Coastal Carolina opens conference play with an emphatic win. But was it costly?
With a short week and road trip to Arkansas State upcoming Thursday, Coastal Carolina didn’t want to tax its starters Saturday afternoon against Louisiana-Monroe.
CCU managed to get the starters off the field by halftime with a 38-3 lead in an eventual 59-6 win at Brooks Stadium, but was it fast enough?
Quarterback Grayson McCall impressive, completing all 13 of his pass attempts for 212 yards and a pair of touchdown passes to tight end Isaiah Likely.
McCall has 15 consecutive completions going back to his final two passes against UMass last week, which is one shy of the school record set by Zach MacDowall in 2010 at VMI and matched by Kilton Anderson in 2018 at UAB and against Campbell.
But he returned from the locker room for the second half out of uniform with a protective boot on his left foot. He was walking around on it rather freely without crutches, but CCU’s lofty season goals rest squarely on his shoulders.
CCU coach Jamey Chadwell said McCall’s left ankle was rolled on by another player, and he could have continued playing if it was necessary.
“Grayson was taken out at halftime from a precautionary standpoint,” Chadwell said. “He was not going to come back in the second half anyway. . . . If he had to play he would have played there in the second half. It was more of a preventative thing more than anything, because of the short week just making sure we’ve done everything possible there for his health.”
Chadwell said the boot was used as protection against someone stepping on his foot on the sideline and to keep any potential swelling down.
“If we were playing next Saturday he would have come right back out and been normal and nobody would have known anything,” Chadwell said. “But since it’s a Thursday and a quicker turnaround we just wanted to take the extra precaution to make sure if that injury is worse than what we think we’ve done everything possible to let him be able to play Thursday.”
A record crowd watched the game, as Coastal set a program attendance mark Saturday on Family Weekend at the university with an announced attendance of 18,674. The previous high was 17,697 earlier this season against Kansas.
A Sun Belt sweep
Coastal (5-0, 1-0) has now beaten the other nine Sun Belt teams at least once since joining the league in 2017.
The Chants had been 0-3 against the Warhawks with losses each year from 2017-19, and they beat the other eight teams in the conference last year during their undefeated regular season.
“We’ve beaten everybody in the Sun Belt now,” said super senior linebacker Teddy Gallagher, who had a team-high seven tackles. “I’ve heard chirps about that a couple times, people telling me, ‘You guys have never even beaten ULM.’ Well now we have so I guess that’s cool.”
Explosive offense
Coastal added to its impressive numbers that have the Chants among the nation’s top offenses.
CCU entered the game ranked fifth in the nation in scoring at 45.5 points per game and reached 50 points for the second consecutive week, third time this season and sixth time under Chadwell.
That means the team will receive McDonald’s cheeseburgers, as it does every time it posts a “50 burger.” Coastal also eclipsed 550 yards of offense for the second straight week with 557.
Coastal averaged 8.4 yards per play Saturday to exactly match their season average, which was second in the country only to Ohio State’s 8.6 through last weekend’s games.
The Chants ended the third quarter with first and goal inside the ULM 5-yard line. The third is the only quarter CCU has not scored in this season. CCU has punted once in the past two games.
Bennett breaking out
With Shermari running back Shermari Jones missing his second straight game with turf toe, CCU’s coaches had an opportunity to get the ball to redshirt freshman Braydon Bennett more often, and went to him often in the first half.
Bennett finished with 116 yards of offense on nine touches, with seven rushes for 76 yards and two touchdowns and two receptions for 40 yards.
“He’s got breakaway speed, and then today what I thought was impressive was he ran through some people as well,” Chadwell said. “So anytime we can get him the ball out in space we think good things are going to happen so we’re doing our best to try to do that and get him touches, and he’s gotten better and better each week.”
Bennett is the son of former South Carolina running back Brandon Bennett, who played for several years in the NFL. An injury in high school may have kept Power 5 programs from offering and allowed CCU to step in and get him.
“When we came into this year we thought he gives us a different dynamic maybe than we’ve had back there as far as a guy that has that long speed,” Chadwell said. “He’s doing a good job of learning what we’re trying to do, and when he can run inside and outside that makes us very tough. He’s getting better and better and he’s scratching the surface of how good he’ll be there. He’ll be a player of the year type person here before he leaves.”
Bennett has 31 carries for 274 yards this season to average 8.8 yards per carry and has a team-high four rushing touchdowns.
He said his father has been a great influence on his career thus far.
