How Coastal Carolina football got better with the signing of 17 players Wednesday

Coastal Carolina added 17 players to its football program on Wednesday that the coaching staff hopes will contribute to seasons like the one the team is enjoying in 2020.

The Chanticleers (11-0), No. 12 in the College Football Playoff rankings, announced the signing of 16 high school players and one transfer from Vanderbilt on the opening day of the college football early signing period.

Offensively, the Chants signed four wide receivers, three offensive linemen, two running backs and a quarterback.

Defensively, they added four defensive backs, a linebacker/safety, a linebacker and a defensive end.

“I think we’ve met all the needs, but we’re not done,” CCU head coach Jamey Chadwell said. “There’s potentially up to four that we’ll sign either here in the next day or two because the signing date goes through Friday, then we’ll have some things there potentially in February for the next signing date as well.”

The Chants have been thin at wide receiver this season, in part because of injuries.

“This whole year we’ve been basically five scholarship wide receivers is what we’ve had, and most people carry nine or 10, so that was an area that we needed to fill to continue to build our depth there, so we did target that.”

All but one or two of CCU’s signees are rated as three-star recruits by either 247Sports, Rivals or ESPN, and nearly all of them were verbally committed prior to or early in CCU’s undefeated season.

The 2021 early signing class ranks second in the Sun Belt overall by both 247sports and Rivals, according to CCU.

“Being able to add these young men to the table is exciting because we do feel strongly about what they do bring and the talents they’ll bring to our program,” Chadwell said. “. . . They joined on with the vision that we had without all the success we’re having now. They bought into the vision so I’m excited about them.”

Five signees are from South Carolina, though none are from Horry, Georgetown or Florence counties, and there are five from Georgia, two each from Florida and North Carolina, and one each from Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

“We’re trying to build something, and we want to build this from the inside out. We want to build it with local and go out, South Carolina and go out,” Chadwell said. “Sometimes young people want to see results before they want to buy in. . . . I hope more and more people are taking notice that you can reach every goal and dream you want and do it here at home. It’s a special place and we have a lot of things going.

“. . . We’re trying to put ourselves in the national conversation and I think we can, but it does help if we can get some of those good ones to want to stay at home.”

Positions that Chadwell expects to continue to fill through the spring signing period are the offensive and defensive lines and the secondary.

“I think we’ve got maybe three or four scholarships that are available and those will be the areas we target,” Chadwell said.

Transfers from junior college or the transfer portal will largely be targeted with the remaining scholarships available to bring in players that can play immediately in potential positions of need.

Tre Douglas III, a defensive back from McDonough, Ga., who spent the past three seasons at Vanderbilt and played in 11 games in 2019 largely on special teams, is the lone transfer who was signed Wednesday. He was a four-star recruit at cornerback in the Class of 2018 by ESPN out of Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy.

“We wanted to do as much as we can from a high school perspective and feel we did really well there. We might sign one more high school student-athlete,” Chadwell said.

The Chanticleers may be boosted by the return of many of the players responsible for this year’s success, as the NCAA has granted every player an extra season of eligibility because of the coronavirus and the opportunity players had to opt out of this season.

So Chadwell expects some seniors to consider returning for the 2021 season. Senior linebacker Silas Kelly, who already had an additional year of eligibility because of an injury last year, said Wednesday he was considering returning for a sixth year at CCU.

“Every one of them has been invited back and I hope they all come back,” Chadwell said. “. . . My anticipation is we’ll get the majority of them back. I believe that. I think they’re having a lot of fun. I think they love being a part of the university and what we’re doing here. So I think we’ll have a good opportunity to get as many of them back as we can.

“. . . We’ll see what shakes down here in the next week or two. After we get through Saturday I will have a conversation with all of them and see what they’re leaning to and what they’re doing.”

Many seniors have already graduated, including 12 last weekend.

The Chants play No. 19 Louisiana (9-1) in the Sun Belt Conference Championship Game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Brooks Stadium and expect to be selected for a lucrative New Year’s Six bowl game with a win.

Chadwell expects this year’s success to particularly pay off in recruiting in 2022 and beyond. The early signing period runs through Friday and the spring signing period begins Feb. 3.

“Where I think it’s really paying dividends is for the 2022 class, there are more and more people that are interested and know more about us already,” Chadwell said. “Instead of us having to try to really explain about Coastal and what we’re trying to do they’re seeing some of that through TV. So that’s been good. We’ve been able to get in a lot of doors because of that.”

One local player the Chanticleers didn’t get, Myrtle Beach wide receiver J.J. Jones, signed with North Carolina on Wednesday.

Early 2021 Signees

This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 6:38 PM.

Alan Blondin

The Sun News

Alan Blondin covers golf, Coastal Carolina University athletics, business, and numerous other sports-related topics that warrant coverage. Well-versed in all things Myrtle Beach, Horry County and the Grand Strand, the 1992 Northeastern University journalism school valedictorian has been a reporter at The Sun News since 1993 after working at papers in Texas and Massachusetts. He has earned eight top-10 Associated Press Sports Editors national writing awards and more than 20 top-three S.C. Press Association writing awards since 2007.