Tailgreeter Cure Bowl: Coastal Carolina vs Northern Illinois preview, TV, odds, tickets
Coastal Carolina (10-2) is seeking its first ever bowl victory, while Northern Illinois (9-4) is trying to earn its first bowl win in a decade. The Huskies won the Mid-American Conference championship a season after being winless, while the Chanticleers went 6-2 in the Sun Belt Conference to tie for third.
Coastal is playing in the Cure Bowl for the second consecutive year. In a battle of Associated Press Top 25 teams last year, CCU fell 37-34 to Liberty in overtime when a Massimo Biscardi field goal attempt was blocked to end the game at Camping World Stadium.
“We want to go get our first bowl win,” CCU coach Jamey Chadwell said. “We’ve accomplished a lot of things over the last couple years and that’s one thing we didn’t finish last year. I know our team is looking forward to that and playing a great opponent in Northern Illinois, the MAC champion. . . . It should be a great game and another opportunity for us to showcase our brand.”
The opponent: Northern Illinois Huskies
Northern Illinois had a remarkable turnaround this season. The Huskies went 0-6 in a 2020 season truncated by the coronavirus pandemic, and became the first FBS team to go from a winless season to a conference title the next year with a 41-23 win over Kent State in the MAC championship game on Dec. 4 at Ford Field in Detroit.
NIU ended its six-game losing streak with a 22-21 season-opening win at Georgia Tech on Sept. 4.
“Coming from the team we had last year, the season we had, it’s been a very good experience,” NIU sophomore linebacker Nick Rattin said. “It teaches you a lot about life, how to handle your downs and your ups. We embraced the hard way through and through, and that says a lot about our team as whole.”
The Huskies are making their first bowl appearance since 2018 and are seeking their first bowl win since 2011, having lost their past six postseason games between 2012-18.
“This is a pretty historic turnaround to go from zero wins to possibly 10,” said NIU quarterback Rocky Lombardi, who helped the team turn its fortunes as a transfer from Michigan State. “So to get a bowl win, it’s not only a win for next season but it’s to add onto the history of this season.”
Seven of NIU’s nine wins have come by one score and five have come either by two points or less, or in overtime.
“I am so proud of that because it takes a lot of discipline, it takes a lot of focus, it takes a lot of coaching to win those type of games,” said third-year Huskies coach Thomas Hammock, an NIU alumnus and former Baltimore Ravens running backs coach. “. . . In college sometimes you think you got lucky. There is no luck involved in football. There’s preparation, there’s execution and there’s finish, and that’s what we’ve been able to do.”
Like CCU, Northern Illinois has a balanced offense and ranks in the top six in FBS in rushing yards per game. The Huskies rank fifth nationally with an average of 234 rushing ypg, while CCU ranks sixth and leads the Sun Belt with 231 rushing ypg.
NIU averages 31.5 points and 422 offensive yards per game, which both rank in the middle of the high-scoring MAC.
Freshman Jay Ducker has rushed for 1,038 yards on 194 carries and senior Clint Ratkovich is a goal-line threat with 12 rushing touchdowns.
Lombardi has completed 180 of 310 pass attempts for 2,416 yards and 13 touchdowns with eight interceptions.
Receiver and kick returner Trayvon Rudolph (49 catches, 877 yards, 7 TDs), Tyrice Richie (44 catches, 540 yards) and Cole Tucker (35 catches, 488 yards) lead the receiving corps.
A solid offensive line is third nationally with just 10 sacks allowed on the season.
Defensively, the Huskies are giving up 32.7 points and 447.7 yards per game this season and have allowed at least 20 points in every game. Defensive back Jordan Gandy has 10 pass breakups.
“I think it’s going to be cool to go against a different offense that you don’t necessarily get to see in the MAC,” Rattin said. “So I think a lot of us are looking forward to seeing different looks and getting that experience,”
Coastal Carolina team notes
Coastal has had a second consecutive impressive season to make the team’s second-ever bowl game.
▪ CCU is the only Group of Five team and one of four FBS teams nationally to be ranked in the top 25 in both total offense (493 yards per game — seventh) and total defense (325 yards per game — 17th), joining Mississippi State, Michigan and Alabama.
▪ CCU is one of five FBS teams to be ranked in the top 20 in both fewest first downs allowed and most first downs gained, along with Mississippi State, Alabama, Purdue and Western Michigan.
▪ CCU is one of eight FBS teams to be ranked in the top 30 in both red-zone scoring offense (89 % — 26th) and red-zone scoring defense (76.5 % — 26th), and is one of nine FBS teams to be ranked in the top 25 in both scoring offense (40.4 points per game — 6th) and scoring defense (20 ppg — 19th).
▪ Redshirt sophomore quarterback Grayson McCall leads the FBS in passing efficiency (207.9), yards per pass attempt (12.12) and yards per completion (16.61), is fifth in completion percentage (73 %), and is on pace to break Mac Jones’ FBS-record passing efficiency rating of 203.1. He has thrown for 2,558 yards in 10 games with 23 touchdowns and three interceptions.
▪ Senior wide receiver Javon Heiligh already holds the Cure Bowl record for catches (13) and receiving yards (178), set last year.