“He tells me everything. . . . But he says just feel it. Don’t think, just react, just play your game.”
Still being special
Special teams continues to provide big plays for the Chants.
Redshirt freshman C.J. Beasley, who is listed on the roster as a backup running back, broke through the interior of the line to block a punt that was picked up by Aaron Bedgood and returned 9 yards for a touchdown.
It’s the third blocked punt of the season for CCU, and second returned for a touchdown. Alex Spillum blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone against Kansas and Mason Shelton blocked a George Georgopoulos punt attempt last week against UMass. Jeffrey Gunter also has a blocked field goal attempt this season.
A 25-yard punt return by Jaivon Heiligh set up the Chants near midfield for their first scoring drive, freshman Liam Gray made the team’s only field goal attempt from 46 yards for his first collegiate FG in the absence of injured senior kicker Massimo Biscardi, and he and redshirt sophomore Kieran Colahan combined to go 8-for-8 on extra points.
Turning the page
The Turnover Cloak was finally put into use on the CCU sideline.
Coastal went 19-plus quarters this season without forcing a turnover, but the Chants defense finally recorded its first turnover of the season on redshirt junior cornerback Lance Boykin’s interception early in the fourth quarter.
“That was awesome, man. It’s been a weight on everyone’s shoulders because there have been so many plays where we would get the ball out,” super senior linebacker Teddy Gallagher said. “Turnovers are those kinds of things where its like you can play awesome and not get a turnover, and you can play not bad and the offense just gives you a couple of them. So we’re hoping one will get us rolling so we’ll have a couple next game.”
The lack of a turnover was particularly surprising considering the Chants led the nation last season in turnover differential of plus-13 with 25 forced turnovers, and they returned 10 of 11 starters and most of the defensive coaching staff under defensive coordinator Chad Staggs.
The Chants had some previous opportunities this season, as linebacker Enock Makonzo forced two fumbles that were recovered by opponents, and two passes were batted into the air in the first half Saturday.
Defense becoming dominant
The CCU defense hasn’t allowed a touchdown and just nine points in the past two games combined.
The starters allowed four first downs and 99 total yards in the first half after allowing nine first downs and 88 total yards in the first half against UMass last week. CCU gave up 203 total yards Saturday and has allowed 361 in the past two weeks while its offense has rolled up 1,115 yards.
CCU held ULM to 4-of-15 on third down, forced eight punts and recorded four three-and-outs. But the defense isn’t satisfied.
“We still have to get better,” Gallagher said. “We didn’t play the best offenses the past two weeks and we have to keep it rolling through Sun Belt play. We’re definitely going to take positive things and we’re definitely keep some negative things from this game. I missed a tackle on the quarterback in the backfield and after the game that’s all I was thinking about, not the plays I made.”
Recording firsts
Because CCU was in command early, the Chants emptied the bench and five players recorded their first scores.
Redshirt sophomores Jarrett Guest (4-for-4, 49 yards, TD) and Zachary Stevens (1-for-1, 5 yards, TD) both threw their first touchdown passes at CCU, and true freshmen Jared Brown and Chris Rhone each hauled in their first career touchdown catches.
Beasley capped an eventful day with a tackle-breaking 15-yard touchdown run, his first at CCU.
Poll Implications
CCU has generally moved up slightly in the Associated Press and USA Today AFCA Coaches top 25 polls with each win, and the Chants are likely to at least hold their No. 16 position in both polls if not move up slightly again with the impressive win against another overmatched opponent.
Up next
The Chanticleers have a quick turnaround to their next game, as they travel to play Arkansas State at Centennial Bank Stadium in Jonesboro, Ark., on Thursday. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.
The Red Wolves are 1-4. They opened the season with a 40-21 win over Central Arkansas but have since lost to Memphis (55-50), Washington (52-3), Tulsa (41-34) and Georgia Southern (59-33) in a game that kicked off at 4 p.m. Saturday in Statesboro, Georgia.
Chadwell said the coaches worked on an Arkansas State game plan Friday morning and the team will meet Sunday, which is an off day in a normal week.
“When you play a short-week game you obviously have to rely on what you do well,” Chadwell said. “You’re not going to do too much and you try to get the best understanding you can of them, then go out and try to execute. Any time it’s a short week I think it really just comes down to who is better at executing what they do because you don’t have time to, ‘Hey let’s throw this in there, let’s try this,’ because it’s short.”
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 5:35 PM.
