CCU Football Notebook: Injuries have exposed these two Chanticleer deficiencies in 2019
Coastal Carolina has started 40 different players on offense and defense combined this season, which is tied for the 11th most among the 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision this season.
That number is going to increase at Arkansas State (5-4, 3-2 Sun Belt Conference) on Saturday.
The high number is due to injuries, which are exposing a couple particular weaknesses that currently exist in the CCU football program, in the eyes of head coach Jamey Chadwell.
The Chants (4-5, 1-4) are lacking both depth and durability.
“Injuries happen. Obviously we’ve had our fair share, probably more,” Chadwell said. “I’m more frustrated because of the lack of depth overall and us not being strong enough and physical enough to stand up to the rigors of the Sun Belt Conference.
“You go back and look at why don’t we have enough – when somebody goes down – to fill a spot that’s capable, and also why are we not strong enough or physical enough to uphold during that time frame to injuries?”
Two contributing factors are easy to identify. As part of their transition to the FBS level from FCS over the past three seasons in the Sun Belt, the Chants are still shy of the 85 FBS scholarship limit. Chadwell said the Chants began the season with 77 scholarship players.
The depth and scholarship numbers were dramatically hurt when Coastal lost seven players to transfer or attempted transfer through the new NCAA transfer portal. Key losses included starting offensive lineman Brock Hoffman, who joined Virginia Tech, starting defensive end Jeffrey Gunter, who joined N.C. State, starting safety Jave Brown and running back Alex James of Florence.
The Chants also lost graduate transfer quarterbacks Chance Thrasher (East Tennessee State) and Kilton Anderson (William & Mary).
Chadwell expects to be able to improve in those areas by next season, but they are part of the program’s growing pains that continue this season.
“If we could play injury free this year, this would be the year we need to be injury free because of all those things, and since Kansas (in Week 2) it’s been downhill,” Chadwell said. “. . . We don’t have those pieces in place and we’re not quite yet where you need to be to sustain over a long time frame.”
Senior Chandler Kryst is the lone remaining starter in the secondary from the start of the season who is available to play on Saturday, as the other starters as well as a backup are out due to injuries.
Defensive backs believed to be lost for the season include junior Enock Makonzo, senior Mallory Claybourne and sophomore Alex Spillum, and freshman Jordan Morris is expected to miss Saturday’s game in concussion protocol, so a number of inexperienced freshman and sophomores will be in the secondary.
“A lot of guys that we’ve lost were pretty crucial,” Kryst said. “. . . Now the young guys need a little bit more leadership, and having a little bit more experience I can give that supplementation to them.”
One possible positive aspect about going through so many players is a number of young players who weren’t expected to play much this season are getting experience for the future.
“Some young guys are getting some valuable experience,” Chadwell said. “So maybe it’s hurting us in the short term in certain ways, but you try to take the long view of it and hope they can play well enough to help you win the games, and also it gives them experience to understand what it takes to win at this level, and hopefully that will pay dividends in the near future.”
Special support
A “Pink Out” at Georgia’s Sanford Stadium on Sept. 14 in support of Arkansas State coach Blake Anderson and in honor of his wife Wendy, who died Aug. 19 at the age of 49 after a two-year battle with breast cancer, was widely publicized.
The campaign was started by a Georgia alumnus on Twitter and took off with the hashtag #WearPinkForWendy, as just about everyone in the stadium for the Bulldogs-Red Wolves game was sporting pink.
That was the most high-profile example of the support Anderson has received from the college football community this season, but it is just a glimpse.
Anderson and Wendy were married for 27 years and have three children, and Anderson started a 19-day leave of absence on the day she died. He missed a 37-30 loss to SMU before returning to the field for Arkansas State’s first win of 2019 over UNLV.
Anderson said opponents, other coaches and others in the game have been consistently checking on him and sending a scripture, verse and prayers.
“It’s something every day to be honest with you – a letter in the mail, an email, a text, a phone call,” Anderson said Monday. “This past week [Minnesota coach] P.J. Fleck and his wife Heather, who were good friends of ours, reached out and were thinking about me and my family on Friday. He’s got one of the biggest games of his life ahead of him against Penn State and he reaches out, he and Heather, just to see how I’m doing.
“It’s been people like that all year long that have just kind of surrounded me and my kids to help us get through what we’re going through. It’s overwhelming and something that has helped us get to this point.”
Chadwell, who said he doesn’t know Anderson well but knows him through conference events and meetings, said he reached out to him with condolences and was most impressed with how Anderson and his wife handled the ordeal with grace and valiance.
“If you unfortunately ever have to go through something like that with your family, the way he handled that was unbelievable,” Chadwell said. “He’s a good man and great coach obviously. The lessons he taught his team by the way he handled that are invaluable. No matter how many games they win or championships, the players that are on his team will be blessed by the way he handled that situations and that will be lessons they carry on forever.”
A Sun Belt first
The Sun Belt Conference has a team included in the top 25 of the College Football Playoff rankings for the first time in the six-year history of the playoff.
Appalachian State (8-1, 4-1) debuted in the second ranking of the year at No. 25 on Tuesday after earning its second win over a Power Five Conference team this season, becoming the first Sun Belt team in the conference’s 19 football seasons to knock off a pair of Power Five programs in a season.
The Mountaineers defeated South Carolina of the SEC 20-15 on Saturday and beat North Carolina of the ACC 34-31 on Sept. 21. Both games were on the road.
The Mountaineers are at No. 24 in this week’s Amway Coaches Poll and are one spot shy of an Associated Press Top 25 ranking after reaching No. 20 prior to their loss to Georgia Southern on Halloween. The CFP’s highest-ranked conference champion from Group of Five leagues will earn a berth to the New Year’s Six Cotton Bowl and earn approximately $6.43 million for their conference, which will be distributed to its members.
App. State joined fellow one-loss Group of Five schools No. 17 Cincinnati, No. 18 Memphis, No. 21 Boise State and No. 23 Navy in this week’s rankings. The Mountaineers travel to fellow Sun Belt East member Georgia State (6-3, 3-2) on Saturday for a showdown of bowl-eligible teams and finish the season at home against Texas State and at Troy. If they make the conference championship game, they will likely meet Louisiana-Lafayette, which they defeated 17-7 on Oct. 9, perhaps with a New Year’s Six bowl berth on the line.
Saturday’s game
Who: Coastal Carolina (4-5, 1-4) at Arkansas State (5-4, 3-2)
When: 3 p.m. (Eastern)
Where: Centennial Bank Stadium, Jonesboro, Ark.
TV/Radio: ESPN+, WRNN 99.5 FM
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 9:47 PM.
