A record crowd watched as Coastal Carolina rolled past Kansas for another big win
Coastal had the national spotlight with an ESPN2 broadcast and a school-record crowd of 17,697, and the Chanticleers showed out for their collective audience with a 49-22 win over Kansas on Friday night at Brooks Stadium.
The Chants (2-0) allowed the Jayhawks (1-1) of the Big 12, the first team from a Power Five conference to play in Conway, to hang around well into the second half, but scored the final 21 points to pull away for the 27-point win.
Quarterback Grayson McCall was again efficient for the Chants, who are ranked 17th in The Associated Press Top 25 Poll and 19th in the USA Today Coaches Poll. He completed 17 of 21 passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns and has an 82.5 completion percentage on the season, Jaivon Heiligh had his fourth consecutive 100-yard receiving game and Reese White rushed for more than 100 yards.
“I think this was a huge night,” White said. “I personally have dreamed about playing in games like this. I might not have went Power Five but to be able to host a Power Five school for the first time in school history is pretty exciting. And a record crowd. The crowd came and we came and gave them what they came for, so I’m pretty proud about that.”
White comes up big in Whiteout
White, a junior running back, had his best career game on a night when Coastal held a “Whiteout” promotion, encouraging fans to wear white.
He wore out the Jayhawks defense, running for a career-high in yards and touchdowns with 102 yards and three TDs on 14 carries.
The Georgia native was expected to take on a larger role this season with the departure of C.J. Marable, and now has five TDs on the young season after rushing for 62 yards and two TDs on seven carries in last week’s win over Citadel.
“I’m kind of a one-upper. I wanted to do better than I did last game, and I got two last game and I was like, ‘You know what, why not go for three,’ and that’s what I did,” White said. “I’ve never had a 100-yard game in college, and I hope it’s only the beginning and it happens more in the future.”
A freshman force
Freshman Josaiah Stewart had a coming out party Friday. The true freshman, a 6-foot-2, 245-pound defensive end, set a school record with 3.5 of CCU’s six sacks and was second on the team with seven tackles.
“This is like unbelievable,” Stewart said. “Thinking about from where I started playing football until now I never dreamed of this. I never thought I’d be in this position. But these coaches are helping me out and giving me the chance that I deserved and I made the most of it. “
He’s splitting time at DE with Braylon Ryan and Georgia Tech transfer Emmanuel Johnson, as CCU looks to replace current Philadelphia Eagle Tarron Jackson at the position. Stewart broke Jackson’s record of three sacks in a game.
“Me and Tarron, we’re going to chop it up. We’re going to settle this for real, we’re going to see who the top D-end at Coastal is,” Stewart joked. “I did learn from him in the summer when he was around, so that helped a lot. . . . I just want to thank the older guys C.J. Brewer and Jeff Gunter for helping make the game slower for me and easier so I can do my job.”
Stewart, who has the nickname “Superman” among teammates for his athletic ability and strength, decommited from Boston College to attend Coastal.
He graduated from Everett High School in Massachusetts, the same school CCU senior tight end Isaiah Likely graduated from, and Likely likely had something to do with Stewart finding his way to Conway.
Stewart had just one assisted tackle in his college debut last week against Citadel.
“Josaiah was outstanding,” CCU coach Jamey Chadwell said. “Last week he played a little bit but he don’t get to use his skill set when you’re playing an option team, and today he did. We think he’s got a chance to be really, really good. I’m really proud of him and he’s put the work in.”
A special effort
Coastal had a special night on special teams.
Alex Spillum blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown in the first half. The starting safety was unblocked on his rush from the right side of the center.
The last time CCU blocked a punt and returned it for a TD was at VMI in 2012.
“That blocked punt, we practiced that all week long and thought we were going to get the look that we did, and for him to execute that was a huge momentum shift,” Chadwell said.
Spillum appeared to make his second big special teams play of the game by blocking a 56-yard field-goal attempt by Jacob Borcila in the second half. But junior Jacob Proche was ruled offside to negate the block, and CCU stopped Kansas on a fourth-and-1 on the next play. “He wasn’t offsides. That was unbelievable,” Chadwell said.
