CCU Football Notebook: How the program grew in 2019 beyond the record on the field
Coastal Carolina’s football team clearly didn’t accomplish much of what it wanted to on the field during the 2019 season.
With their 24-21 win Saturday over Texas State at Brooks Stadium, the Chanticleers finished 5-7 for a second straight season and 2-6 in Sun Belt Conference play for the third consecutive season since joining the league in 2017.
The team’s most notable achievement was a 12-7 win over Kansas in the second week of the season, the first victory in program history over a team from a Power Five Conference.
But in his first year as head coach without an interim tag attached, Jamey Chadwell believes he has made strides within the structure of his program that will pay off in future seasons regarding things such as togetherness, expectations, responsibilities and accountability.
“From a wins and losses perspective, what you guys see every day, I wish we would have been able to obtain bowl eligibility and win a bowl game because that would have obviously been great for these kids, they went through a lot. But we weren’t good enough to do that,” Chadwell said. “But I do think the culture that’s been established will pay dividends for us. . . . From a program standpoint, from a culture standpoint, I think we’re headed in a great direction.”
In 2017, Chadwell went 3-9 as the interim coach in the team’s first season in the Sun Belt as part of its transition from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision level, and endured a nine-game losing streak.
It was his first season in the program after four seasons as the head coach at Charleston Southern, and Chadwell was temporarily promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach when Joe Moglia took a medical leave of absence.
“Whether by title or not, I was never the head coach in 2017,” Chadwell said. “One, I never felt like that. Two, I was never viewed like that by players, etcetera. I knew that. They didn’t view me that way, they didn’t respect me that way. So that was a tough year personally for me just because of the situation.
“. . . This year was rewarding in the fact that I do think a lot of guys had a view of me from a 2017 player perspective and they really got to hopefully know who I am, truly who I am. I think this year they got a chance to see what I care about, what’s important.”
Chadwell’s tenure as head coach following Moglia’s resignation from that position in January got off to a rocky start when at least seven players either transferred or attempted to transfer through the NCAA’s new transfer portal, including some who could have helped the team considerably this season.
Chadwell believes those who remained have already helped build the foundation for the future.
“I do think we’ve built a positive foundation going forward that will help this program sustain consistent performance every single week,” Chadwell said. “I believe that wholeheartedly, that we’ll be a consistent presence in this league that will have an opportunity to compete for a championship.”
Tight end Shadell Bell, who transferred to Coastal before the 2018 season after three seasons at Clemson, concurred with Chadwell’s assessment.
“The details he did off the field meant more to me than what we did on the field,” Bell said. “. . . Here we’ve got a lot of dudes that aren’t selfish, so that’s why the [culture] is so good and it’s just going to translate to next year and years to come.”
Records and milestones
One Chant hit a milestone, one set a program record and one came up short of a milestone on Saturday.
With 121 yards on 25 carries, junior C.J. Marable became just the fourth CCU player to rush for 1,000 yards in a season, joining former NFL players De’Angelo Henderson, who did it three times in 2014, ’15 and ’16, and Lorenzo Taliaferro (2013), as well as Patrick Hall (2004). “That’s great. That’s a good group to be in,” Marable said. “I talk to De’Angelo like all the time through social media so I’m glad I’m in that conversation with him.”
In two years at CCU the Presbyterian transfer has 1,804 rushing yards to rank seventh all time at CCU, and is 539 yards behind Aundres Perkins at No. 2 in career rushing yards. Henderson’s 4,635 is unattainable.
With 1,085 yards rushing – including six 100-yard rushing games – and 295 receiving yards, Marable accounted for 1,380 yards from scrimmage this year.
Junior defensive end Tarron Jackson (6-2, 265) sacked Texas State quarterback Tyler Vitt three times Saturday to set CCU’s single-season record with 10, surpassing the eight linebacker Alex Scearce registered in 2016.
“It means a lot because every year I kind of set individual goals, so it means a lot to me to take a step from last year,” Jackson said. “But I just want to see the team get better, honestly. The stats mean a lot to me but the end game is the wins and losses.”
