Everything you need to know for Coastal Carolina at Idaho

Last meeting

This is the teams’ first meeting

Coastal Carolina

Strength: Wide receiver

Weakness: Inexperience at QB and offensive line

Idaho

Strengths: Running back, linebacker

Weakness: Inexperience at QB

Key matchup

Idaho sophomore quarterback Mason Petrino vs. Coastal’s defensive backfield: The Chanticleers catch a break with Idaho’s loss of quarterback Matt Linehan, at least for this week. Linehan is ranked as the No. 4 NFL Draft quarterback prospect among college seniors by ESPN’s Mel Kiper and has prototypical NFL QB size at 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds, but he sustained an injury to his throwing arm in the closing minutes of a loss to Troy on Nov. 2. So Mason Petrino, a 5-11, 187-pound sophomore and the son of coach Paul Petrino, gets the start and will be backed up by freshman Colton Richardson. “Mason has taken a lot of reps this week and had a good week of practice,” Paul Petrino said. While Linehan has the second most career passing yards in the history of the Sun Belt Conference with 10,772, along with 899 career completions and 62 TD passes, Petrino has completed 4 of 5 passes this year for 64 yards and two touchdowns.

The Coastal Carolina defensive backfield has become a lot more active and effective over the past four games. After recording just 13 pass break-ups and one interception through the first six games, the Chants have broken up 20 passes and a pair of interceptions by safety Fitz Wattley and cornerback Preston Carey. Carey and cornerback Anthony Chesley have a combined 15 pass break-ups this season.

Players to watch

Coastal Carolina

Junior quarterback Kilton Anderson: He gets his second straight start with senior Tyler Keane injured. He completed 13 of 25 passes for 157 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions last week against Troy’s tough defense, and for the season he’s 29 of 69 for 463 yards with five TDs and two interceptions.

Senior receiver Chris Jones: He’s on pace to set Coastal season and career records for yards per catch. He’s averaging 22.7 yards per catch this season and 18.1 per catch for his career, and on the season he has 22 receptions for 499 yards and four TDS.

Senior linebacker Shane Johnson: The inside linebacker leads the team with 77 tackles despite missing more than two full games due to injury, and ranks second in the Sun Belt with an average of 9.6 tackles per game.

Idaho

Senior running back Aaron Duckworth: At 5-8 and 203 pounds, he is the Sun Belt’s leading rusher in total yards (803) and yards per game (89.2), and has 1,823 career rushing yards. The last Idaho running back to lead a conference in total rushing yards was Joel Thomas in 1996 (Big West).

Senior receiver Alfonso Onunwor: He has emerged as Linehan’s favorite target, leading the Vandals in receptions and receiving yards in each of the last four games and catching at least one touchdown pass in five of the last seven games. For the season the 6-1, 190-pounder from Cleveland has 47 catches for 636 yards and six TDs.

Junior linebacker Tony Lashley: The 6-1, 240-pound junior leads the Sun Belt and ranks No. 5 nationally with 6.3 solo tackles per game. Lashley is second in the conference and 17th in the country with 9.7 total tackles per game.

He said it

“Players got a little bit of rest then got to get a lot of practice in. We got a lot of work with our young guys at the end of each practice to really prepare for the future and that’s always a good thing when you can get that. It was a nice time to get out and recruit and develop our young players into better players. Now we’re just focusing in on Coastal Carolina. It has a bit of a unique offense and the bye week gives us extra time to work on preparing for that.” – Idaho coach Paul Petrino on his team’s 15 days between games

“We’ve looked at a lot of things when we’re at home because it is noticeable. We’ve looked at what we do on Fridays and what we do on game days. I don’t know if there is one thing we can put a finger to, but it is something for sure we’re going to have to study this offseason if there is something there, or if it’s just us thinking we were better than the teams we were playing.” – CCU interim head coach Jamey Chadwell on his team’s poor play at home

“We don’t really have many left to be honest with you, that’s part of it. Secondly, he’s got good confidence in his ability. He can run around a little bit so he when plays break down he can create some plays with his feet and running style. And he puts a lot of time into it. He wants to be good, he’s up here studying, he’s doing the things you want your quarterback to do, and he’s earned that right to be the next guy in.” – Chadwell on Kilton Anderson starting at QB

Scouting report

Coastal is trying to break a program-record nine-game losing streak and find consistency week to week. The greater conundrum may be the dichotomy of Coastal’s play at home vs. on the road. Though it is just 1-9, the Chants have been a decidedly better team on the road despite playing most of their better opponents away from home.

