CCU Football Notebook: Chanticleers churning out wins despite quarterback, running back injuries

Many of the Coastal Carolina football coaches and players have never seen or dealt with such a chaotic rash of injuries like the Chanticleers have this season.

A total of 17 different players have rushed the ball for the Chants this season, while eight have played snaps under center. The team also lost starting left tackle Chase Tidwell to injuries in the first quarter of two contests – including last week – and he has also missed a game.

Despite the injury woes, Coastal Carolina has won seven of its nine games, and rushed for more than 200 yards in eight of those contests, including 300-plus in the past two.

“This is my 24^th year of coaching and, in my 24 years, never have I ever been with a team whose offense at quarterback and running back has been decimated as much as ours have been,” Coastal Carolina head football coach Joe Moglia said. “… But, depending on what happens, we’re going to be ready to go; we know that’s our job. But never have I been faced with that. What I’m pleased with is the way we’ve adjusted to that. So, that’s not an excuse; one guy goes down, the next guy has got to be able to step up.”

Most notably, the team’s star running back De’Angelo ‘Hop’ Henderson – the program's all-time leading rusher and scorer – has missed the past three contests after injuring his shoulder during the fourth quarter of Coastal Carolina’s 17-7 win at Gardner-Webb on Oct. 15.

In Henderson’s place the past three games has been senior Kenny Daniels, who has rushed for 100 yards or more in two straight contests. He is now second on the team in rushing this season with 440 yards on 73 attempts (6.0 yards per carry), and has four touchdowns in nine games played.

Henderson participated in practice with no restrictions Tuesday and may be available Saturday, but Moglia is still leaning towards Daniels as his starter in the backfield.

“It looks like right now it’s still going to be Kenny. There’s a possibility [Henderson] is going to be ready to go. If Hop is ready to go then he’ll go, of course; that’s his job. If he’s not ready to go, we won’t risk that and be ready to go with the guys that we got.”

The Chants’ starting quarterback to kick off the 2016 football campaign was sophomore Josh Stilley, who was lost for the season due to a knee injury suffered in Week 3. His expected backup, Chance Thrasher, was ruled out for the year in the preseason due to a shoulder injury. Instead, Stilley’s opening day backup was freshman Avery McCall, who then injured his wrist in the third game against Jacksonville State and was ruled out for the season as well.

Junior Tyler Keane – the Chants’ fifth quarterback to open the year – injured his ankle in the first quarter last week after starting five straight games and is doubtful for Saturday’s contest.

It leaves Coastal Carolina with its fifth and sixth quarterbacks, respectively, in Austin Bradley and Ryan Lee – both of whom are freshmen. Meanwhile, Tyler Chadwick – a member of the Chants baseball team the past four seasons – will also be available at quarterback Saturday and even played a few snaps against Presbyterian two weeks ago.

“Last week when Keane went down, everyone was like, ‘Oh, man. What’s going to happen now?’ But this is what Austin and I have been practicing for,” Lee said. “Everything is going to be fine if we just execute the game plan.”

Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Dave Patenaude has faith that his offense will continue to succeed no matter who is thrown out there. Patenaude also shared his thoughts on the levity of the situation.

“It’s been 25 years of college coaching for me, and I’ve never experienced anything like that,” he said. “You always have a contingency plan, week to week. You always try to get a couple of guys ready to go in case something happens. But, going into the season, we never would’ve anticipated that the guys playing right now would be playing. But we have that ‘next man up’ philosophy, and the guys that have gone in have all played well. They all executed their plans, and I think our offensive coaches have done an incredible job tailoring a package each one of those guys can handle.”

Seeing red

If everything had gone according to plan, players like running back Jah-Maine Martin of Conway and wide receiver Ryan Lee of Columbia would not have seen the field this season.

The Coastal Carolina coaching staff considered giving those players a redshirt season so they would retain four years of eligibility moving forward.

But injuries have made those players more valuable this season, so with two running backs out for the past three games and at least three quarterbacks out for the season, Martin was pressed into service and Lee has been utilized for more than 35 plays at quarterback – a position he played in high school.

“Not really [any pressure]; they really worked me in,” Lee said. “Ever since Avery McCall got hurt, they called me in around halfway through the season, and I didn’t play for two games –they just had me on the practice squad. But when my time was called, I was ready.”

