CCU Football Notebook: Chanticleers release updated depth chart

With the season opener just about a week away, the Coastal Carolina football team released its updated depth chart Friday, providing final decisions – well, for now at least – to most of its preseason position battles.

The biggest surprise was at linebacker where senior Devon Brant, a newcomer from Western Michigan, and junior Alex Scearce won the starting jobs while senior Rayshaud Shields will begin as the top backup.

Shields was named the Big South Defensive Player of the Week in his lone start last season while filling in for star linebacker Quinn Backus against Presbyterian. He was considered a likely successor at that spot when camp opened, and in explaining the decision, defensive coordinator Clayton Carlin emphasized that Shields will still have a role despite shuffling down the depth chart.

“Devon is an experienced guy. He got here this summer and he brings a suddenness and a physical-ness at that ‘Mike’ linebacker spot, and Alex at that ‘Will’ linebacker spot, he’s athletic where he can play the run and we can put him in passing situations there too,” Carlin said. “And Ray will play a lot and we’ll go from there.”

Brant played three seasons at Western Michigan, picking up 13 starts along the way. He was limited to six games last year due to injury but finished strong with 10 tackles in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. He stood out through camp as a vocal presence in the middle of the defense and made an equally strong impression with his play.

Scearce, meanwhile, started seven times as a rookie safety in 2013 before moving to linebacker during last season and coming off the bench in 12 games. Clearly, the transition has gone well enough that he’s thrust himself back into the starting lineup.

“He made that change from safety to ‘Will’ and he just had a real consistent spring and he kept it going through the summer and he’s had a great camp,” Carlin said.

As for Shields, Carlin said the senior has handled everything well.

“He’s fine. Rayshaud Shields is the ultimate team player. It says so much about the type of young man he is and his character, and he knows it’s a long season,” he said. “We don’t use the word starter – we have guys that can play.”

The defense had by far more questions entering camp than the offense, but the final preseason depth chart revealed no other surprises on that side of the ball.

The Chants return four senior starters on the defensive line in ends Calvin Hollenhorst and Roderick Holder and tackles Marcus Crowder and Leroy Cummings.

As expected, senior Kelvin Deveaux and sophomore Kerron Johnson will start at safety, junior C.J. Thompson and senior Datarius Allen will continue to split time at nickel and sophomore Dontay Hears gets the early nod at cornerback alongside returning starter junior Kamron Summers.

Hears and redshirt-freshman Anthony Chesley were in competition for that open cornerback job, though assistant coach Curome Cox had said last week that both would get significant playing time regardless of who started games.

“I feel good about it,” Carlin said of how the defense has come together this month. “I think they’ve worked very hard, I think they are anxious to get to the game and see what we have. But I feel good about where we are at this point.”

Overall, head coach Joe Moglia said he too has a good sense for his team now heading into the season opener next Saturday night at Furman.

“We know exactly where we stand now. I think we’ve got a good idea where we stand,” he said. “I think the offensive line still needs a little bit of work and I think the specialists still need to be tested under pressure. The defense is coming along.”

Assembling a line

Speaking of that offensive line, with all of its skill players back, the only real unknown for the offense entering camp was who would fill the three holes up front.

That answer officially came Friday.

Junior returning starter Voghens Larrieux moves from right tackle to left tackle as expected, senior UAB transfer Daniel Anousheh is penciled in at left guard, junior Dom DiGalbo will be the starting center, junior Sam Ekwonike returns as the starting right guard and junior Chase Tidwell takes over at right tackle.

“We had all of spring and three weeks of camp to figure it out. We had a general idea going in and a lot of it was precipitated by some injuries and guys getting moved around, and at the end of the day the cream rises to the top and the best five guys will be out there,” offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude said. “We’ll play probably seven or eight guys throughout the course of the first few weeks to give guys a break and make sure they’re in game shape. We feel good about the top seven or eight guys.”

After serving as a backup last season for UAB, which folded its program in the offseason, Anousheh was determined to make the most of his final season of eligibility while transferring to Coastal Carolina and he’ll get that chance.

Listed at 6-foot-2, 295 pounds, he was wearing a red non-contact jersey at practice Friday while dealing with a sore hip flexor and groin, but he said there’s no doubt he’ll be ready to go next week at Furman.

“Back at UAB I was a backup at three positions. We were all good so it was very hard to compete for a first-string spot,” Anousheh said. “The guy that started over me is starting at Oklahoma State now. We were all good. But I’m very excited to start.”

And he thinks the unit as a whole has gelled well through camp.

“We have great chemistry,” Anousheh said. “There’s still little things we have to work on, but everything else is working out very good. We push each other to the limit.”

Said Patenaude: “It’s always a little concerning when you lose three starters that have started 30-something plus games. ... The real question and the unknown is what are you going to do when the bullets start to fly and it’s all live, but the guys have worked well together, they’ve really come together as a group and we’ve had good [tests from] our defensive line.”

Special teams

Moglia made a point to say that while decisions had to be made before the first game, that doesn’t mean they were all written in permanent ink.

“There are still a handful of spots where we needed to make a decision now, but there is still competition for those jobs,” he said. “... We still have a half dozen guys or so that could break into the lineup.”

And that tenuousness seems particularly true on special teams where the Chants will be breaking in new starters at kicker, punter, holder and long snapper.

As expected, junior Ryan Granger – who is 5-of-6 on field goal tries in mostly low-pressure opportunities the last two seasons – gets the first chance on field goals and extra points. He and sophomore Masamitsu Ishibashi are still competing to see who will handle kickoffs, and Ishibashi and freshman Evan Rabon are still competing at punter.

“They each wind up going through some periods where they’re good, they’re hot and then they get a period where they get a little cold,” Moglia said. “While both have been able to get the job done, neither has been as consistent as they need to be.”

Freshman Connor Kubala is expected to take over at long snapper while sophomore Tyler Keane, a former Myrtle Beach High School quarterback, will act as the primary holder.

Other depth chart observations

The Chants have three true freshmen listed in their two-deep with Jamarion McBride and Adam Lawhorn backing up at center and right guard, respectively, and Michael Billings listed behind Johnson at safety.

Billings, a two-way star from Georgetown, and Keane, from Myrtle Beach, are the two local high school products on the depth chart.

More attention for Moglia, CCU

A camera crew from 60 Minutes Sports was on campus this week to observe Moglia and his program as the latest national media outlet to feature the former CEO of TD Ameritrade turned successful FCS football coach.

The crew will return to campus for the Chants’ game Sept. 26 against Bryant with the segment expected to air on Showtime sometime after that.

“It’s not only about my story; it’s very, very much about everything that’s taking place at Coastal, the overall university and specifically what’s going on with football,” Moglia said. “I think there are still plenty of people around the country that may not be as aware of what’s going on here as maybe we would like them to know, and there’s still some recruits that down the road are going to make some decisions and hopefully the way we run our program [helps].”

New uniforms

The Chants tweeted out a photo Friday showing a little of the team’s new jerseys, including one with teal on the shoulders with white numbers along paired with a white body and teal lettering.

The team will have separate white, teal and black jerseys and separate white, teal and black pants options to choose from this season.

And as hinted at earlier in camp, the jerseys will bear the players’ names this year.

“I don’t get too involved with the design,” Moglia said. “The guy that makes the final decision on that is [director of football operations George Glenn] along with the team leadership council. We really, really try to do what the council would like us to do.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 8:22 PM with the headline "CCU Football Notebook: Chanticleers release updated depth chart."