How will Coastal Carolina respond to the worst home loss in program history?

How do you rebound from the worst home loss in your program’s history?

The Coastal Carolina football team hopes it has a good answer.

The Chanticleers were defeated 52-10 Saturday by Western Illinois, their lone Football Championship Subdivision opponent this season, and the 42-point margin of defeat is the most at Brooks Stadium in the team’s 15-year existence.

“You have to have a short mindset, you have to bounce back because if you drag it into the next week, the same result might happen,” senior defensive tackle Dwayne Price said Wednesday. “We came back Sunday with a clean slate. Wipe your mind clear of it. It’s going to hurt, but that’s life.”

Coastal Carolina (1-2) has a lot to look forward to this season beginning Saturday with its first ever game in the Sun Belt Conference at Louisiana-Monroe, which is coming off a 56-50 win at rival Louisiana-Lafayette.

Eight of Coastal’s remaining nine games are against Sun Belt opponents, with the exception being a trip to Arkansas on Nov. 4.

“It’s the first Sun Belt game for us in our program history so that’s something that’s pretty exciting,” CCU interim head coach Jamey Chadwell said. “It is a fresh start, so to speak, from our out of conference. I know our guys are looking forward to getting on the road and getting away and showing what we really can be going forward. … and knowing what happened was not representative of us.”

Coastal isn’t used to getting blown out, particularly this group of Chants who have been on the team since 2014.

Since a 34-point loss to eventual national champion North Dakota State in the FCS playoffs in 2013, Coastal had lost eight games over the past four years combined. Those losses were by a combined 29 points for an average of just 3.6 points per loss.

“The sun came up Sunday after the game and we’ve had actually a nice week of practice so far,” Chadwell said. “I felt we’ve had the best enthusiasm we’ve had in a while and probably the best focus, and we’re looking at moving forward and playing a team that got a nice win last week in Louisiana-Monroe over a big rival.

“I think the focus for us is just us playing better, playing with more enthusiasm and more energy for each other. We’re not as bad as we’ve shown when we play Coastal football, but energy-wise and effort-wise we need to play at a higher level.”

No protests

Because college football teams aren’t on the field during the singing or playing of the national anthem prior to games, Coastal Carolina’s players and coaches haven’t had the need for a discussion about a possible pregame protest or show of unity, as NFL teams and players have done in recent weeks.

“I don’t think it will ever be an issue unless a team does decide, ‘Hey, lets go out for the national anthem,’ but I think if they’re doing that they’re probably asking for a little bit of trouble there,” Chadwell said.

But the topic won’t be ignored by the team.

Chadwell intends to address it in the coming weeks as a subject in a Life After Football discussion. The LAF talks each Thursday are a staple of head coach Joe Mogia’s program.

Topics this year have included North Korea, events in Charlottesville, Va., and budgeting money.

“We will probably in the next couple weeks have one on what’s been going on with the flag and some of those things,” Chadwell said. “We try not to do one right away when something happens because something else always happens. . . . We want to make sure we’re giving our players as much information as possible so they can form an opinion based off of fact of what believe.”

Besides, the Chanticleers have their plates full as they try to overcome a bad loss and enter Sun Belt Conference play.

“We’ve got plenty to worry about other than the flag and all that. We’re not exactly in a good spot right now,” said graduate student and quarterback Dalton Demos. “I think it’s a little above our pay grade. I don’t think we exactly have that big of a voice. But at the same time I don’t really feel like I have a voice in the situation. I just wish it wasn’t happening. I don’t like to see all the separation in this great sport. It upsets me a little bit.”

Nearly an opponent

Coastal Carolina junior wide receiver Malcolm Williams has emerged as one of the team’s top weapons on offense, and he came close to playing at Louisiana-Monroe out of high school.

He played at Woodlawn High in Shreveport, La., which is about a 100-mile drive down Interstate 20 from UL-Monroe, and said he took two visits to the school. “It just didn’t work out for us,” Williams said.

Williams joined CCU in 2016 after a year at Fort Scott Community College in Kansas and played in all 12 games last year at wide receiver and on special teams, catching two passes for 17 yards as well as a two-point conversion throw.

“[Last season] was just motivation,” Williams said. “Last year I was in and out and really didn’t touch the ball, so I was ready to come out and just show the fans what I can do.”

In Saturday’s loss to Western Illinois, Williams had five of Coastal’s 11 receptions for a team-high 79 yards, including a 50-yard gain, and tallied 102 all-purpose yards with a 15-yard kickoff return and 8-yard punt return.

He will have a lot of family, friends and supporters in attendance Saturday at Malone Stadium.

Jones likely out

Chadwell expects to again be without a key offensive weapon Saturday in senior receiver and kick returner Chris Jones, who remained in concussion protocol Wednesday and was again held out of practice.

Jones missed last week’s game against Western Illinois because of the concussion concern. He has 64 career receptions and is among the nation’s leaders with an 11.8-yard punt return average on 47 returns.

The Chants were also without two key linebackers last week do to injury, as senior Shane Johnson sat out with an ankle injury and sophomore Laqavious Paul dressed but did not play because of a leg injury. Paul is expected to play against UL-Monroe while Johnson is categorized as “doubtful” by Chadwell and will likely be a game-day decision. He remained limited in practice Wednesday.

Game time set

The game time for Coastal’s next home game against Georgia State on Oct. 7 has been set at 6:30 pm.

The game will be CCU’s first home Sun Belt Conference contest and will be broadcast online on ESPN3.

As part of “Family Weekend” at Brooks Stadium, families of current CCU students can purchase a discounted ticket through a special promotional code at www.GoCCUsports.com/tickets. The CCU athletic ticket office phone number is 843-347-8499.

This story was originally published September 27, 2017 at 7:27 PM with the headline "How will Coastal Carolina respond to the worst home loss in program history?."