CCU’s familiar spring football practice goal, and how the coaching staff has transformed
Coastal Carolina began another season of spring practices on Wednesday with a familiar refrain: the coaching staff is looking for a quarterback to take the reins of the program.
Rising juniors Fred Payton and Bryce Carpenter have been competing for the starting job over the past year and both started six games in 2019.
The Chants also have signal-callers Grayson McCall of Indian Trail, N.C., and Jarrett Guest of Marietta, Ga., from the 2019 signing class competing for the job.
“I think it’s open. I like both of our guys, Bryce and Fred. They both do some good things, both need to be more consistent, so I’m hoping somebody wins it, and I think that somebody will win the job,” CCU head coach Jamey Chadwell said. “Hopefully we’ll name that right after spring practice, but definitely by the summer after all of our spring training and everything we do.
“Hopefully we’ll say this is the guy who is going to lead us and let him be the guy.”
Wednesday’s practice is the first of 15 that will culminate in the intrasquad spring game on Thursday, March 5.
The Chants began and will end spring practices a full month ahead of last season, when the team practiced from March 1 through April 6, which included an interruption of nearly two weeks for the university’s spring break.
Chadwell said he believes the early start has multiple benefits. February is a new dead period for recruiting so the staff can focus entirely on practices and will be freed up to recruit later this year. The players should have a better recollection of the playbook, they can have a consistent stretch of weight training leading into summer programming following the spring game, and any injuries incurred during practices will have longer to heal before the season begins.
Staff transition
Chadwell announced this week the hiring of four assistant coaches. Josh Miller will coach outside linebackers, Tony Washington will coach wide receivers, Addison Williams will coach safeties and Malcolm Dixon will coach tight ends.
With those hires, Chadwell has managed to transform Coastal’s coaching staff nearly into his previous staff at Charleston Southern, where he was head coach from 2013-16.
Six of his 10 assistants coached with him in Charleston, and many have a long history with Chadwell dating beyond his four years with the Buccaneers.
Chadwell was a head coach for eight years prior to his hire at Coastal at CSU, Delta State (2012) and North Greenville (2009-11). Both defensive coordinator Chad Staggs and co-offensive coordinator/running backs coach Newland Isaac were assistants with him for all eight of those years.
Co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Willy Korn played for Chadwell for two years at North Greenville before spending four years on his staff at Charleston Southern. Defensive line coach Skylor Magee spent six years on Chadwell’s staffs at all three previous stops, Miller spent five years with Chadwell at CSU and Delta State, and Dixon played for Chadwell in 2013 before spending the next three years on his CSU staff.
Those six coaches have a combined 39 years as players or coaches under Chadwell, who is 43.
In addition, Miller and Williams spent two years each on the defensive staff at Furman during Staggs’ tenure as Paladins defensive coordinator in 2017-18, and defensive backs coach Bryant Foster came to CCU from Charleston Southern last spring.
Only offensive line coach Bill Durkin, an experienced coach in his seventh season at Coastal, and Washington, who is early in his coaching career after playing in the NFL, have no ties to Charleston Southern or Staggs’ defenses at Furman among Chadwell’s 10 assistants.
Washington was a wide receiver at Appalachian State from 2009-13 before spending four years in the NFL with Indianapolis, Jacksonville and New England. He was the offensive qualify control coordinator at East Carolina in 2018 and an offensive graduate assistant at Louisville last year under his former college coach Scott Satterfield.
In the community, Washington has served in mentorship and coaching roles for the Cheryl Littlejohn Kids Camp, Danny O’Brien Elite High School Football Academy, and the Jacksonville Jaguars Community Outreach Program.
Williams comes to CCU after one season as an analyst and assistant to the head coach for Auburn football in 2019.
“With the head coach, you have so much more on you than just coaching, you’re dealing with a lot of different things,” Chadwell said. “So you have to have coaches that you trust, that are loyal to you, that you know value the things you value. You know they care about the kids the way you want them to care about them. So when you’ve worked with people you actually have that trust. They’ve been with you.”
“. . . At the end of the day when you’re going into the foxhole you want to go with people you trust that you know have your back and will do everything they can to help you be successful, and I know the guys we’ve brought in will do that.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 6:40 PM.
