Everything you need to know for Coastal Carolina vs. Central Connecticut State

Last meeting

Inaugural matchup.

Coastal Carolina

Strength: Tough defense.

Weakness: Inexperience, lack of depth at quarterback.

Central Connecticut State

Strength: Passing game.

Weakness: Running game.

Key matchup

Coastal Carolina’s defense vs. Central Connecticut State’s offense: Week after week, the Chanticleers’ defense has stepped up under first-year defensive coordinator Mickey Matthews. The defensive unit hopes to keep improving and is eager to get after it against Central Connecticut State’s offense, which will be pass-heavy.

Players to watch

Coastal Carolina

Senior safety Richie Sampson: Leads the team in tackles (47), has two interceptions and five pass breakups. He will look to lead the Chants’ backfield once again Saturday.

Senior linebacker Alex Scearce: Second on the team in tackles (42) and first in sacks (3.5), Scearce also has two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery, making him always a player to look out for.

Junior quarterback Tyler Keane: Coming off a career game in which he completed 15-of-18 passes (83 percent), good for the third best completion percentage in Coastal Carolina single game history.

Central Connecticut State

Sophomore quarterback Jacob Dolegala: Completing nearly sixty percent of all his passes, Dolegala leads the 37^th ranked passing attack at the FCS level and will likely come out guns blazing Saturday.

Sophomore linebacker Randall Laguerre: He leads the team in tackles with an impressive total of 67 and also has two sacks. To put his numbers in perspective, Kenneth Keen is second in tackles with 44.

He said it

“I’m not going to want him to play this week and I probably won’t let him play this week. We’ve had guys injured that probably could have gone, and all too often they wind up going down if you try to rush them back. … If ‘Hop’ is cleared to go, I have no doubt in my mind he would want to play but I would not jeopardize his health to get him into that game.” – Coastal Carolina head coach Joe Moglia

“Kenny [Daniels] will start at running back and redshirt freshman Ra’Quan Bennett will be right behind him. Both played a good bit [last week] and both of them held their own. If something happens to those guys, we have to be prepared with a simple enough package where we wind up doing some magic tricks. But we’re still in the process of trying to figure that out.” – Moglia

Scouting report

“From an offensive point of view, I’ve looked at a few of their games and when you look at the offense – they struggle a little bit moving the ball on the ground. They really do an excellent job throwing the ball; they have a good passing game. We need to make sure we’re on top of our stuff, mix up what we’re going to show them and that’s a critical part of our game plan going forward.” Moglia

Notes

▪ Chants QB Ryan Lee, who was set to redshirt this season as a wide receiver, was forced to move to quarterback after numerous injuries to CCU quarterbacks. Lee was a quarterback in high school, but projected better as a collegiate receiver … and CCU started the season with three QBs – each of whom could have been CCU’s signal caller for the next three years. Lee saw his first action of the season in what would be called a “wildcat” had he not be listed as a QB. He had four rushes for 10 yards.

▪ With running back Osharmar Abercrombie out and Henderson getting injured, senior Kenneth Daniels saw his most extensive action as a running back. Known more for his punishing hits on kick coverage – leading the squad in special teams tackles each of the last two years – Daniels entered the GWU with 334 rushes for 191 yards but finished Saturday’s game with 75 rushing yards on 12 attempts.

Prediction

Coastal Carolina 42, Central Connecticut State 17. The Blue Devils will have a tough time competing with the Chanticleers even with their injury woes.

This story was originally published October 21, 2016 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Everything you need to know for Coastal Carolina vs. Central Connecticut State."