CCU Football Notebook: Thursday night game vs. Liberty to be broadcast on ESPNews

Coastal Carolina’s first-ever Thursday night home game will be available to a national television audience.

The Chanticleers’ 7 p.m. game against Liberty at Brooks Stadium will be broadcast live on ESPNews.

“I think the national stage is nice. I think everyone gets excited for something like that,” Chants head coach Joe Moglia said. “In the evening, standing room only, national TV – it’s more exciting, it’s more drama, it’s more fun.”

Moglia said CCU contracted to play at Liberty in last year’s regular-season finale on a Thursday night for an ESPNews broadcast with a non-binding agreement that CCU would host Liberty this year for a game on the ESPN family of networks. “I have a lot of respect for ESPN having lived up to that bargain,” Moglia said.

It was confirmed this week that it would be ESPNews. Shawn Kenney will do play-by-play and former New York Jets and Virginia Cavaliers coach Al Groh will provide color analysis.

Moglia is optimistic the program and school will benefit from the exposure.

“Whatever we would have gotten on the Big South Network, to whatever we’re going to get going to the Sun Belt, to ESPN, I’ve got to believe we’re going to get 10 times the amount of exposure that we would have,” Moglia said. “What we did on election day, what we did in certainly the College World Series … that can only be a plus. It’s only a good thing to get national exposure as opposed to regional exposure.

“Most people now know who Coastal Carolina is, but to get our name in front of people when you see [the Chants] on TV or in the middle of competition is always a good thing.”

Keane may start

Junior quarterback Tyler Keane of Myrtle Beach may return to the starting lineup after missing most of the past two games with an ankle injury.

Keane finished the third game of the season against Jacksonville State after starter Josh Stilley was injured and started the next six games before being injured in the first quarter against Monmouth on Nov. 5.

He returned late in last week’s 31-21 win over Bryant and completed his only pass for 6 yards and also completed a two-point conversion throw.

Keane has completed 67 of 104 passes (64.4 percent) for 809 yards with 10 touchdowns and two interceptions on the season. Though the Chants have passed sparingly with him in the lineup, the team missed his productivity last week, when it threw for just 23 yards.

The Chants have rushed for more than 200 yards in nine of 10 games, but their offensive production will be further tested this week with the loss of another offensive lineman.

Senior right tackle Chase Tidwell has been lost for the season, and his replacement, sophomore Brock Merritt, was injured in the fourth quarter Saturday and is likely out against Liberty.

Redshirt freshman Ethan Howard is expected to start at left tackle and senior starter Voghens Larrieux will move to right tackle.

The defense will be bolstered by the return of senior safety Richie Sampson, who missed the past three-plus games with an ankle injury but is still third on the team with 52 tackles and tied for second with five pass breakups.

“I’m really happy, especially to play Liberty on my first game back,” Sampson said. “I only have two games left in my career, all the other seniors only have two games left in their careers, so we’re going to go out and play the best we can and have the most fun we can.”

Tales of two halves

A sign of good coaching is second-half adjustments, and the Chants have done that extremely well this season. But they may need to game plan better leading up to the game.

CCU is 8-2 but has trailed at halftime in six games. The Chants have outscored opponents 174-122 in the first half and 205-96 in the second half.

In the past three weeks against Presbyterian, Monmouth and Bryant, CCU has allowed a combined 48 points, 122 plays and 650 yards in the first half, and just seven points, 60 plays and 214 yards after halftime.

The discrepancies were particularly glaring last week against Bryant. After Bryant ran 48 offensive plays in the first half to Coastal’s 18 and possessed the ball for 21:14 of the opening 30 minutes, CCU had the ball for nearly 23 minutes in the second half and ran 47 plays while holding Bryant to just 14 plays. Bryant was 9 of 13 on first downs in the first half, and was unsuccessful on its only third down opportunity in the second half.

“The past few games we’ve come out pretty slow,” said senior safety C.J. Thompson. “We’re really working on that. Our coaches are really harping on us to come out strong and play four quarters, not just two or three. We always pick it up. We’re a second-half team, but we just have to get the first quarter together, the first drive. … We have to do better on the first drive, getting off on third down.”

Moglia chides Saban

Joe Moglia had a message for Alabama football coach Nick Saban on Tuesday.

A week after the Coastal Carolina head football coach had arranged for his entire team of more than 100 players to vote on election day or beforehand, he called Saban’s proclamation during a press conference last Wednesday that he was unaware Nov. 8 was the date of the presidential election “disrespectful.”

At the press conference, Saban said: “To be honest with you, I didn’t even know yesterday was election day. So it was so important to me that I didn’t even know it was happening. We're focused on other things here.”

Saban, who has made multiple visits to the White House to be honored with his teams after winning national championships, went on to further explain his view on politics.

“I hope whoever our leader is will certainly do all that he can do to make our country safe and improve the quality of life for a lot of the people we have in our country, and I don't think I am qualified to determine who that should be,” Saban said.

Saban attempted to clarify his comments by claiming following his team’s win Saturday against Mississippi State that he voted in advance via absentee ballot, even though he was at the college and his home the day of the election. “Tuesday's our biggest workday and game plan day, and I forgot it was Election Day until I got home at 11 o'clock at night,” Saban said Saturday.

The way Moglia sees it, as an influential figure who has an impact on his players and their maturation, Saban should set a better example and show more interest in such an important domestic and world event.

“The reason I’m disappointed, No. 1, he’s the highest-paid public employee that exists in the United States, but it’s far greater than that for me,” Moglia said following his weekly press conference. “The threat of terrorism is probably going to be with us for the next couple generations. So it’s the military that has to protect us, and I don’t think ever before in the history of mankind has the world needed the economic and military leadership of the United States.

“… In a democracy we get a chance to pick those leaders. So to pick the leader of the free world last Tuesday was the most important thing going on in the world that day, and to not realize that and not to be aware of that frankly is disrespectful to his team, to his school, to his state, to the country. There’s still a piece of me that can’t believe he even said that.”

Moglia said he would entertain Saban contacting him to discuss the matter.

Mr. Moglia, the politically apathetic five-time national champion on Line 2.

This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 8:34 PM with the headline "CCU Football Notebook: Thursday night game vs. Liberty to be broadcast on ESPNews."