What are Coastal Carolina’s chances for a bowl game, and where would it likely go?
In its first year of eligibility for a bowl game as a Football Bowl Subdivision member, Coastal Carolina is in position to make a run at a postseason game this season.
The Chanticleers are 3-3 at the midway point of their schedule, and a 6-6 record would make them bowl eligible.
Coastal head coach Joe Moglia said the coaching staff hasn’t spoken to the team this year about bowl games, and wants the players to focus solely on each week’s game at hand.
But for Coastal’s 11 seniors, leading the program to its first bowl berth in their final seasons would be an accomplishment they would be able to forever look back on and share.
“It’s definitely something to look forward to. It’s very humbling at the same time,” said senior running back Marcus Outlow. “This is what you work so hard for. You work hard to have a postseason game, the opportunity to win a trophy, get some rings, bring your school a lot more notoriety, especially for the program as well.
“It’s exciting, but at the same time, if anything, it just pushes us to work even harder. We want to ensure we definitely get our name next to somebody’s bowl game instead of just a ‘what if.’ So if anything, I feel it fuels our fire a lot more.”
The Sun Belt Conference is guaranteed to place at least five of its 10 teams in bowl games as long as that many are eligible because it has contracted partnerships with five bowl games.
They are the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 15 in the Mercedez-Benz Superdome; the Dollar General Bowl on Dec. 22 in Mobile, Ala.; the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl on Dec. 15 in Montgomery, Ala., the AutoNation Cure Bowl on Dec. 15 in Orlando, Fla., and the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl on Dec. 29 in Tucson, Ariz.
Additionally, the College Football Playoff guarantees that a spot among the premier New Year’s Day bowl games will be given to the highest ranked champion from the Group of Five conferences: the Sun Belt, American Athletic, Mountain West, Mid-American (MAC) and Conference USA.
Appalachian State has a chance to be that team if it finishes the season 11-1 with its one loss in overtime to Penn State in its opener. If the Mountaineers are that team, that would guarantee at least six Sun Belt teams are selected to 2018 bowls if eligible.
Conferences contracted to send teams to bowls to face Sun Belt opponents are Conference USA for the New Orleans Bowl, Mid-American for the Dollar General and Camellia bowls, American Athletic for The Cure Bowl, and Mountain West for the Arizona Bowl.
The bowls select the eligible teams they want in their games, and Sun Belt teams are chosen in order by the New Orleans, Dollar General, Camellia, Cure and Arizona bowls.
After the sixth week of the season, which was prior to Coastal’s loss to Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday, ESPN college football writers Kyle Bonagura and Mitch Sherman had CCU in their college football bowl projections.
Both had the Chants in the Arizona Bowl, Bonagura with Air Force as an opponent and Sherman with the Chants facing San Diego State.
With its loss Saturday, CCU fell out of the projections.
Looking at CCU’s remaining schedule, the Chants should have legitimate chances to win their next two games at Massachusetts and at Georgia State, as well as the season finale at South Alabama.
They have a tough stretch of games in between against three of the top teams in the Sun Belt in Appalachian State, Arkansas State and Georgia Southern, but all three games are at Brooks Stadium.
“It’s just one game at a time, one snap at a time and go from there,” freshman quarterback Bryce Carpenter said of CCU’s bowl possibilities. “If you start looking forward to stuff like that you know you’re not going to have success.”
With more than 40 bowl games this season, all of the teams that become bowl-eligible are likely to find a bowl to play in.
If the Chants become bowl eligible and aren’t selected by one of the Sun Belt’s bowl partners, they could fill in for a conference that doesn’t have enough qualified teams to meet its bowl contracts.
The Frisco Bowl on Dec. 19 in Frisco, Texas, would also be a possibility. It features a team from the American Athletic Conference against an at-large team.
Sun Belt teams have dominated their bowl matchups in the past two seasons, going 8-3 for a .727 winning percentage. The Sun Belt was 4-2 in bowl games in 2016 and 4-1 last season.
Anderson on pace
Will Coastal Carolina have its starting senior quarterback back against UMass on Saturday?
It appears Kilton Anderson’s high ankle sprain on his left leg has healed sufficiently for him to play for the first time in about a month.
Anderson said following Saturday’s loss to UL-Monroe that he believed he’d return against the Minutemen (2-5), and Moglia said Wednesday that Anderson was more involved in practices and he expected him to return to the field.
“I think he’s going to be able to go,” Moglia said. “. . . I’m not going to force him to take reps when he needs rest on his ankles. He’s getting reps now because the ankle is coming along.
“I would expect things to work out as far as this weekend goes.”
Anderson has been out since suffering the ankle injury early in the second half of a win at Louisiana-Lafayette on Sept. 22.
Freshman Bryce Carpenter has started the past two games and the Chants had a bye week between losses to Troy and ULM. Anderson’s availability was termed a game-time decision for both games.
Anderson has completed 39 of 56 passes (69.6 percent) for 564 yards, six touchdowns and one interception that came on a deep pass on the final play of the first half against Campbell, and has rushed 34 times for 215 yards (6.32 yards per carry) and a TD this season.
He completed 16 consecutive pass attempts spanning games against Alabama-Birmingham and Campbell, and though he’s no longer qualified via playing time, he would rank third in the FBS in Total Quarterback Rating (QBR).
Carpenter helped the Chants pull out a two-point win over Louisiana with some key plays in the fourth quarter, but he admittedly didn’t play well against ULM, completing 9 of 19 passes for 133 yards with an interception.
On the season, Carpenter is 36 of 53 for 433 yards with four TDs and two interceptions, and has gained 141 yards rushing on 48 carries.
“Kilton has done a great job this year for us,” Moglia said. “He’s a senior, he’s experienced, he understands what’s going on. He started in the system last year. Bryce doesn’t have that type of experience. But when Bryce had to play when Kilton went down, Bryce did a good job. . . . I thought the other night Bryce didn’t play well. He had a bad game.
“The other night he made mistakes on his reads and his passes weren’t as sharp as they would normally be. Bryce was off Saturday night.”
CCU offensive coordinator Jamey Chadwell also got freshman QB Fred Payton from Georgia some work late in the game Saturday, and Payton completed the first three pass attempts of his career for 34 yards, but also fumbled on a sack.
This story was originally published October 18, 2018 at 5:40 PM.