Everything you need to know for Coastal Carolina vs. Hampton

Series record

Coastal Carolina 1-0

Last meeting

CCU 50, Hampton 17, on Sept. 21, 2013

Coastal Carolina

Strength: Running game, defense

Weakness: Injuries at quarterback and offensive line

Hampton

Strength: Defense

Weakness: Running game

Key matchup

Coastal Carolina’s offense against Hampton’s defense: Down to its seventh quarterback, CCU turns to graduate senior and former Chants baseball player Tyler Chadwick as he gets his first career start under center in his last game ever. Meanwhile, Coastal Carolina has relied on its rushing attack most of the season and likely will again Saturday, giving the Pirates a tough matchup.

Players to watch

Coastal Carolina

Senior running back De’Angelo Henderson: The All-American has one game left in his career and plans to leave it all on the field. He has recovered from a shoulder injury that kept him out for three games, but has now played two games since then. He is the program’s all-time leading rusher and will look to tack on quite a few more yards to his name Saturday.

Senior linebacker Alex Scearce: He is now on the list for the FCS Buck Buchanan Award, given to the NCAA Division I-AA’s best defensive player. He led the team in tackles last season and is the leader again this season.

Sophomore punter Evan Rabon: Always a threat, Rabon has had one of the best seasons in Coastal Carolina history and could very well become the Chants’ first punter to average more than 40 yards per punt in a season.

Senior safety CJ Thompson: In him time with the Chants, Thompson has been a steady force in the secondary and plans to contribute in a big way one last time. “I’ve grown a lot as a player,” he said, “and I’m excited to play my last game and go out with a bang. I’m going to have up 20 something people and family members here, and they’re all going to see me play one last time in college and I’m going to put on a show for them.”

Hampton

Junior wide receiver Twarn Mixson: An NFL prospect, Mixson was a First Team All-MEAC selection and a Black College All-American in 2015 and, coming into 2016, he again finds himself on the Preseason All-MEAC First Team. Mixson led the MEAC in both receiving yards (93.4 per game) and receptions (5.4 per game) last season, becoming just the second Pirate ever to have a 1,000-yard receiving season (1,027).

Senior quarterback Jaylian Williamson: Leads the MEAC in passing, averaging 210.9 yards in the air per game. A large part of that came to the tune of 388 yards on 32-for-54 passing on Sept. 29 at North Carolina A&T. Williamson now has two of Hampton’s five best single-game passing performances (in terms of yardage).

Scouting report

“Defense is really athletic, run hard to the ball. They’re always in the right spots. They’re ranked nationally, defensively. They’re equally good against the run and the pass and we’re going to have to mix it up and try to get up tempo.” – CCU offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude on Hampton’s defense

“They’ve got pretty good skill players, especially at the receiver position. So we’re going to respect that and we’re going to attack the run game just like we did last game and challenge them outside the perimeter.” – Thompson

“It’ll be a nice day. [Hampton] does a lot of really nice things; their defense does a lot of different things and they disguise their attack. But I think it just goes back to our offensive line; if they do a good job of moving guys out of the way we should be able to run the ball. If your offensive line is good you usually have a really good team so I’m just excited to get behind those guys and play for the last time with a Coastal Carolina uniform on. So it’ll be special.” –Chadwick

Notes

▪ Coastal Carolina’s seven defensive touchdowns this season ranks second in all of the NCAA, behind only Alabama (9).

▪ The Chants have won six straight games after losing two games by just one point earlier in the year.

▪ Saturday will mark the final time that Coastal Carolina plays a game being a member of the Football Championship Subdivision as the Chants make the move to Football Bowl Subdivision Sun Belt Conference next season.

Prediction

Coastal Carolina 44, Hampton 20: Coastal Carolina, without a shot at a postseason spot due to their scheduled move to the Sun Belt, is motivated to finish the season on a strong note and the Chants – in front of their home crowd – should be able to do so pretty easily.

This story was originally published November 25, 2016 at 6:37 PM with the headline "Everything you need to know for Coastal Carolina vs. Hampton."