How Coastal Carolina destroyed Georgia State to remain unbeaten, improve to 6-0
Coastal Carolina sure must like the attention.
After two weeks of being the target of several national media outlets for their undefeated start and top-25 ranking, including being featured on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning, the Chanticleers played their most dominant game as an FBS member.
No. 20 CCU destroyed Georgia State 51-0 Saturday at Center Parc Stadium, as redshirt freshman quarterback Grayson McCall returned to the starting lineup to lead the rout.
McCall completed 18 of 24 passes for 254 yards and four touchdowns after missing a start with an upper-body injury to help Coastal (6-0) improve to 4-0 in the Sun Belt Conference with the win over the Panthers (2-3, 1-3).
“We’re going to get more and more notice now that we did beat them 51-0, but we’ve got to stay focused because at the end of the day this isn’t really our main goal,” junior receiver Jaivon Heiligh said. “Our main goal is to win a Sun Belt championship. So we’re going to keep going and hopefully we beat another team 51-0.”
McCall, who was pulled late in the third quarter with the game in hand, has thrown at least two touchdown passes in each of his five starts and also had a rushing TD on Saturday as CCU amassed 530 yards of offense – 250 rushing and 280 passing.
“Our guys, coming off last week and getting all this positive attention and you know more of bigger target on us, we challenged our guys to continue to hunt,” CCU coach Jamey Chadwell said. “They did that today. I’m very proud of how we executed in all three phases.
“We’re trying to stay ranked. We don’t want to lose that. I know that’s something that can go by the wayside quickly. I’m trying to tell our guys to enjoy the ride. Shutting them out, that’s a big deal. That’s our first shutout since 2015. And to do that to the No. 1 team in the league offensively, that’s awesome. “
The CCU defense held Georgia State, which entered the game 11th in the country and first in the Sun Belt in scoring at 42 points per game, to just 106 yards of offense and forced two turnovers.
“Georgia State has a great offense, but I think our defense is one of the best in the country,” redshirt junior outside linebacker Jeffrey Gunter said. “I think we went out and proved that today. I think we have NFL talent. I think we showed that.”
Senior defensive end Tarron Jackson had a sack, forced a fumble that was recovered by Brayden Matts, and helped cause an interception by linebacker Silas Kelly with a hit on Georgia State QB Cornelius ‘Quad’ Brown IV, who threw for just 30 yards on 10 attempts.
Heiligh had two TDs among his five catches for a team-high 81 receiving yards, and C.J. Marable and Kameron Brown also had TD catches. McCall, Reese White and Marable, who rushed for a team-high 71 yards on 10 carries, scored rushing touchdowns.
Coastal scored on its opening drive on a 35-yard touchdown reception on fourth down by Heiligh down the left sideline.
Prior to the score, a Shermari Jones 29-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1 was negated by a holding penalty, and the Chants ran their field goal team onto the field late in the play clock on fourth-and-7 from the 35, causing Georgia State to call timeout.
The Chants offense returned after the timeout and McCall hit Heiligh behind a defensive back in single coverage.
“Being able to score on fourth down, that’s big,” Heiligh said. “That’s what set the momentum really and we kind of just carried it the rest of the game.”
The Chants scored three touchdowns in 5:07 of game time in the second quarter to pull away.
Marable scored on an 18-yard pass on a wheel route out of the backfield to give Coastal a 14-0 lead. A Jackson hit forced a fumble to quickly give CCU the ball back before White scored on a 13-yard run. A Jackson hit on Brown as he was throwing led to an errant pass that was intercepted by a diving Kelly near the sideline, leading to a 10-yard Heiligh TD reception on a deep slant.
A McCall 2-yard run with 50 seconds remaining in the second quarter gave the Chants a 34-0 halftime lead.
Coastal opened up the second half with a 10-play, 65-yard drive that ended with a 2-yard Marable touchdown run for a 41-0 lead, and added a 12-yard Brown TD reception and Massimo Biscardi 24-yard field goal later in the second half.
“When your offensive line does what they did today, you can do a lot of things,” Heiligh said.
The Chants averaged nearly 7 yards per offensive play, while Georgia State averaged a paltry 2.65 yards per snap.
“You can’t say you go in thinking you’re going to beat a team 51-0, but when you do execute as a team that’s what happens, and when the other team isn’t executing, that’s what happens,” Heiligh said. “We were executing and they weren’t, that’s just how it felt today.”
With six wins, the Chants are now officially bowl eligible for the first time. “It’s a big thing to be able to go bowl eligible,” Heiligh said. “We understand we’re bowl eligible but we want to get to a bigger bowl. That’s the next step.”
The Chants look to improve to 7-0 when they host South Alabama (3-3, 2-1 Sun Belt) at 8 p.m. Saturday.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” Gunter said. “I remember my freshman year we lost eight straight games, just going from that to going to six wins in a row is like night and day and I couldn’t be happier.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2020 at 3:03 PM.