Senior Ky’Jon Tyler failed to reach 1,000 career receiving yards. He needed 32 yards Saturday but had three receptions for 15 yards to fall 17 yards shy with his 57 receptions.
He was targeted four times in the first quarter, including once on a deep route that was just overthrown, but was not targeted again in the game. Chadwell said his early targets were part of the game plan but not because he had 1,000 within reach.
“We were trying to get him active,” Chadwell said. “He’s one of our good players. We had him on a deep route there. We were trying to get him involved some but it wasn’t more so to get him 1,000. Game plan-wise we wanted to try to get him the ball. His skill set is good and we tried to use it there.”
Quarterback quandary
Sophomore Fred Payton started the first six games at quarterback and sophomore Bryce Carpenter the last six games, beginning when Payton missed two-plus games with a shoulder injury.
Payton finished the season 119 of 187 (63.6 percent) for 1,421 yards, 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions – with four coming in the season opener – and with 181 yards rushing. Carpenter completed 93 of 142 (65.5 percent) for 927 yards with eight TDs and two interceptions, and rushed for 390 yards.
Chadwell said the QB position is still open for next season.
“I think they both are very capable but they both were up and down, inconsistent,” Chadwell said. “We’ve got a couple freshmen quarterbacks who I think are going to have a chance to be pretty good, too, so it’s going to be a wide open race.
“The main thing is I want one of the guys to take the job and just be consistent – we know who we’re going to get, when the pressure’s on, they’re going to stand in there and be who they are and they’re going to make the plays they need to make.”
MASH unit
CCU’s leading tackler on the season, junior linebacker Teddy Gallagher, did not start for the first time this season to rest a leg injury, and freshman J.T. Killen of Lake Wylie started in his place.
Killen is the 42nd player to start on offense or defense this season, which is among the 10th-most in FBS and is indicative of the amount of injuries CCU has had to endure this year.
“Defensively there was a rash of injuries,” Chadwell said. “We looked like a hospital ward a lot of times over on the sideline. But if you get those guys back healthy, and the guys that got to play, if they realize where they’ve got to improve then you feel better that when you go into next year you have more experience.”
Killen filled in admirably, leading the team in tackles Saturday with seven total, including two solo and a share of a tackle for loss.
Going to bat
Coastal celebrated the season-ending victory in the locker room with the individual game trophy, which was a baseball bat with the word “Victory” inscribed. Jackson raised the bat while leading the team through its victory chant.
“Nobody smashed anything,” senior tight end Shadell Bell said. “It was a bat, it could have gotten real rough.”
Significant returns
The CCU football team is graduating a small class of just 10 seniors, so the vast majority of players on the field Saturday will be returning in 2020.
“Because of not having a lot of seniors we’ve had to rely on a lot of young guys and they’ve gotten some good experience,” Chadwell said. “Hopefully the experience they’re getting will be worthwhile as we continue to build the program and try to get this program where we want to be in the Sun Belt.
“. . . We’ve got a lot of people coming back, at least right now, so there are some positives but we’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get better in a lot of ways.”
Chadwell hopes to have larger senior classes moving forward, beginning with 2020. “You wish you had an older class, you wish you had 20 to 25 guys, that means you’ve had guys around that have played ball for a long time and developed,” he said. “Unfortunately we didn’t have that many make it through.”
Recruits on the way
The early signing period for high school seniors begins Dec. 18, and Chadwell said he will try to add 26 players via the incoming 2020 class or transfer portal, including up to 20 in December. The traditional later signing period is in February.
He said the Chants have about 12 verbal commitments now and the coaching staff has a two-week period through Dec. 15 to host official and unofficial visits and meet with high school players in their hometowns.
“I think we’re sitting in a good position to sign between 18 and 20 on this first signing date,” Chadwell said. “. . . Now we have to get other players in here to help raise our talent level. We can love each other to the moon and back and we can be this and that, but we’ve got to raise our talent level here as well.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2019 at 9:59 PM.
