How Coastal Carolina overcame the loss of starting QB McCall in first game as ranked team
Coastal Carolina had a target on its back Saturday in its first game with a FBS national top 25 ranking in program history.
What the No. 24/25 Chanticleers didn’t have was the services of phenom redshirt freshman starting quarterback Grayson McCall, who was announced out against Georgia Southern prior to kickoff because of an upper body injury.
Coastal (5-0) will likely hold onto its ranking – it is No. 24 in the Amway Coaches Poll and No. 25 in the AP Top 25 – and standing as perhaps the best team in the Sun Belt Conference following its 28-14 win at Brooks Stadium.
“It’s big for us,” CCU coach Jamey Chadwell said. “When you get ranked all the eyes are on you. You never want to be that team that gets their one shot, we don’t want to be the flash in the pan, so to speak. For us to get the win and be 3-0 in our league it gives us . . . a good opportunity there.”
The Chants, who improved to 3-0 in the conference, scored two touchdowns in less than two minutes midway through the fourth quarter to break a tie and pull away from the Eagles (3-2, 1-2).
Junior Fred Payton, who started 10 games over the past two seasons, started in place of McCall and threw a pair of interceptions but also threw for 252 yards and three touchdowns in the win, completing 15 of 28 passes.
“First time playing this season, I’m not going to say it was rust as much as getting back into the flow of things,” Payton said. “I felt pretty good out there today, but it took a little while to get going momentum-wise. . . . After that [second interception] it was just keep playing and be fearless. You’re not going to win the game if you’re not attacking.”
Coastal outgained Georgia Southern 382-218 and held the Eagles to 2-of-12 on third down with two interceptions by cornerback D’Jordan Strong, six tackles for loss and four sacks, including two by linebacker Enock Makonzo.
“For the most part they couldn’t drive the ball on us consistently. I thought our defense did a great job of containing them, not letting them get out for big plays. And they handled their business. In a game like this, when you’re down your starting quarterback and you’ve got to have people step up, and your defense has got to play up to what they’re capable of, if you saw today they were relentless.
“. . . They really won the ballgame for us.”
Coastal took a 21-14 lead with 9 minutes to play on a 24-yard Payton touchdown pass to C.J. Marable over the middle.
Coastal finally found success on the ground on the five-play scoring drive, as Shermari Jones and Marable combined to gain 39 yards on four carries to set up the TD pass. The Chants had just 58 rushing yards – including 2 yards in the first half against an Eagles defense that was stacking up the line of scrimmage – before the four-run outburst.
Reese White scored on a 20-yard run, one play after Jaivon Heiligh returned a punt 40 yards, to give the Chants a two-score lead with 7 minutes to play. The Chants ended up rushing for 130 yards on 41 carries with 128 yards in the second half.
“You could tell they prepared for our run game very well with C.J. Marable in the backfield, so we had to find another way to get it done,” Payton said.
The Chants forced a turnover on downs and a late Strong interception sealed the win.
Coastal has now won three Sun Belt games in a season for the first time in its four seasons in the conference. The Chants have finished 2-6 in league play in each of the past three years.
“I’m very disappointed with our performance today,” Eagles coach Chad Lunsford said. “We got outcoached, we got outplayed, we got our butts kicked, plain and simple. There’s no way to sugarcoat that. We were in the game coming out of halftime and Coastal ended up wanting it more than we did.”
The game was back and forth through three quarters.
Coastal struck first on its second possession, as Payton found Sam Denmark wide open over the middle for a 72-yard touchdown pass that matched CCU’s longest scoring play of the season.
Coastal got the game’s first turnover on a Strong interception of a Shai Werts pass at the Georgia Southern 25 that he returned to the 21. But on the very next play linebacker Rashad Byrd intercepted Payton by flashing in front of a pass at the Eagles’ 18 to thwart the scoring opportunity.
Coastal forced a punt from midfield following the turnover – the Chants forced a turnover or punt on GSU’s first four possessions – but it was forced to punt after three plays on the ensuing possession and GSU senior speedster Wesley Kennedy III tied the game with a 60-yard punt return.
Kennedy bobbled Charles Ouverson’s 51-yard punt in the middle of the field, darted up the middle and broke a tackle while cutting to the right sideline, where he followed a convoy of blockers to the end zone.
A sack for a loss of 13 yards by Makonzo and tackle of Werts, who received an IV for cramping in the third quarter, for a 5-yard loss on a quarterback draw by senior LB Myles Olufemi on successive plays forced a Georgia Southern punt that led to CCU’s second score on just a four-play drive.
Payton hit Heiligh for 54 yards down the middle of the field to the Eagles’ 5, and a pass interference call against Heiligh in the end zone set up a 2-yard Payton touchdown pass to Kameron Brown that gave CCU a 14-7 lead with 9 minutes left in the first half.
The Chants were looking to add to their lead after Alex Raynor missed a 42-yard field goal attempt to the right with 4 minutes left in the first half, but the Eagles instead converted their second interception of Payton into a game-tying touchdown with 24 seconds remaining in the half.
Payton was looking for Denmark on the left sideline while scrambling to his left but cornerback Derrick Canteen stepped in front of the pass.
A nice leaping catch at the Coastal 5 by Malik Murray for a 32-yard gain on third-and-7 set up a 5-yard scoring run by J.D. King to tie the game at 14.
Coastal drove 66 yards in 14 plays to set up a 41-yard field goal attempt by Massimo Biscardi early in the fourth quarter. But Biscardi, who beat Louisiana with a 40-yard field goal with 4 seconds to play last Wednesday, missed wide left.
CCU took the lead for good and extended its lead on its next two possessions, however.
“Going into a tie ball game into halftime, everybody had to settle down and get the nerves out and realize we’re here for a reason,” said Payton, who got the bulk of snaps with the starting offense in practices this week and said he was told Thursday to expect to start. “We’re on this national stage for a reason, we’re in the top 25 for a reason. We just wanted our respect. So settling down and playing like ourselves, which got us up 14 points, it felt great.”
Chadwell said he isn’t sure if McCall will be healthy enough to start next Saturday at Georgia State.
McCall entered the weekend third in college football in QB Rating (passing efficiency) and fifth in total QBR. He is completing 68 percent of his passes for 930 yards and 11 touchdowns with one interception, and is second on the team in rushing with 184 yards and three scores on 42 carries.
In his CCU career, Payton has completed 183 of 291 passes (63 percent) for 2,350 yards and 21 touchdowns with 11 interceptions. He has also rushed for 324 yards on 101 carries with two rushing TDs in the Chants’ spread option offense.
“For us to find a way to win when you’re down certain people, for us to pull that out against a good team I’m very proud of our guys and the way they handled some of the adversity,” Chadwell said.
This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 3:27 PM.
