Everything you need to know for Coastal Carolina at Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday
Saturday’s game
Who: Coastal Carolina (4-6, 1-5 Sun Belt Conference) at Louisiana-Monroe (4-6, 3-3)
When: 5 p.m. (Eastern)
Where: Malone Stadium, Monroe, La.
TV: Live online on ESPN3
Radio: WRNN 99.5 FM
Online audio: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/coastal/
Live stats: Through www.ULM.statbroadcast.com and GameTracker
Last meeting
ULM 45-20 on Oct. 13, 2018 in Conway
Coastal Carolina
Strength: Defensive line
Weakness: Secondary
Louisiana-Monroe
Strength: Quarterback
Weakness: Rush Defense
Key matchup
UL Monroe quarterback Caleb Evans vs. Coastal Carolina’s defensive backfield: Coastal has seven sophomores or freshmen in its top eight on the depth chart in the secondary because of injuries and lack of depth, so it is vulnerable. This season, Evans has 648 yards and 10 touchdowns rushing, and 2,263 yards and 17 TDs passing, and is second in the Sun Belt Conference in completions per game (19.7) and passing yards and third in passing yards per game (226.3). “I think he gives us a chance each week, no question about it, because he has the ability to throw it and run it,” ULM coach Matt Viator said.
In a 45-31 win over Georgia State two weeks ago, Evans threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns while completing 24 of 32 passes and rushed for 110 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. In last week’s 51-29 road loss to Georgia Southern, he completed 21 of 36 passes for 285 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions. “He’s up there in the conversation for the best [QB] that we’ve played,” CCU senior nose tackle Sterling Johnson said. “He’s a pretty smooth runner and puts his team in position to win games. Not saying they don’t have talent, but with the talent he has around them he’s making them excel.”
Players to watch
Coastal Carolina
Junior running back C.J. Marable (5-10, 190): The Presbyterian transfer gained 142 yards on 28 carries last week and leads the Chants with 792 yards rushing and eight TDs on 161 attempts (4.9 yards per carry) and is second in receptions with 32 for 270 yards and three TDs.
Sophomore receiver Jaivon Heiligh (6-2, 195): He leads the team with both 44 receptions and 472 receiving yards and has two touchdowns while averaging 10.7 yards per catch.
Sophomore quarterback Bryce Carpenter (6-1, 200): He is expected to start for the fifth straight game and split time with Fred Payton. He has completed 79 of 125 passes (63.2 percent) for 749 yards with seven TDs and just one interception and has rushed for 348 yards and a TD on 96 carries..
Louisiana-Monroe
Senior quarterback Caleb Evans (6-2, 210): The three-year starter is 166 passing yards away from throwing for 9,000 yards in his career..
Junior running back Josh Johnson (5-9, 215): He has rushed for 1,060 yards on 169 carries for an average of 106 yards per game this season and is second to Evans on the team with nine rushing touchdowns.
Junior cornerback Corey Straughter (5-10, 180): He has a Sun Belt-high five interceptions on the year as well as a team-high nine pass breakups.
He said it
“I think the biggest difference in their football team this year is their improvement on defense. When you look at what they’ve done, third overall in the league and their ability to force tackles for loss, force sacks and then nine interceptions this year, they’re doing a really good job defensively.””– Viator on CCU’s defense
“We took the right step ahead. We hadn’t had a turnover in one or two games and for us to come out and have four was huge for us. It definitely reinstalled the ideology that we are who we think we are when we play to the level we think we’re capable of playing to.” – CCU’s Sterling Johnson
“We’re real close. I feel once we learn how to finish, that’s probably our problem, we just don’t know how to finish yet. But once we learn how to finish we’ll be great.” – CCU junior running back C.J. Marable
Scouting report
The Chanticleers will look to close out the year in a strong way, similar to 2017 under then-interim head coach Jamey Chadwell, who was filling in for Joe Moglia during Moglia’s medical sabbatical.
Entering the final two weeks of the season at 1-9 overall and on a nine-game losing streak in 2017, Chadwell led the Chants to back-to-back wins, both of which came in Sun Belt Conference play.
The Chants picked up their first-ever Sun Belt Conference win with a 13-7 win on the road at Idaho on Nov. 18, 2017, and then finished the season with a 28-17 home win on Senior Day versus Georgia Southern on Dec. 2, 2017.
With four consecutive losses to close out the 2018 season, Coastal has now lost eight of its past nine Sun Belt Conference games.
“It’s another opportunity for this team to get better and get one step closer to try to put ourselves in contention for a bowl opportunity,” Chadwell said. “Our guys know what’s at stake, but more important than that just really going and trying to play well and take care of the things we need to [in order] to try to win the game.”
Both teams need to win their remaining two games to be eligible for selection to a bowl game, and both are using that as motivation. “Talking to the players [Sunday] I think they understand that and they understand the challenge this week,” Viator said. “But nothing is possible unless we find a way to win this week. All our focus is on this week and honoring our seniors for their last home game here at ULM and trying to figure out a way to win the game. If we do then next week will present another possibility, but not without this week.”
ULM made noise early in the season, nearly winning at Florida State in its second game of the season but falling 45-44 after a missed extra point in overtime.
The ULM coaching staff limited Evans’ rushing attempts early in the season by design to hopefully have him available to use all of his skills in key conference games at the end of the year.
“We didn’t run him a lot early in the season, the runs he ran early in the season were really scrambles in the pocket in the zone read-type plays,” Viator said. “As we got into conference we’ve called some straight quarterback runs and things like that. . . . We wanted to try to keep him as healthy as we could for the year, but he is a threat running the ball and he’s somebody we think we have to use.”
The Warhawks go up-tempo in their offense, “but we’re not down-to-down with it,” Viator said, and behind Evans they average more than 200 yards both rushing (203.3) and passing (236.5) this season. They are poor on defense, however, ranking among the bottom four teams in the nation in toal yards allowed per game at 482, rushing yards allowed per game at 254 and points allowed per game at 39.1.
Notes
▪While CCU has endured a ton of injuries, ULM has been hardest hit at the receiver and secondary positions, though injuries haven’t been as bad this season as in recent years, Viator said..
▪Coastal went for it on fourth down nine times in last week’s 28-27 loss at Arkansas State, converting five, and its 19 fourth-down conversions this season are tied for second in FBS behind Army’s 23. The Chants are 19 of 25 (76 percent) on fourth down on the season.
▪Coastal has started 41 different players on offense and defense primarily because of injuries, which is the 10th most in FBS.
▪ CCU senior wide receiver Ky’Jon Tyler is 67 yards away from becoming the 11th player in CCU history to reach 1,000 career receiving yards.
▪ULM has won both meetings between the schools, winning 51-43 in 2017 in Monroe and 45-20 last year in Conway.
Line
ULM -6
Prediction
Louisiana-Monroe 35, Coastal Carolina 34: Coastal’s inexperienced secondary will be challenged by Evans, though the Chants should be able to keep pace against a yielding Warhawks defense.
Alan Blondin: 843-626-0284, @alanblondin
This story was originally published November 21, 2019 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Everything you need to know for Coastal Carolina at Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday."
