CCU football claims No. 1 national FCS ranking

For the second season in a row, the Coastal Carolina football team has ascended to a No. 1 national ranking.

The Chanticleers, who opened the season ranked No. 5 in both the FCS Coaches poll and the STATS media poll, jumped to No. 1 in the coaches poll and No. 3 in the media poll as the new rankings were unveiled Monday.

The Chants opened their season Saturday night with a 38-35 win at Furman while the other teams ahead of them in the rankings all lost as former No. 1 North Dakota State fell 38-35 at Montana, Illinois State lost 31-14 at FBS-level Iowa, Villanova narrowly lost 20-15 to FBS-level Connecticut and Sam Houston State lost 59-45 at FBS-level Texas Tech.

“I think it just reinforces where we already are. We have been a nationally competitive team now for the last four years, we’ve been a really nationally competitive team the last three years,” Chants head coach Joe Moglia said Monday night. “This is the second year in a row we’ve gotten a No. 1 ranking. I think it reinforces the fact that we have genuinely arrived as far as that goes. Again, I’m proud of that, I don’t take that lightly, but now the challenge for us is we can’t worry about that. It doesn’t matter what the rankings are going forward. We’re going to have a target on our back anyway; that just gets enhanced with this. We’ve got to do a good job of preparing to get ready each week and that’s still what our objective is.”

Coastal Carolina reached the No. 1 ranking in the coaches poll for two weeks near the end of last season before losing to Liberty in the regular-season finale. The Chants peaked at No. 2 in the media poll last year.

The voting was far from a consensus as seven teams received first-place votes in the coaches poll with the Chants receiving four of the 23 cast.

“I really didn’t think about it. I got email and texts telling me, ‘Congratulations.’ And I said, ‘For what?’ And then I found out about the ranking,” Moglia said. “I was aware of the other scores [among the ranked teams] and I was aware that the other guys had lost. I wasn’t thinking that we would end up 1, but I’m not surprised.”

Sam Houston State and North Dakota State remained ahead of Coastal Carolina in the current media poll.

The Chants were off Monday as usual, but Moglia held his weekly radio show at Buffalo Wild Wings in Carolina Forest and addressed the No. 1 ranking at the start of the first segment to applause from the crowd in attendance.

“You can have a coach that has coached for 35 or 40 years, his entire career, and I bet you 95 percent of every college coach in the country never has been part of a team that has been ranked No. 1 in the nation,” Moglia said during the radio show. “This is the second year that it’s happened to us. I’m very proud of our players and our coaches and the effort they’ve put in.”

The Chants (1-0) travel to Orangeburg this weekend to play South Carolina State (1-0).

Henderson, Brown honored

Coastal Carolina running back De’Angelo Henderson and kick returner Devin Brown were honored by the Big South on Monday.

Henderson was named conference offensive player of the week after amassing 224 all-purpose yards against Furman. Brown was named special teams player of the week after returning three kickoffs for 138 yards, including a 100-yard return for a touchdown.

This story was originally published September 7, 2015 at 1:23 PM with the headline "CCU football claims No. 1 national FCS ranking."