CCU Notebook: How Coastal could clean up with multiple national player, coach awards
Coastal Carolina’s players and coaches have already received multiple awards and honors for the team’s remarkable season up to this point, and they have a chance to win some of the nation’s most prestigious awards at the end of the season.
The awards start at the top with head coach Jamey Chadwell, who agreed to a contract revision and extension through the 2027 season that was announced Wednesday.
Chadwell is one of five Werner Ladder American Football Coaches Association FBS Regional Coach of the Year winners. The Region 2 winner is joined by Indiana’s Tom Allen, Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell, Marshall’s Doc Holliday and San Jose State’s Brent Brennan.
The five regional winners are the finalists for the AFCA’s national coach of the year honor, which will be announced when they are honored during a virtual AFCA Convention on Jan. 12.
Chadwell won an AFCA regional honor at the FCS level in 2013 when he led Charleston Southern to a 12-3 record.
He is also a candidate for the national Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant Coach of the Year award, and Home Depot Coach of the Year Award as selected by ESPN and ABC college football analysts and awarded on Jan. 7 during a college football awards show on ESPN.
His top assistant, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Chad Staggs, has been named one of 15 semifinalists for the Broyles Award, which honors the nation’s top assistant coach.
In his second year at CCU, Staggs’ defense ranks in the top 40 nationally in 12 statistical categories including second in turnovers forced (22), third in interceptions (14), 16th in scoring defense (18.7 ppg), 18th in fumbles recovered (8), 19th in sacks per game (3), 20th in fourth-down conversion percentage defense (40%), 25th in passing efficiency defense (118.31), 28th in total defense (340.7 ypg), 31st in passing yards allowed (202.8 ypg), and 39th in both rushing yards allowed (137.9 ypg) and third-down conversion percentage defense (37%).
A selection committee of former head coaches, broadcasters, and a committee representing the Football Writers Association of America has narrowed the list and will select five finalists then a winner.
CCU redshirt senior center Sam Thompson was named one of 10 semifinalists for the Burlsworth Trophy, which is presented annually to the nation’s top player who began his career as a walk-on. Former Socastee High and Clemson standout Hunter Renfrow is a past winner.
He is also on the watch list for the Rimington Trophy that honors the nation’s top center. The 5-9, 300-pound center had no FBS or FCS offers coming out of high school and joined the team in 2017 after attending school as a regular student in 2016-17.
He has started 21 games at center in 2019, and this season he has started all 11 games.
“He’s obviously a great leader for us at center,” Chadwell said of Thompson. “Our freshman offensive lineman Willie Lampkin is playing at a high level and a big reason for that is he has Sammie right beside him helping him do what he needs to do. . . . As the center you’re calling that whole show, and for him to be able to do that and play at a high level and play against people they say are going to dominate him and all that, he’s played consistent all year, and he means a lot to his teammates.”
CCU’s offensive line was selected as one of 11 semifinalists for the Joe Moore Award, presented annually by the Foundation for Teamwork to the nation’s top offensive line unit. Other semifinalists include Alabama, Buffalo, BYU, Iowa, Iowa State, Kentucky, Louisiana, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Texas A&M. The Moore Award is the only national award given to an entire position group.
Senior defensive end Tarron Jackson has been piling up the awards. He is one of 10 finalists for the 2020-21 Senior CLASS Award that recognizes a senior student-athlete that has notable achievements in four areas: community, classroom, character, and competition.
Jackson is also one of five national finalists for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, which is awarded by the FWAA to the national defensive player of the year, one of 18 semifinalists for the Bednarik Award, which is awarded by the Maxwell Football Club to the outstanding defensive player of the year, and a semifinalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy, which is presented by the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame to college football’s premier scholar-athlete.
Jackson also received an invitation to the Reese’s Senior Bowl, which he accepted over a Hula Bowl invitation.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Grayson McCall is also up for multiple awards. He’s one of 18 semifinalists for the 84th Maxwell Award, which is given to the collegiate player of the year by the Maxwell Football Club, and is a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien national quarterback of the year award.
On Thursday, he was named one of 12 finalists for The Manning Award, which is sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl in honor of the college football accomplishments of Archie, Peyton, and Eli Manning, and is the only quarterback award that takes the candidates’ bowl performances into consideration in its balloting.
For the third time this season, McCall was named the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week, a Manning “Star of the Week,” and one of four freshmen named to the FWAA “Fresh Four” list.
The betting website www.SportsBettingDime.com lists Chadwell as the favorite for the Home Depot Coach of the Year Award and Jackson as the favorite for the Nagurski award.
