CCU Football Notebook: Brown again shows return prowess for Chants

On a night when most all of Coastal Carolina’s dynamic playmakers left their mark, it was only fitting that junior kick returner Devin Brown had his share of the spotlight.

Brown reminded everyone just how impactful he can be as he broke a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the first quarter of the No. 5-ranked Chanticleers’ 38-35 season-opening win at Furman.

It was his fourth career touchdown return, extending his program record and setting the Big South record.

He also became just the third player in league history to return a kick 100 yards for a score.

“Before the play even started we all knew that it was that time to score,” Brown said. “We all wanted to step up for our offense and for our team to get a score. Before we even went out there we knew all the blocks were going to be perfect, everything was going to be perfect and it was. As soon as I caught it, [there was a] big hole just like how we planned, I saw the green and went down and scored.”

Brown went into his Road Runner gear down the Chants’ sideline, and it quickly became clear he wasn’t going to be deterred on his way to the end zone.

“He was going down our sideline so there was a point I saw he had a pretty good shot at it and once I saw he had green grass in front of him I didn’t think anybody was going to catch him,” Chants head coach Joe Moglia said.

The coach added that Brown’s touchdown potential is not the only value he brings to that return role.

“The other side of that, once you do that now [they] try to kick the ball away from him. Now they start to adjust their kickoff,” Moglia said. “... They don’t want to bring it deep on us, so it has that type of effect. And I think when we get our blocks and we keep our leverage – that’s our priority on our kickoff returns – then Devin’s going to have an opportunity to make some plays.”

More records for Ross

Coastal Carolina quarterback Ross had his own big day, showing no lingering effects from his offseason shoulder surgery.

The senior standout finished 27-of-36 passing for 328 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions and rushed for 34 yards.

“I think I did alright,” he said. “A little bit rusty, some things I need to clean up as far as my shots down the field and maybe reading some coverages, but overall I think I did a decent job. Definitely room for improvement, though.”

It was Ross’ 14th career game of at least 250 passing yards, extending his program record, his 13th game with 300 yards of total offense and he moved up the lists in a couple other categories as well.

With his two touchdown tosses, he tied Tyler Thigpen for first on the program list with 53 career scoring passes. They are now tied for second in Big South history. Ross, already the Chants’ career leader in completions, also moved to second behind Thigpen in pass attempts.

Keeping track of his records and ascending school and conference rankings will be a full-time task this fall.

Early returns up front

One of the big unknowns entering the season opener was how the Chants’ retooled offensive line would fare.

With three new starters replacing three veterans who combined for 122 career starts, it was a legitimate question.

Overall, though, Ross and running back De’Angelo Henderson both said they were encouraged by the play of the unit – including new starters in senior left guard Daniel Anousheh, junior center Dom DiGalbo and junior right tackle Chase Tidwell.

“I think they did very well for the first game,” Ross said. “When the season starts, that’s where you really start seeing the growth of those guys. They grow a lot faster once they start playing games. So as far as tonight, I think they did a phenomenal job. I think I was only sacked once and that’s on me, I’ve got to be able to step up in the pocket and get rid of the ball. So I think they did a great job tonight.”

Ross was sacked just once for a loss of two yards.

Henderson made a point to credit the line for helping in his big game.

“Guys opened up some holes. I’m real impressed with the o-line,” he said. “They did an awesome job tonight, our receivers did a phenomenal job on the outside blocking and Alex of course makes the reads and gets the ball so credit to him and the o-line.”

About that fourth down call ...

One of the qualities that makes Moglia fascinating as a head coach is his willingness to think outside the box on game day just as he does in other ways with the program.

That usually manifests itself in creative two-point conversion plays and other bold calls – the Chants were 1-for-2 on two-point tries Saturday night and are now 17-for-30 overall under Moglia in such attempts.

On Saturday night, he get clever again as Coastal Carolina faced a fourth-and-3 from the Furman 6 on the opening play of the fourth quarter.

