CCU coaches not concerned by defense’s rough start

After talking up his defense last week and saying he expected the unit to take yet another step forward this season, Coastal Carolina football coach Joe Moglia watched a few days later as the Chanticleers gave up 525 yards of offense at Furman.

The Chants did force two turnovers and won the season opener, 38-35, but nonetheless, the yardage allowed was more than they yielded in any game last season.

Only eventual FCS national champion North Dakota State, in a third-round playoff game, managed more than 456 yards (the Bison totaled 500) against the 2014 Chants.

But the opening week performance didn’t reveal any red flags as far as Moglia is concerned.

“I said that I think you’re going to see a big improvement in our defense this year. I did not see that Saturday night,” he said this week. “But what I feel good about is a lot of the things we had breakdowns on are things that we can fix. I do feel pretty comfortable about that.”

Players talked about the general youth on the defense, with five new starters in the linebacker and secondary spots. They mentioned a few missed “fits” on their assignments.

Moglia, meanwhile, saw a simple lack of execution that he thinks the coaches have addressed this week.

“I think we [had been] doing a much better job tackling – we lost that a little bit,” he said. “I think we probably had something like 10 missed tackles, which I was disappointed in that, but six or seven of those we lost leverage when guys left their feet. I kind of was hoping we don’t do that anymore. …

“I think [defensive coordinator Clayton Carlin] did a good job of calling the game, but I think we’ve got to do a better job of executing our calls.”

Carlin also brushed off any big-picture concerns.

“It’s fixable. It’s just the fundamental things. Structurally, I felt good. Fundamentally, I think we’ve got some things we’ve just got to get better at,” he said. “ … The big thing for us is we just talk about swarming like crazy to the ball and just [doing] the ordinary things extraordinary. I don’t think the game of football is very complicated so I think the big plays that happened, the explosive plays – [Furman is] a very, very well coached team – I think those things are fixable.”

Maybe it is a simple correction, but the Chants definitely have some work to do to back up all of that preseason defensive optimism that emanated from players and coaches alike.

Furman quarterback Reese Hannon set a school record with 365 passing yards against the Chants and only eight FCS teams gave up more yards through the air last week, leaving Coastal Carolina and its almost completely new secondary ranked No. 104 in the country in pass defense.

This week, the Chants travel to South Carolina State (1-0) to take on a Bulldogs team that won its opener 35-7 over Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

The Bulldogs alternated between two quarterbacks – junior Adrian Kollock Jr. and true freshman Caleb York – who combined to complete half of their passes for just 163 yards and two interceptions (both by Kollock Jr.).

Both of those quarterbacks are mobile, though, and the bigger challenge this week may be keeping the backfield contained and executing assignments to avoid breakdowns in that regard. The Bulldogs rushed for 173 yards and four touchdowns last weekend without any player totaling more than 40 yards.

“They have two very good quarterbacks,” Carlin said. “They played the true freshman this past weekend and he did a really, really good job. He certainly didn’t play like a true freshman. And then they have experience with the skill positions and they give you a variety of things to defend. So it will be a good challenge.”

Last season, the Chants absolutely shut down South Carolina State in a 30-3 win, holding the Bulldogs to 370 offensive yards and scoring on a fumble return for touchdown. That defense, led by three-time Big South Defensive Player of the Year Quinn Backus at linebacker and current NFL rookie Denzel Rice at cornerback, also finished the season holding all opponents to an average of 19.6 points and 389.9 yards per game – a significant improvement from the previous year.

While this Chants defense may well end up taking another step forward as Moglia believes, it first needs to show it can match the standard set in 2014.

And the Chants will have to now do that with two less proven veterans this week as senior starting defensive tackle Marcus Crowder told the coaches Sunday that he was stepping away from football and senior nickel Datarius Allen is out with a sprained ankle.

Experienced junior Jabarai Bothwell will step in as the new starter at defensive tackle, and the coaches expressed no concern about that spot moving forward. Junior C.J. Thompson, already in a time share with Allen at the nickel, will take on a bigger role there.

Overall, Coastal Carolina’s defensive players say they expect to get back on track quickly regardless of the early setbacks and they’ll get their chance Saturday night.

“It was just all of us [not] being on the same page. We had some fits that we messed up, we have some young guys in the secondary, new guys behind us,” senior defensive end Calvin Hollenhorst said. “We were trying to figure it all out. I’m really not worried about it. It’s little things that we got fixed in the film room this week and we should be ready to go.”

Said Bothwell: “We’re all still young, still learning. … We should be way better this week.”

This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 7:58 PM with the headline "CCU coaches not concerned by defense’s rough start."