He’s back: CCU quarterback Grayson McCall returned from injury against Texas State
Indefinitely turned out to be two games.
Coastal Carolina starting quarterback Grayson McCall will play in today’s 1 p.m. game against Texas State at Brooks Stadium, according to CCU assistant AD for media relations Kevin Davis.
The team ruled McCall out “indefinitely” in the week following a shoulder injury that he incurred in CCU’s Oct. 28 win against Troy,
One of the nation’s top quarterbacks missed the past two games but he was atop CCU’s depth chart at QB this week after being listed as a possible backup to Bryce Carpenter last week.
On Wednesday, Coastal coach Jamey Chadwell said McCall had been increasing his practice participation each day this week and deemed him to be “questionable” to play Saturday, adding that he would have to overcome both pain and possible uncertainty about his ability to play through the injury.
“Every day he’s gotten better from a standpoint of getting back to where he’s close to being where he can go out and play,” Chadwell said Wednesday. “If he plays this week he’s not going to be 100 percent by any means, but he’s going to be closer than he has been in a long time.”
Chadwell said last week that it wouldn’t require surgery and that McCall was making progress toward a return against Texas State.
“It’s going to come down to a pain tolerance,” Chadwell said last Saturday. “If there is pain, how much is it and how can he tolerate it? Does it affect him? If there’s some pain you try to compensate for that, so when you compensate for something that can hurt you worse, so we want to make sure it doesn’t hurt him worse from a long-term standpoint.”
McCall leads the nation in passing efficiency (216.07), yards per pass attempt (13.06) and yards per completion (17.8), and is third in completion percentage (73.4).
This season, McCall has completed 116 of 158 passes for 2,063 yards and 17 touchdowns with two interceptions, and has rushed for 138 yards and three TDs on 55 carries. For his career, McCall has completed 71% of his passes and thrown 44 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Coastal went 1-1 with Carpenter starting the past two games, defeating Georgia Southern and losing to Georgia State 42-40 last Saturday at Brooks Stadium after failing to convert a two-point attempt that would have tied the game with 1:09 to play.
CCU (8-2, 4-2 Sun Belt Conference) dropped out of The Associated Press and AFCA Coaches Poll top 25s for the first time in 23 releases of the polls with Saturday’s loss. The Chants need Appalachian State (8-2, 5-1) to lose both of its remaining games to have a chance to win the Sun Belt’s East Division and reach the conference championship game.
McCall has been named a semifinalist for both the 2021 Davey O’Brien and Maxwell awards that go to the nation’s top quarterback. He has thrown for more than 200 yards in seven of eight games and has thrown for at least two touchdowns in 15 of the 19 games he has started over the past two seasons.
Coastal’s offense ranks fifth in the nation in points per game this season with 42.3 and eighth in total yards per game at 493.
Carpenter, a senior, completed 17 of 29 passes for 233 yards with a TD and interception on Saturday, and completed 5 of 6 passes for 74 yards on the potential game-tying drive.
Texas State enters Saturday’s game 3-7 overall and 2-4 in the Sun Belt, and the Chants close out the regular season at 3:30 p.m. next Friday at South Alabama (5-5, 2-5).
This story was originally published November 20, 2021 at 12:10 PM.