Though the Chants gave up a couple long returns on their first two kickoffs to allow Kansas to start possessions around its 35-yard line, and a kickoff out of bounds again gave the Jayhawks possession at the 35, the special teams units otherwise excelled.
“Alex is a heady player, he’s athletic, he runs that whole secondary and he’s on a whole bunch of special teams, that’s what makes him unique,” Chadwell said. “He’s like a Swiss Army knife. He wanted me to put him at wide receiver at some point, just because he just wants to be able to help.”
Fourth down futility
CCU was an impressive 8 of 9 on third down conversions, and while Kansas was a solid 7 of 15, the Jayhawks were 0-for-5 on fourth down, which was a key to Coastal’s victory.
“Our margin of error is very small right now. I think that’s pretty evident,” first-year Kansas coach Lance Leipold said.
Silas Kelly and a teammate stopped Devin Neal for no gain on a fourth-and-1, Stewart and Gunter sacked Bean on a fourth-and-2, Kansas’ Velton Gardner dropped a pass on fourth-and-1, Stewart sacked Bean on a fourth-and-10 at the CCU 15, and Stewart sacked Jalen Daniels on a fourth-and-9 at the CCU 17 in the final minute.
“A great job on fourth down, that was huge,” Chadwell said. “And also in the red zone they got down there times and scored one out of three.”
Is Coastal’s defense slow, or is Jason Bean that fast?
The speed of Kansas QB Jason Bean was a problem Friday night.
The transfer from North Texas was a sprinter in high school and showed his exceptional speed with touchdowns runs of 34 and 46 yards. He gained 102 yards on 13 carries.
The 34-yarder came on a scramble to pull Kansas within 13 points late in the first half, and he sprinted past linebackers on his way to the end zone.
Bean took a designed QB run from the shotgun 46 yards for a TD in the third quarter, racing past a defensive back that appeared to have an angle at the sideline to pull Kansas within six at 28-22. The Chants managed to contain him for the remainder of the game, allowing them to stretch the lead to the final margin of 27.
“Their quarterback gave us a lot of trouble. He could run. He was really fast,” Chadwell said. “They gave us a little trouble there and we’ve got to clean that up. . . . We should play better there, and I know our defense will get us playing better there.”
Excessive celebrations
The one negative Chadwell expressed from last week’s 52-14 win over Citadel was a pair of undisciplined unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for celebrations following big plays.
The Chants apparently didn’t learn from their mistakes, and it cost them early against Kansas.
Coastal took an unsportsmanlike celebration penalty after D’Jordan Strong appeared to intercept a pass on third-and-9 at the Kansas’ 35.
But the ball hit the ground and the play was overturned upon review. Kansas retained possession and gained a first down with the 15-yard penalty, then drove another 50 yards for a touchdown to take a 9-7 lead.
Coastal acknowledges 9/11
The Chants wore 9/11 patches Friday to acknowledge the terrorist attack on America 20 years ago and the heroes who arose from it.
“One of our players, his dad died during 9/11, he was a fire chief. He was one year old when it happened but he was affected by that,” Chadwell said. “There’s not a person that experienced that who doesn’t remember where they were when that happened or what was going on. . . . Then to see how everybody rallied around it. We actually came together as a country, so hopefully we can get back to that.”
Chadwell said the Chants will have a Life After Football session Saturday featuring a retired fire chief who was at the World Trade Center the day of the attack and spent four months in the rubble.
“I know it’s going to be powerful and hopefully they can get a better understanding of why that day is so meaningful to a lot of people,” Chadwell said. “. . . None of [the players] really know. I mean they know about it but they just know it as 9/11, and we’re going to share about that because it was impactful. And really what’s going on in Afghanistan now is a result of what happened 20 years ago. So I think it’s very important we never forget the sacrifices that were made and the importance of that day for our country.”
Poll implications
CCU moved up to No. 17 in The AP Poll from No. 22 following last week’s win over Citadel, and from No. 24 to No. 19 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. So the Chants could move up again this week depending on what happens with other teams in the top 25 on Saturday.
Up Next
Coastal plays its only non-conference away game of the season next week at Buffalo. It also will be CCU’s first Saturday game of the season. The contest has a scheduled noon kickoff and will be broadcast on either ESPN2 or ESPNU.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 11:20 PM.
