How a loss to Western Illinois proves Coastal Carolina has long way to go as FBS team

Coastal Carolina has gone from the hunter to the hunted this season with its move to the Football Bowl Subdivision, and the Chanticleers were easy game Saturday night at Brooks Stadium.

Coastal became a trophy kill for Western Illinois, a Football Championship Subdivision program that manhandled the Chants in a 52-10 rout.

The result shows Coastal (1-2) has a long, long way to go on its way to becoming a competitive team at the FBS level.

The Chants were outgained 510-307, and the margin of defeat matches the second most to an FCS opponent in Coastal history, behind only a 45-point loss to Liberty in 2009 and matching a 42-point loss to Stony Brook in 2011. It is Coastal’s worst home loss in the program’s 15 seasons.

“This was probably one of the worst nights that we’ve ever had in our program, and that’s on me,” said CCU interim head coach Jamey Chadwell. “I take full responsibility for that. I didn’t have our team ready to go and ready to play.”

Western Illinois (3-0), ranked in the top 21 in two primary national FCS polls, earned an FBS win for the second consecutive year after defeating Northern Illinois last year, which was its first win over an FBS opponent since 2003. The Leathernecks are Coastal’s lone FCS opponent this season.

Coastal had split its previous two meetings with Western Illinois, losing 17-10 in 2010 and scoring late for a 34-27 win as the top-ranked FCS team in the nation in 2015.

Western Illinois scored the game’s final 45 points Saturday night.

“It seemed like once they got ahead there we lost our will to compete a little bit,” Chadwell said. “Maybe I’m wrong on that, so I hope I am. I’ve got to watch the video. It could have just been how some of that was going. But no matter what happens we’ve got to keep fighting. No matter if we’re getting drilled, which we did.

“… When you play as bad as we did, and the mission that we have is to give 100 percent effort and put a team out there that Coastal can be proud of, we didn’t do that tonight. That’s what’s disappointing more than anything, so that’s the thing we have to get corrected.”

Most statistics in the game reflect Western Illinois’ dominance.

Coastal committed four turnovers, including three interceptions for the second consecutive game, without forcing one, and the Leathernecks had 11 tackles for losses, including four sacks. Western Illinois held a rushing advantage of 225-170, passing advantage of 285-137 and time of possession edge by more than six minutes.

“They took it to us,” Chadwell said.

The Chants used four quarterbacks in the loss, and none were particularly effective.

Senior Tyler Keane started and completed 6 of 11 passes for 85 yards without an interception but was sacked three times in less than a half of play. Grad student Dalton Demos was 0-for-2 passing with an interception and lost a yard on three carries.

Sophomores Austin Bradley and Chance Thrasher played in the second half. Bradley lost 8 yards on four carries and Thrasher completed 5 of 10 passes for 52 yards and gained 22 yards on three carries, but threw two interceptions.

“Right now with what we have going forward, I think Tyler still gives us the best chance to at least try to move the ball consistently if we can make some things happen,” Chadwell said. “But tonight I don’t know if it would have mattered who we had in there. When we dropped back to pass we struggled with pass protection, we struggled with some basic things. … We’re still a work in progress and I’m trying to make the most of it.”

Evan Rabon made a 52-yard field goal to open the scoring for CCU in the first quarter and Western Illinois answered with a 9-yard reverse pass from wide receiver Isaiah Lesure to quarterback Sean McGuire that was well-covered by CCU.

Linebacker Silas Kelly got his hand on the pass and deflected it higher into the air, but McGuire was still able to make the reception in the end zone just inside the left sideline.

Coastal regained the lead on a 24-yard TD run by redshirt freshman Alex James of Florence that was preceded by a 43-yard Marcus Outlow run through a large hole up the middle.

But the Chants wouldn’t score again.

Western Illinois regained the lead midway through the second quarter on a 19-yard McGuire TD pass to Brandon Gaston.

Western Illinois got creative on its third touchdown drive late in the second quarter. It included a nifty inside shovel pass to tight end Adam Conrady after a fake option run that gained 57 yards and was followed by a 14-yard reverse run by receiver Steve McShane to the 1, where Max Norris scored on a run.

The Leathernecks opened the second half with an eight-play, 65-yard touchdown drive capped by a McShane 2-yard run. An interception three plays later led to a 10-yard Conrady TD reception to give the Leathernecks a 35-10 lead. Western Illinois would score three more times in the final 15:10, including an 80-yard touchdown run with 6 minutes remaining by backup running back Devon Sanders to cap the scoring.

“We didn’t play great in the first half but you feel like you’re in the game and then it just snowballed there in the third quarter with penalties and some turnovers and got out of control and got out of hand, and no matter what we did we couldn’t stop it,” Chadwell said.

Coastal now begins Sun Belt Conference play next Saturday at Louisiana-Monroe.

“We don’t have a choice, we have to [respond], we’ve got eight or nine games left,” Keane said. “We’ve got to bounce back. We’ve got to have a good week of practice this week, prepare for UL-Monroe and go down there and turn some heads.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2017 at 9:50 PM with the headline "How a loss to Western Illinois proves Coastal Carolina has long way to go as FBS team."