CCU football notes: Missing contributions of two injured players evident against WIU

Coastal Carolina was without two of its top players Saturday, one on each side of the ball, and they were sorely missed in a 52-10 loss to Western Illinois at Brooks Stadium.

Senior middle linebacker Shane Johnson sat the game out with an ankle injury he incurred in the first quarter last week at Alabama-Birmingham, and senior wide receiver and kick returner Chris Jones was held out because he’s in concussion protocol.

“Did you miss them? Yeah, I mean they’re good players and they can make some plays,” Coastal interim head coach Jamey Chadwell said. “But I thought the guys that went in there for them played hard. No matter what happens you’ve got to have guys that step up and compete and I thought our guys did that and they gave their best effort and played hard to try to replace those guys.

“… I know we’ve got some young guys that got some valuable reps, so you can look at that positively.”

Junior receiver Malcolm Williams of Shreveport, La., started his third game and junior Omar Black of Marietta, Ga., got his second start at wide receiver, and the Chants started two tight ends to begin the game in Max Kjosa and Laquay Brown.

Black had one catch for 6 yards, and Williams had game-highs with five receptions for 79 yards, including a 50-yard reception from Tyler Keane that led to a score.

“He’s pretty explosive with the ball, makes some good plays, and we try to get it to him in the run and pass game,” Chadwell said. “He’s done a nice job of competing and he plays hard and plays for the right reasons. So I think he’s a guy we’ve got to continue to try to get the ball because he can make some plays with it, which you saw tonight.”

Junior James Heft, who was one of two former walk-ons to receive a scholarship this preseason, got his first collegiate start at linebacker for Johnson.

Heft, who is 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, matched safety Fitz Wattley with a game-high 11 tackles, including five solo tackles. He had one career tackle entering the game, coming last week on special teams.

“Shane went down and you can’t replace a guy like that,” Heft said. “He’s one of our best defensive guys and a leader on this team, but anyone goes down the next man has to step up.”

Chadwell hopes to have Johnson and Jones back for Coastal’s first Sun Belt Conference game at Louisiana-Monroe next week.

“We’ll work to continue to get those guys back, but if we don’t our young guys have to continue to step up and play hard and understand what the expectations are for them,” Chadwell said.

Rabon kicks back

After missing two of four field goal attempts last week from 29 and 40 yards, junior kicker Evan Rabon made a 52-yard field goal Saturday to open the scoring in the first quarter and come within a yard of matching the school record for the longest field goal.

The record is a 53-yard wind-aided effort by Alex Catron in 2014. Rabon’s kick had a few yards to spare.

Road warriors

Saturday’s game in Conway was the third consecutive road game to start the season for Western Illinois over the past four weeks.

It’s the first time the Leathernecks opened the season with three consecutive road games since they traveled to Parsons, Knox and Bradley in 1935.

The trips to and from the team’s campus in Macomb, Ill., cover more than 5,700 miles, but the travel was well worth it, as the Leathernecks defeated Tennessee Tech, Northern Arizona and Coastal Carolina by a combined 87 points.

This story was originally published September 24, 2017 at 12:55 AM with the headline "CCU football notes: Missing contributions of two injured players evident against WIU."