Four of CCU’s five road losses have been by one possession, including a one-point loss to Arkansas of the SEC, and have come by an average of 11.6 points including a 34-point loss at Arkansas State. CCU’s four losses at home following its season-opening win over Massachusetts have come by an average of 23.3 points.

“We have not played very well at home,” Chadwell said. “I thought even the score this past week didn’t end up being that close, I thought we actually played well in a lot of ways, take out the kick returns obviously. If we had played that way in some other home games we’d have won those home games.

“I think part of it was who we were playing. Whether it was home or away, ‘Hey we think we’re better than them’ and we didn’t play the way we needed to, and we’re learning that.”

Coastal has averaged 30 points per game on the road compared to 18.6 points at home, and on the road it has 30 more first downs, nearly 100 more yards of offense per game, eight fewer penalties, 2:37 more per game in time of possession and a third-down conversion percentage of 45 percent compared to a woeful 23 percent at home.

“I think maybe because you’re expected to lose [on the road], so therefore you play with a little bit more of a chip on your shoulder,” CCU senior defensive lineman Dwayne Price said. “Coming from the position of us being underdogs we jump out, which is maybe why we play a little bit better on the road. When we’re at home we haven’t really had that same type of feeling because this is our house so you’re not supposed to lose at your house. But you never know what to expect in this game and that’s holding to be true this year.”

While five of CCU’s nine losses have come by eight points or less, the Vandals have been involved in even more close games. All five of Idaho’s Sun Belt contests have been one-possession games decided in the final minutes, and the Vandals’ three conference losses have come by a combined 11 points.

Without Linehan, the Vandals may rely more heavily on the leading rusher in the Sun Belt Conference, senior Aaron Duckworth, who is 5-foot-8 and 203 pounds. “I think Aaron has just been a really hard worker and he’s grinded every single day and continued to grow and make himself a better player,” coach Petrino said. “He’s gotten stronger each year and worked hard on making one cuts and his vision and that’s really helped him have a great year this year.”

Idaho is coming off a bye week that followed a Thursday game, so the Vandals have had 15 days between games. “They’re going to know our special teams, offense and defense better than we are, they’re going to be well-prepared so we’re going to have to play well to win,” Chadwell said.

Notes

▪ Both teams last played Troy. Idaho scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter to pull close but fell 24-21 on Nov. 2, while Coastal lost 42-17 last week at Brooks Stadium.

▪ Idaho is moving down to the FCS level next season. This is the final home game for 15 seniors, who will need three straight wins to close the season to play in a bowl on their way out of school. The Vandals went 9-4 last year and won the famous Idaho Potato Bowl of Colorado State.

▪ Idaho junior Kaden Elliss is a two-way player. He starts at linebacker and has played running back and tight end on offense. He’s the only player at the FBS level this season with a sack and TD reception in the same game.

▪ The punters/kickers in the game are among the conference’s best. Idaho freshman Cade Coffey leads the conference in punt average at 45.4 yards and has made 10 of 13 field goal attempts. CCU junior Evan Rabon has a 43.3-yard punt average and has made six straight field goals.

▪ Idaho gives different looks to disguise defenses, and a defense that is led by senior defensive end Aikeem Coleman and a talented group of linebackers ranks fourth in the Sun Belt and 37th nationally with 6.9 tackles for loss per game.

Line

Idaho -7.5

Prediction

Idaho 34, Coastal Carolina 27: Weather won’t be a factor in the dome, so skill players should put up some numbers. CCU will have to overcome a long, unusual trip to win.

This story was originally published November 17, 2017 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Everything you need to know for Coastal Carolina at Idaho."