How Coastal Carolina is making its football team special again

Coastal Carolina’s best football players are playing more over the past three weeks.

Starters on offense and defense have been increasing their workloads on the plays in between as the Chanticleers try to make their special teams special again.

Coastal has prided itself on winning the special teams matchups since head coach Joe Moglia took over the program in 2012, and because of that emphasis the Chants spend more time on special teams in practice than most teams.

But the move up from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision has forced the Chants to add more talent and experience to its special teams units.

“I think we’re learning and seeing there are good players in this league and there are good players on special teams and you have to try to put your best players out there to be able to make plays,” CCU interim head coach Jamey Chadwell said. “We’re trying to put our best players out there in all phases we can.”

The Chants (1-6) have been burned on special teams this year, and with four of their six losses by eight points or less, special teams have certainly contributed to the losses.

Among their struggles, the Chanticleers allowed kickoff returns for touchdowns in two consecutive games against Louisiana-Monroe and Georgia State, then gave up a total of 78 yards on two punt returns by Arkansas State’s Blaise Taylor the next week.

The Chants also missed five of 10 field goal attempts through the first six games of the season.

“Our young guys have to understand what they have to do if they’re going to contribute on special teams,” Chadwell said. “They really have to step up. We’ve maybe had some guys play just because, ‘Well we’re going to play them,’ and been able to get by with being okay, and that’s not the case anymore, it’s hurt us. So those guys have either got to get a role and find it or we’ve got to find better players.”

Starting running back Osharmar Abercrombie has been adding special teams duties over the past three weeks. He has been on the kickoff return team throughout the season but was added to the kickoff coverage team a couple weeks ago and was inserted at right guard on punts this past week.

“Anybody is available that’s a starter, from Shane Johnson, who has been our best linebacker, to Osh to Chris Jones, guys that have been here that have played a lot of football,” Chadwell said. “We’ve got to get better in those areas. We’ve had some starters already on it but we’ve got to shore some of it up so we’re working hard to do that.”

With more starters on its units last week, the Chants allowed Appalachian State a total of 40 yards on four kickoff returns and 12 yards on three punt returns.

Coastal averaged 22.8 yards per kickoff returns, including a 37-yard return by Malcolm Williams in the fourth quarter, and gained 13 yards on its only punt return.

“I thought it was probably our best overall game as far as a [special teams] unit,” Chadwell said. “There were some things we needed to do better, but special teams was not the reason why we lost the football game. In a lot of cases it gave us a chance to win the game. So we got better there. The challenge is we’ve got to do that each week. We’ve just been a little inconsistent with it but we were better last week.”

Coming home

Coastal will nearly cap a week’s worth of Homecoming activities by hosting Texas State (1-6) at Brooks Stadium. The Chants are 10-4 all-time in Homecoming games and have won five in a row, and may attract some alumni to a game for the first time this season.

“This might be the first opportunity they get a chance to see us this year, and they’re going to judge us obviously by the record,” Chadwell said. “What do we want our fans, our alumni to know about us? Hopefully the way we play, the way we compete, so this is a big deal.”

Special week

It was difficult to determine which foot was more valuable for CCU junior punter/kicker Evan Rabon, who was named the Sun Belt Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance Saturday.

Rabon uncorked a school-record 65-yard punt in the mountain air at Appalachian State, averaged 54.7 yards on three punts and hit all three of his field goal attempts, including a 49-yarder.

Rabon, who punts with his left foot and kicks with his right, will likely shatter the CCU single-season record for punting average. He is averaging 43.4 yards per punt and the record is 39.2 set by Austin Cain in 2014. Rabon has kicked at least one 50-yard punt in five straight games.

“The three field goals were huge,” Chadwell said. “We’ve had some issues with our field goals in the past. ... I don’t know if it was the mountain air or what, but if he can continue to kick like that I think that gives us a good chance going forward to have a lot of success because when we do punt and you’re able to pin people back like that it gives your defense a lot of confidence.”

Rabon was the starting punter last year and took over kicking duties this season. He had missed five of 10 field goal attempts entering last week’s game and did miss an extra point off the goal post Saturday.

“He gives us the best chance to make those,” Chadwell said. “… We have confidence in him. He’s proven that. He’s struggled in certain games and we obviously need him to be better for us to have a chance and he knows that. If we get into a situation where we need him to kick a game-winning field goal we’ll send him out there and let him do it and he’ll knock it in for us.”

Game time set

Coastal’s game time next Saturday at Arkansas has been set for 4 p.m. (Eastern) and the game will be broadcast live on the SEC Network Alternate television channel.

Arkansas is 2-5 this season with a 42-24 win on Sept. 30 over Sun Belt Conference foe New Mexico State, which is 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the conference, with its losses to Arkansas, Arizona State, Appalachian State and Troy.

Soccer team ranked

On the strength of back-to-back wins over ranked opponents, the CCU men’s soccer team has cracked the top 25 of a national soccer poll.

The Chants (7-6-1) are unbeaten in their past four games at 3-0-1, with a 5-2 win over then No. 18 Old Dominion and 1-0 win over then No. 2 Maryland when the Terrapins were 10-1-3 overall and unbeaten in seven ACC games.

CCU is ranked 24th in the latest TopDrawer Soccer poll. The Chants began the season ranked 22nd but haven’t been ranked since mid-September. The team received enough votes in the United Soccer Coaches poll to be ranked 27th in the country.

The men’s team tied William & Mary 1-1 Tuesday and concludes the regular season at home at 1 p.m. Saturday against Sun Belt opponent Appalachian State. The team’s 13 seniors will be introduced and honored at 12:45 p.m. Other homecoming athletic events this weekend include home volleyball matches Friday against Troy and Sunday against South Alabama.

Hoopla is happening

Coastal Carolina’s students and fans have a chance to see the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Hoopla beginning at 9 p.m. Thursday at the HTC Center.

The free celebration to tip off the new season will feature several contests involving students and players, with prizes available. A men’s dunk contest is planned.

The Coastal men start the season Nov. 10 against Piedmont International and the women are at Clemson on Nov. 11 before their home opener Nov. 15 against North Carolina Central.

This story was originally published October 25, 2017 at 7:44 PM with the headline "How Coastal Carolina is making its football team special again."