The Chants led 28-21 at the time and a field goal would have made it a two-score differential, but Moglia called for what was supposed to be a fake. Instead, the Chants never lined up in a field goal formation, instead breaking into a formation with linemen split on each side before repositioning and sending a direct snap to senior running back Andre Johnson.

Johnson bobbled the snap and was quickly tackled as the Chants added no points.

Moglia called it a “mistake” afterward, but clarified it wasn’t exactly what he had called either.

“I thought everybody in the world would have expected us to kick a field goal and there was a little miscommunication on this,” he explained after the game. “What I wanted was a field goal set and a fake off the field goal set, but we got a little fancy. I probably should have called timeout, but I wouldn’t have been afraid to go field goal and fake out of that set. But not all the other stuff. That’s still my call. I said to go for the fake.”

Furman scored on its next possession to make it 28-27, but botched the extra point snap/hold and never did catch the Chants on the scoreboard so in the end it didn’t matter.

Defensive evaluation

The Coastal Carolina coaches and players alike were very high on the defense coming out of the preseason with Moglia going so far as to say it was the best he’s seen the unit in practice during his four years atop the program.

The early results were less than impressive, though, as the Chants allowed Furman to total 525 yards of total offense. Paladins quarterback Reese Hannon set program single-game records with 365 passing yards and 400 total yards.

For comparison, the Chants gave up 403 yards to Furman last season – albeit without Hannon involved in that game – and only allowed one opponent to total more than 456 yards all of last season. That was eventual FCS national champion North Dakota State, which put up 500 yards in the teams’ playoff game.

“I still think, what I saw from the defense in terms of the stuff we did well, I was really pleased with,” Moglia said. “I’ve got to look at the film to find out exactly what it was, why did we have those breakdowns, and we’ve got to be able to fix those. So that will be that defensive staff’s focus. I’ll be paying attention to that as well.”

Overall last season, Coastal Carolina held opponents to an average of 19.6 points and 389.9 yards per game. However, the Chants lost three-time Big South Defensive Player of the Year Quinn Backus and four other veteran starters from that defense.

The Chants did force two turnovers Saturday night as senior safety Kelvin Deveaux and senior defensive tackle Leroy Cummings notched their first career picks. Meanwhile, junior Alex Scearce had a team-high nine tackles in his first start at linebacker

“We have a lot to work on,” Cummings said. “We have to work on our tackling, our approach. We’re doing pretty good, but there’s always room for improvement.”

Up and down day for Summers

Junior cornerback Kamron Summers is one of the proven veterans the defense will be counting on this season, and he showed at times Saturday night why he can be a No. 1 corner.

But he wasn’t immune to the Chants’ collective struggles.

Summers, who finished last season with three interceptions and tied for the team lead with 10 pass break-ups, had two really nice pass break-ups on Furman’s first two series. On the second one, he simply stripped the ball out of receiver Jordan Snellings’ hands after a would-be reception.

But he was also beat on a 57-yard reception down the left side by wide receiver Logan McCarter that set up a game-tying touchdown at the end of the first half as the Paladins made it 21-21 at the time.

And early in the fourth quarter, he was beat on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Hannon to Andrej Suttles that cut the Chants’ lead to 28-27 at the time.

Chalk it up to an uneven day by the defense overall. Summers closed last season especially strong and should only get better as the year progresses.

Rookie jitters?

True freshman Evan Rabon debuted as the Chants’ starting punter Saturday and got off to an inauspicious start while averaging just 26.5 yards on four punts.

It looked like nerves got to the South Florence High School product early as his first two punts did not come off the foot cleanly and traveled 23 and 24 yards, respectively, with both going out of bounds.

He bounced back, though, dropping in a nice 31-yard punt that pinned Furman at its own 11 before sending his final punt 28 yards to drop it inside the 20-yard line.

This story was originally published September 6, 2015 at 7:40 PM with the headline "CCU Football Notebook: Brown again shows return prowess for Chants."