Everything you need to know for Coastal Carolina at South Alabama

Who: Coastal Carolina (5-6, 2-5 Sun Belt) at South Alabama (2-9, 1-6 Sun Belt)

When: 3 p.m. (Eastern)

Where: Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Mobile, Ala.

Occasion: Regular season finale

TV: Live online on ESPN+

Radio: WRNN 99.5-FM

Online audio: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/coastal/

Live stats: Through www.goccusports.com GameTracker

Last meeting

This is the teams’ first meeting

Coastal Carolina

Strength: Rushing attack

Weakness: QB inexperience, run defense

South Alabama

Strength: Experienced secondary

Weakness: Run defense

Key matchup

South Alabama offensive line vs. Coastal Carolina’s defensive front seven: Coastal needs to stop the run. It wasn’t able to last week against Georgia Southern’s powerful option attack, allowing 409 yards on the ground in a 41-17 loss. The Jaguars are last in the conference with 135.7 yards per game rushing out of a power spread formation, but they were committed to the run last week and gained 223 yards on 57 carries in a 48-38 loss to Louisiana.

“I was pleased that we were able to rush the football for over 200 yards and that’s the first time I think in a conference game we’ve done that,” South Alabama coach Steve Campbell said. “Last year we averaged rushing the ball for 97 yards a game and we haven’t done a whole lot better than that this year. We challenged the guys to come out and run the football and protect the quarterback, and we didn’t give up a sack this past week, so we’re making some progress there. We challenged them and they stepped up.”

Coastal has struggled to stop the run this season, allowing 236.5 rushing yards per game, which ranks 120th in the country and next to last in the Sun Belt Conference, and a damaging 6.5 yards per carry. The defensive front seven of ends Jeffrey Gunter and Tarron Jackson, tackles Sterling Johnson and Jonathan Clayton, and linebackers Silas Kelly, Teddy Gallagher and Michael Makins is young, consisting of one junior, one redshirt freshmen and five sophomores.

Players to watch

Coastal Carolina

Freshman quarterback Fred Payton: The 6-2, 200-pound native of Suwanee, Ga., has completed 49 of 75 passes for 677 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions. He has also gained 142 yards on 46 carries.

Senior wide receiver Malcolm Williams: The 5-10, 190-pounder had a streak of catches in 14 consecutive games snapped last week, but leads the team with 40 receptions for 615 yards and four receiving TDs. He is seventh all-time at CCU with 1,425 career receiving yards.

Sophomore defensive end Jeffrey Gunter: With 14 tackles for losses this season, he is two away from tying the CCU singe-season record of 16 set in 2003. He also has four quarterback hurries, two pass break-ups, a forced fumble and blocked kick.

South Alabama

Senior quarterback Cole Garvin: He accounted for more than 300 yards of offense last week, completing 18 of 28 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 50 yards.

Senior receiver Jamarius Way: The 6-4, 220-pound Florida native has 55 receptions for 714 yards and five receiving touchdowns this season to lead the team in all three categories.

Junior running back Tra Minter: The 5-9, 200-pound Georgia native does it all for the Jaguars. He has 159 carries for 598 yards rushing, 21 receptions for 152 yards, and 801 return yards on kickoffs and punts. He had 223 all-purpose yards last week.

He said it

“We recognize now that we are not at the level of the best teams in the league, but we also recognize that we have done a lot of good things and we’re a solid football team and our guys go after it pretty well, but we’ve got to prove that every Saturday.” – CCU head coach Joe Moglia

“I would rather have a few penalties and do better in the outcome of the game, but it wound up saying something in regard to our guys trying to come back, working hard at it, being composed and focused. So I felt our guys definitely improved from where we were the week before, but we didn’t come up with the plays that we needed to come up with to be more competitive at the end of the game.” – Moglia on CCU not having a penalty last week after committing nine the previous week

“I thought we did some good things (last week), things to build on. We’ve got the capability. Every team we’ve lost to is bowl eligible so we’ve played a pretty good little schedule, and we do know where we have to get to and we’re not that far off.” – South Alabama coach Steve Campbell

Scouting report

For the fourth consecutive week, Coastal has a chance to become eligible for the program’s first bowl game with a win. A total of 78 teams will be selected for bowl games. Entering play this week, 71 teams are bowl eligible with at least six wins and 22 teams, including CCU, are one win away.

One of these teams will end the season with a long losing streak. The Jaguars have lost four straight, while the Chants lost all three games of a tough homestand against three of the top teams in the Sun Belt Conference -- Appalachian State, Arkansas State and Georgia Southern -- by the combined score of 108-40.

The Chants have been good on the road this season, going 4-2 with wins over Campbell, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Georgia State, and losses to a pair of good teams in South Carolina and Troy.

Coastal’s offense has stalled in the past three games, averaging 221.6 yards and 13.3 points per game. It had been averaging 437.8 yards and 31.5 points prior to the homestand. The offense should improve against a team allowing 454.5 yards and 39.7 points per game, which are both ranked 115th or worse in the country.

Freshman Fred Payton is expected to get his fifth consecutive start at quarterback for CCU. Senior Kilton Anderson and freshman Bryce Carpenter may also be available. South Alabama will start either senior Evan Orth or senior Cole Garvin at QB. Orth threw for 1,700 yards in eight starts before a shoulder injury kept him out of the past two games, and he is questionable for Friday. Garvin went the distance last week.

Though 2-9, South Alabama didn’t play like a team that has packed it in for the season last week against Louisiana. The Jaguars had 10 more first downs, ran 33 more plays, had the ball for 12 more minutes and outgained the Ragin Cajuns 477-407, but they committed three turnovers after not committing a turnover for two straight games and were outscored 10-0 in points off turnovers in a 10-point game.

Notes

▪ After not being flagged for a penalty last week, Coastal is in the top 15 in the nation in fewest penalties (4.36) and fewest penalty yards (41.2) per game.

▪The combined record of the nine teams South Alabama has lost to this season is 64-34.

▪ This is first-year South Alabama coach Steve Campbell’s first losing season as a collegiate head coach. He is 161-62 in his 20 college seasons, winning an NCAA Division II national title in 2000 with Delta State and a national JUCO title in 2007 with Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

▪ It will be the final college game for 19 South Alabama seniors, who will be recognized on Senior Day.

▪ South Alabama’s defensive backfield of junior cornerback Jalen Thompson and senior cornerback Darian Mills, and junior safety Tobias Moss and senior safety Nigel Lawrence has started a combined 87 games including 40 this season. The Jaguars have 11 interceptions this year.

▪ Coastal’s coaches, staff and players had a Thanksgiving meal planned in the field house Thursday before flying to Mobile, Ala.

Line

Pick’em

Prediction

Coastal Carolina 34, South Alabama 31: With a late field goal, the Chants become eligible for a bowl game.

This story was originally published November 22, 2018 at 1:59 AM.