Meanwhile, CCU head coach Joe Moglia explained his theory on redshirt seasons.

“We have [three] games to go. If any of the victories in those games are in the balance I will take the redshirt off of anybody,” Moglia said. “Sometimes my staff gets a little queasy on that, but that’s not acceptable to me. ... To automatically assume you want to redshirt a guy, means if we do that this year that means we think, we have an idea, that’s going to benefit us in 2020. That’s ridiculous.

“Our best guys are going to play. If our guys can help us, I don’t care if they’re freshmen or not.”

The Chants have 31 freshmen on the roster, and five of them have played on offense or defense this season: Martin, Lee, linebacker Laqavious Paul, McCall and defensive end Tarron Jackson. McCall and Jackson may ultimately receive medical redshirt years having played in three and four games, respectively, before being injured and not returning to action.

Turnover trouble

Coastal Carolina’s three fumbles lost last week against Monmouth is the most in head coach Joe Moglia’s five years in charge of the program.

The Chants have lost a program-record four fumbles in a single game on three occasions, and three fumbles another six times. Before Saturday, the last time the team lost at least three fumbles came in October 2011 against Liberty in David Bennett’s final season as head coach.

Coastal Carolina has had 16 fumbles (eight lost) this season, and just three interceptions. Moglia said limiting the team’s amount of turnovers is always a focus, but there may be more emphasis on protecting the ball this week against Bryant, which will be at Brooks Stadium at 2 p.m. Saturday.

“We try to focus on the turnover thing all the time. There’s nobody in our program that doesn’t know that’s a bad thing, and we can’t let that happen,” Moglia said. “We had a conversation about that Sunday; I did with the staff, and I didn’t need to but I did. I had a conversation with the team about this also on Sunday. I think with the team, we really emphasize that, but that’s something we’re always going to be focused on. So, the fact we didn’t do a good job [last Saturday] makes us more aware of that.”

Six former CCU standouts to be honored

Six former Coastal Carolina athletes will be honored at halftime of the Chanticleers' game against Bryant at 2 p.m. Saturday at Brooks Stadium.

However, only four plan to attend the ceremony.

Baseball players Tommy La Stella, Ron Deubel and David Sappelt, as well as women’s golfer Aruca Felgueroso, women's soccer player Blair Monroe and men’s track and field athlete Tyler McCart will be inducted into the Coastal Carolina George F. “Buddy” Sasser Athletics Hall of Fame as members of the Class of 2016.

La Stella indicated early on that he wouldn’t be in attendance, while Sappelt was a late scratch after a midseason trade within the Mexican League. Both are former Chanticleer baseball standouts.

La Stella recently won the World Series as a member of the Chicago Cubs. And while he was on the World Series roster, La Stella failed to reach base in just one postseason at-bat with the team. He spent two seasons as a member of the Coastal Carolina baseball team and was the 2011 Big South Player of the Year before getting drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the eighth round of the 2011 MLB Draft.

Sappelt, meanwhile, has batted .295 with 14 home runs and 61 RBIs in time split between the Campeche Pirates (70 games) and Monterrey Sultans (39 games) this season. He spent three seasons with the Chants and was an All-American twice and Big South Player of the Year once.

Deubel was also a Coastal Carolina baseball standout, playing with the team in 1998 and '99.

Felgueroso played for the Chants women’s golf team for four years (2006-10) and is the first women’s golfer inducted to the Coastal Carolina Sasser Athletics Hall of Fame.

Monroe was a three-time All-Big South women’s soccer player and the 2005 Big South Freshman of the Year as she played four seasons (2005-08) for the Chants.

McCart set and still owns the Coastal record in the hammer throw (62.92 meters) and was voted to the Big South’s All-Decade team for the 90s after four seasons (1997-2000) as a member of the Chants’ men's track and field team.

Other past hall of fame members plan to attend as well, and the football team is honored to have them in attendance for Saturday’s contest.

“It’s really cool, man. It just shows that if we do our hard work and succeed that we can be just like them,” redshirt freshman Austin Bradley said. “It’s gonna be cool having all of them watching us and cheering us on out there Saturday.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2016 at 7:36 PM with the headline "CCU Football Notebook: Chanticleers churning out wins despite quarterback, running back injuries."