Selection Sunday
If Coastal wins Saturday and is selected for a New Year’s Six bowl on Sunday, it will be playing in either the Goodyear Cotton Bowl outside Dallas on Dec. 30, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Jan. 1, or PlayStation Fiesta Bowl outside Scottsdale, Arizona, on Jan. 2.
The Rose Bowl and Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 are the semifinal games this year, and the Capital One Orange Bowl on Jan. 2 then takes the top-ranked ACC program that is not in the playoff and pairs it with the top-ranked remaining SEC or Big Ten team.
The College Football Playoff committee then assigns the teams that will participate in the other three bowls.
If Coastal earns the automatic berth as the highest-ranked champion from the Group of Five conferences it will play in either the Peach or Fiesta bowls. If it is selected as an at-large team it can play in any of the three.
The semifinal matchups will be announced at noon Sunday, and the matchups in the other four NY6 bowls will be announced at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
Playing the games
Sun Belt commissioner Keith Gill had a chance on Monday to explain his stance on Coastal Carolina having to play its game against Troy last week.
Though it likely created a competitive advantage for Louisiana to have the Chants play while the Ragin’ Cajuns had an extra week to rest and prepare for the conference championship, Troy entered the game 5-5 overall and 3-3 in the conference and would have become more attractive to prospective bowl games with a winning record and win over Coastal. The game was postponed from Nov. 14 because of coronavirus cases within the Trojans program.
“We play the games on our schedule. When we started that’s what we said we were going to do,” Gill said. “We set up a set of rules and set of protocols we were going to follow, and we followed those and so that game was on their schedule. . . . At the end of the day, we are trying to give opportunities for all of our students. To not play that game would have certainly had some adverse impacts on Troy in terms of their opportunities, and we are in the business of giving opportunities, not taking them.”
CCU spent a week preparing for the Trojans and incurred a number of injuries in the game, losing at least starting left tackle Antwine Loper for the title game.
“Every year people play teams that are coming off byes when they didn’t, and they have byes when they’re playing teams that don’t. It’s just the way the schedule sets up,” Gill said. “. . . That’s a common occurrence throughout scheduling and sometimes the team in one position wins and sometimes it’s the other.”
Mormons vs. Mullets II?
Despite how entertaining CCU’s game against BYU was, and how it captivated the country when the Cougars agreed to replace Liberty two days before the game and played in Conway following ESPN College GameDay’s broadcast from the stadium, Chadwell said not to expect the teams playing regularly.
One game at BYU is likely in the coming years as a reciprocal for the CCU home game, however.
“It was a great game and I’m sure we’ll have to play them again at some point,” Chadwell said. “It’s honestly great for college football, but from a recruiting standpoint and some of that it doesn’t make a lot of sense because we don’t recruit that far out. So I don’t see it becoming an annual thing by any means.”
Kicking conundrum
CCU junior placekicker Massimo Biscardi was a Sun Belt All-Conference Second Team preseason selection and has lived up to the billing on field goal attempts, hitting 9 of 10 including a 51-yarder.
He beat Louisiana with a game-winning 40-yarder with 4 seconds remaining, and his one miss is between 40 and 49 yards.
But he has inexplicably missed four of 50 extra-point attempts, which are 20-yard kicks, and it has nearly cost Coastal in two games when he missed PATs after CCU’s first touchdowns against Appalachian State and Brigham Young.
“Any time you miss extra points it’s a concern because it makes the game that much more challenging,” Chadwell said. “Two of the last [four] weeks we’ve missed extra points in two really huge games. That puts a lot of pressure on your offense and puts a lot of pressure on the coach. Now decisions have to be made.
“We shouldn’t be missing them. We have a great kicker, Massimo, he’s one of the best around but he knows he can’t miss those things.”
Coastal is only 1 of 5 on two-point conversions – the successful conversion coming against FCS foe Campbell – which compounds the problem of missed PATs. Chadwell chased the points after the first miss against App State and CCU was 0-for-3 on two-point attempts in the game, which resulted in the Chants trailing by two points in the final 2 minutes.
Chadwell did not chase the points against BYU and kicked a pair of extra points after the initial miss, but CCU failed on a two-point conversion late in the game and the Chants led by five points rather than seven when it stopped BYU at the 1 on the final play.
“It makes you sweat a lot more,” Chadwell said. “If you’re up 24-17 on that last drive you can breathe a little bit at least, but 22-17 if they score you’re done. So we have to be better there.”
Biscardi was successful on all six of his PAT attempts last week at Troy.
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 1:40 PM.