▪ Heiligh can add to his CCU records for career receptions (184) and career receiving yards (2,731.), is 44 yards shy of Jerome Simpson’s single-season receiving yards record of 1,077, and is 11 catches shy of Bruce Mapp’s single-season receptions record of 71.
▪ Senior tight end Isaiah Likely has 816 receiving yards and senior running back Shermari Jones has 988 rushing yards and can become the fifth CCU player to eclipse 1,000 yards in a season joining De’Angelo Henderson (three times), Patrick Hall, C.J. Marable and Lorenzo Taliaferro.
▪ Junior running back Reese White is expected to play for the first time in five games as he has recovered from an ankle injury. White has 516 rushing yards, seven touchdowns and a 7.3 yards-per-carry average. Outside linebacker Jeffrey Gunter, one of CCU’s top pash-rushing threats, will miss the game with a leg injury.
▪ Chadwell said he will be more aggressive with play-calling and decisions compared to last year’s Cure Bowl.
“There were times you try to play toward your strengths and what got you to that point, but there are certain times, the way the flow of the game is going, you’ve got to do something differently,” Chadwell said. “There were a couple times you come back and look at it, in my mind I had certain things I wanted to do and I didn’t do it. I wasn’t willing to take the risk that probably needed to be taken.”
▪ Cure Bowl executive director Alan Gooch awarded CCU graduate defensive lineman C.J. Brewer and NIU’s Rattin with Cure Bowl Community Service Soldier Medallions. “I pride myself on that,” Brewer said. “We do a lot of different things. The past two weeks, we did an adopt a kid in the area Horry County for kids that are not going to get a Christmas. Each position group adopted two kids and each person used their own money like $20-30 each. Some kids want bikes and some just wanted some clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste and books. I really like doing that one. I did the program with the Tim Tebow foundation for kids with special needs. I love doing that every year and take pride in helping out.”
▪ CCU graduate linebacker Silas Kelly has been named one of 25 members of the 2021-22 CoSIDA Academic All-America Division I Football First Team, selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). The full team features 14 members with a 4.0 GPA and 22 members with at least a 3.9 GPA as either undergraduate or graduate student-athletes. Kelly was also on the CoSIDA Academic team last school year. He graduated with a degree in both business management and exercise and sport science in December 2020, and added a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) this month.
▪ For the first time since opening the 2018 season against South Carolina at Williams-Brice Stadium, the Chanticleers will play on natural grass at Exploria Stadium.
▪ The teams packed more than 23,000 meals of predominantly rice and beans for the U.S. Hunger Project on Thursday at Universal Studios as part of the game’s philanthropic aspect.
▪ The Cure Bowl is a fundraising event hosted by the Orlando Sports Foundation that supports the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) and other cancer organizations. More than $3.88 million has been raised through the game since 2015. Orlando researcher Dr. Annette Khaled at the UCF College of Medicine has received $1.2 million of the donated funds.
Last meeting: Chanticleers vs Huskies
This is the first meeting between the teams. CCU is 1-3 all-time against teams from the MAC, earning its first win in September at Buffalo, 28-25.
Coastal vs. Northern Illinois betting line
Coastal Carolina is favored by 10.5 points. The over/under is set at 63 points.
Score prediction
Coastal Carolina 41, Northern Illinois 31: With CCU’s offense practically at full strength and healthy, the Chants will be difficult to outscore, though NIU should keep it relatively close with its balanced offense.
Cure Bowl: CCU vs. NIU on Friday: Watch, listen
- Who: Coastal Carolina (10-2, 6-2 Sun Belt) vs. Northern Illinois (9-4, 6-2 MAC)
- When: 6 p.m.
- Where: Exploria Stadium, Orlando, Florida
- Occasion: CCU’s second bowl appearance
- TV: ESPN2 (streaming through www.espn.com/watch)
- TV talent: Mike Morgan (play by play), Kirk Morrison (analyst), Dawn Davenport (sideline)
- Radio: WRNN 99.5 FM; SiriusXM Satellite Radio - Bowl Season Radio
Tickets: Are available at the Exploria Stadium box office on game day or through Ticketmaster.com
Weather: Temperatures are forecast to be in the low to mid-70s with partly cloudy skies, a minimal chance of rain and winds at approximately 5-8 mph, according to weather.com.
- Live stats: Through
What is a Chanticleer?
Coastal Carolina has one of the more unique nicknames and mascots in all of sports. The Chanticleer is featured in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and is a rooster that rules the barnyard with cunning and wit. He battles to the end using his brain to come out victorious.
The rooster is a play off the University of South Carolina’s Gamecock, as CCU was part of the USC system until becoming independent in 1993. It’s pronounced ‘SHON-ti-cleer’ and the school doesn’t take kindly to mispronunciations.
Where is Coastal Carolina located?
CCU is in Conway, South Carolina, a neighboring town to the better known Myrtle Beach. The college is east of the center of Conway and is only about 12 miles from the beach along the Atlantic Ocean.
Conway is a more quaint town with a riverfront along the Waccamaw River compared to Myrtle Beach’s vibrant and bustling tourism businesses featuring nightlife, shopping, restaurants, beachwear stores and miniature golf courses.
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 6:55 AM.
