How the Coastal Carolina football team got a star defensive player back from N.C. State
In its three seasons in the Sun Belt Conference, the Coastal Carolina football team has had just two players named first team all-conference, and they will be the bookends of the defensive line this upcoming season.
Jeffrey Gunter, who was named to the 2018 all-conference first team before transferring to N.C. State prior to the 2019 season, is returning to the Chanticleers and will join senior and 2019 first team selection Tarron Jackson as a starting defensive end.
Gunter sat out the 2019 season per NCAA transfer rules and requested and was granted a waiver from the NCAA to avoid sitting out a second consecutive year and be eligible to play this season. He has two years of eligibility remaining.
Though the Durham, N.C., native is leaving the area where his mother and two siblings reside, he feels he’s rejoining his de facto brothers on the CCU football team.
“My family is down there. In the two years I spent there, the guys that I played with, they’re closer to me than some of my blood relatives,” Gunter said. “So when I got the opportunity to come back there was no question. It meant more for me to finish there than it would to go to a Power 5 school.”
Gunter has signed a financial aid agreement at CCU and will enroll in summer classes.
In 2018, Gunter (6-foot-4, 260 pounds) totaled 49 tackles, including 14 for loss and five sacks, and in 24 games in his two years at CCU he recorded 75 tackles, including 17.5 for loss.
Last season, Jackson (6-2, 265) set the CCU records for sacks and QB hurries with 10 and 13, respectively, while recording 60 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and two pass breakups.
Both players will be looking for double-digit sacks in 2020.
“I already told him I’m trying to break it, like blow it out of the water,” Gunter said. “We’re real competitive, we compete with everything, so I’m sure this year will be a show.”
Gunter’s return this season bolsters a defense that includes Jackson and senior defensive lineman C.J. Brewer as well as linebackers Silas Kelly and Teddy Gallagher. “As far as front-seven wise, I feel we have the best defense in the conference,” Gunter said. “Our front seven is ridiculous. I think three, four or five of us might get first team [all-conference].”
There were some personal issues involved with Gunter’s transfer to N.C. State, as he returned to the area of his hometown to assist his mother, brother and sister, who were then 9 and 14, through his mother’s difficult divorce.
“I thought it would be best for me to go home,” Gunter said. “At the time it was really difficult for her to take care of them by herself and she was getting adjusted to not being married and all that stuff. I tried to do my best to come take care of her. . . . Anybody who knows me knows my mom is my rock. She’s at every game and you’ll hear her over everybody else in the stadium.
“I did spend a lot of time with them and I’m really happy I got the opportunity to. In all honesty I’m a little sad I’ve got to leave but it’s the best decision for me in my career.”
Gunter was optimistic the NCAA would grant him the waiver to avoid sitting out a second consecutive year. “You never really know with the NCAA,” Gunter said. “It would [have] hurt a lot to sit out a second year.”
Gunter won co-defensive scout player of the year honors at N.C. State, but “it just didn’t work out. It wasn’t a good match,” he said.
The Coastal coaching staff is welcoming back Gunter, who will provide a quality starter and much-needed depth to the defensive line.
“We had to improve our pass rush in a lot of areas, and Jeff was a good player there for us for two years,” CCU head coach Jamey Chadwell said. “We’re excited about getting him back. Any time you can add somebody who has been an all-conference player, I think that’s a big deal.”
A football season?
Chadwell and his staff are proceeding as if there will be a full 2020 football season. The Chants are scheduled to open at South Carolina on Sept. 5.
He said the football staff can currently engage players in virtual team activities for up to eight hours per week and they are holding position meetings twice per week on Zoom. CCU alumnus and Buffalo Bills cornerback Josh Norman was a guest speaker during a team meeting on Sunday night.
There is normally a nine-week summer period in which players can participate in team activities for eight hours per week – generally workouts and meetings – and CCU’s fall camp report date is Aug. 6.
CCU president David DeCenzo said last week that the university intends to reopen the campus for fall classes, which would surely be required to hold a football season, though the school is still seeking guidance from state leaders and has yet to make the official announcement.
CCU, which had finals last week, has held classes online since March and has refunded more than $8 million to students since the campus has been closed for the coronavirus COVID-19.
NCAA president Mark Emmert told ESPN he won’t mandate a uniform start date for the return of college sports, and will instead leave it up to university presidents and state governments. Chadwell expects the NCAA to require six weeks of football activities before the first games, however.
If there is a fall football season – with or without fans in attendance – not all Division I teams are expected to participate. California, for instance, has announced state schools will continue online-only classes at least through the fall semester.
“I don’t think you’re going to see everybody play football this year, but the ones that are, I think they will name a mandatory start date to get ready for the season,” Chadwell said. “. . . We are going to play based on everything we’re hearing.”
DJ eyeing options
DJ Williams is expecting to play professional basketball this year.
The 2019 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Year who posted 51 points in a win over Troy this year was not drafted in the WNBA Draft last month
But her agent, William Clay, said she has received offers from a pair of teams in Italy’s first division over the past few days and is negotiating terms of contracts.
“She was hurt more than any other mid-major player in the draft,” Clay said via text. “Statistically she was as good as the three or four mid-major players who were drafted, but unlike the others her non-conference schedule didn’t help her in that she wasn’t able to showcase her skills against teams in the Power Five conferences or on a national stage in [postseason] tournaments. The combine being canceled was a huge blow as well.
“But there’s still hope for her. Playing in a good league overseas and participating in the combine as a free agent next year will be a good path.”
Men’s hoops adds four
CCU men’s basketball coach Cliff Ellis has added four transfers in DeAnthony Tipler of Ashland, Mississippi and Northeast Mississippi Community College; Daivon Stephens of Pittsburgh, Tallahassee Community College and Eastern Michigan; Tyrik Dixon of Bentonville, Ark, Missouri State University and Middle Tennessee State; and Kevin Williamson of Aiken and USC Salkehatchie.
Tipler was named a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) All-American this past season, which was his second at Northeast Mississippi CC, while averaging 20.4 points per game and shooting 38 percent from 3-point range and 86 percent at the free throw line.
Stephens, a 6-7 forward, averaged five points and four-plus rebounds per game and shot 38 percent from 3-point range last season at Tallahassee CC. He played in 15 games at Eastern Michigan in 2018-19.
Dixon, a point guard, has one season of eligibility remaining after starting all 17 games he played in last season at Missouri State, averaging seven-plus points, four rebounds and 2.3 assists per outing. He played two seasons at MTSU and was named to the Conference USA All-Defensive Team following his sophomore season.
Williamson was an early commit to the Chants during the fall. The 6-5 guard averaged 10 points and 5.5 rebounds per game while shooting 37 percent from 3-point range and helped USC-Salkehatchie go 27-4 and achieve a national ranking of No. 7.
Men’s golf adds two
CCU men’s golf coach Jim Garren has added transfers Jorgen Viken of Norway and Viktor Olund of Sweden, who are both coming to CCU after one season at Concordia University-Portland.
Viken has been ranked as high as No. 78 in the Golfstat national rankings. He had a 71.8 stroke average for the season, which is the lowest in a single season in Concordia history.
Ölund had a 72. 8 stroke average on the season and has ranked as high as No. 35 among golfers under the age of 21 in Sweden.
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 3:31 PM.
