore cornerback James Fruehan leads the team with 45 tackles. … Coastal remains a work in progress in the secondary with true freshman Richie Sampson taking over as the starting free safety junior Philip George moving from safety to cornerback – another sign the coaches are not satisfied with the personnel there.

•  Edge | Push

Special teams

Sophomore Alex Catron had a regrettable miss last week from 25 yards, but he’s nonetheless 6-of-8 on field goals this season and has shown plenty of poise for the Chants. Senior Tre Henderson needs 14 yards to become Coastal’s all-time leader in kickoff return yardage. And sophomore punter Austin Cain has been steady, averaging 39.0 yards per attempt. … Senior Jeff Sexton is just 4-of-8 on field goal tries for VMI this season and 2-of-6 on attempts of at least 30 yards. Junior David Eberhardt has been solid as the Keydets’ punter, though, averaging 39.3 yards per attempt with eight inside the 20-yard line.

•  Edge | Coastal Carolina

Intangibles

While the teams have comparable records, their paths to this point have been starkly different. Coastal has played three ranked FCS teams and a FBS opponent in its last four games – all losses – and has faced the 14th-toughest schedule in the FCS as calculated by WarrenNolan.com. The Chants are one of nine teams to have played three ranked FCS opponents so far and were in contention until the end last weekend against No. 11 Stony Brook (a 27-21 loss). VMI, meanwhile, is coming off a 32-14 road loss to a Charleston Southern team that went winless last season.

•  Edge | Coastal Carolina

Pick

Coastal Carolina, 34-7

News and Notes

Height expected to play

After playing one of his better games of the season last week against Stony Brook with 89 rushing yards and two scores, Height was held out of practice earlier in the week while having trouble putting pressure on his foot.

But he returned to a full workout Wednesday and is expected to be good to go Saturday.

“He should be OK as far as Saturday goes. The fact that he could go [Wednesday], he should be fine,” CCU head coach Joe Moglia said.

Davis set to return

The Chants should get at least a boost of depth at defensive end as senior Jamel Davis is expected to return from a knee injury this week.

Davis had only seven tackles and none behind the line of scrimmage through three games before his injury, but he is a veteran starter who has had big games in the past for Coastal.

“We’re going to have to limit him in terms of the number of snaps for a couple reasons – he’s going to be a little rusty and, secondly, a mistake sometimes when you bring a guy back is just the stress of an entire game,” Moglia said. “But I think he’s ready to take some snaps.”

Recent history

In addition to owning a commanding 7-2 lead in the all-time series with VMI, Coastal has dominated the last three meetings while winning each by at least 14 points and the last two by lopsided margins of 31-3 and 34-10.

More thoughts on VMI

Asked what stands out most to him about the Keydets, Moglia talked about the team’s discipline. As he stated in his weekly news conference, he knows this is a game the Chants should win, but he reiterated later in the week that he has great respect for the way VMI plays.

“They’re a character team, they really are,” he said. “They never give up, they know what they’re doing, they’re always hitting to the whistle. You know, we’re always talking about putting a team on the field that our school’s going to be proud of – I think they wind up doing that. Every film we looked at, regardless of what was going on with the score, they’re going after you all the time. And when you’re playing a team like that, literally anything can happen because they’re never going to give up.”

By Ryan Young, ryoung@thesunnews.com