Buzz building as Chanticleers’ home opener nears

Junior left tackle Voghens Larrieux is rather easy to identify around campus with his sturdy 6-foot-5, 290-pound frame, and he says fellow classmates have been approaching him more than ever before with questions and comments leading up to Coastal Carolina’s home opener Saturday night.

And as far as Larrieux and his teammates are concerned, that palpable buzz they’ve sensed throughout the university this week has been a great sign for a program hoping its fan support keeps rising to meet its rapidly accelerating stature on the national level.

“I’ve never had students literally come up to me and ask, ‘What time’s the game? How can I get tickets?’ So it’s definitely exciting this year,” Larrieux said. “I expect it to be the best home game we’ve ever had as far as fans because there’s so much excitement with even the faculty and staff.”

And why not?

The Chanticleers enter their home debut Saturday night against Western Illinois with a 2-0 record and No. 1/2 rankings in the two national FCS polls. They are formally introducing their new teal “Surf Turf” inside Brooks Stadium. And for most supporters of the program, this will be the first opportunity this fall to see in person a team with legitimate FCS national championship hopes.

By all indications, the campus and community have responded in kind.

Michael Jacobs, Coastal Carolina’s assistant athletic director for tickets and revenue, said only about 250 seats remained available for the game as of Friday afternoon and he expected a capacity crowd. Most encouraging, more than 3,000 students claimed tickets this week, requiring the university to find additional sections and standing-room-only areas to accommodate a growing student fan base that had once been representative of the lagging interest on game days.

“It feels good to come back home to our biggest support system, our fans, our family,” senior safety Kelvin Deveaux said. “... It will feel good to get out there Saturday and perform in front of the people who support us most, so we’re definitely excited. ...

“The vibe on campus is definitely supportive and it’s loving and it’s growing, especially seeing where the program has come from in such a short period of time.”

After building momentum the last three seasons under head coach Joe Moglia, the Chants have only further pumped up expectations with their 2-0 start and coming off a dominant 41-14 win at South Carolina State last week.

The challenge should be a little tougher Saturday night as Western Illinois (1-1) visits.

The Leathernecks were dominated in a 44-0 loss at FBS foe Illinois last week, but in their season opener they were thoroughly in control in an impressive 33-5 win over an Eastern Illinois team ranked No. 25 in the FCS Coaches poll at the time.

“This is going to be our most competitive game to date,” Moglia said.

Meanwhile, Moglia added, it’s been a bit of a difficult task preparing for the Leathernecks given the disparity of those first two game results.

“It’s tough to be able to really get a real sense for them on film because their first game against Eastern Illinois, they handled Eastern Illinois, they won that game relatively easily, and then Illinois kind of controlled the second game,” he said. “So one game was controlled too much one way, one game was a little too much out of control the other way, so it’s tough to get a real feel in terms of their bread and butter what they’re really, really good at.”

Focusing just on the first game against FCS competition, Western Illinois looks to be strong defensively despite starting six freshmen and sophomores on that side of the ball.

They also have five freshmen and sophomores starting on the offense, including four on the line, along with one of the better play-makers in the country in junior wide receiver/return specialist Lance Lenoir Jr. The preseason FCS All-American candidate had 280 all-purpose yards against Eastern Illinois, including 156 in return yardage.

At quarterback, junior Trenton Norvell is off to a slow start in 2015, but he is coming off a season in which he passed for 2,891 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Perhaps most noteworthy in terms of projecting potential, the Leathernecks are in their third season under head coach Bob Nielson, who has a proven track record of success that includes a pair of Division II national championships at Minnesota-Duluth.

Of Western Illinois’ 22 offensive and defensive starters last week, 18 were recruited by Nielson and his staff, and his programs have typically taken a jump forward in year three.

That’s what this group will be hoping to do as well after finishing 4-8 and 5-7 the last two years.

“We’re still a really young football team, a team that gets better every week,” Nielson said in a phone interview this week. “We’ve definitely made some progress here and have been more competitive. I thought we were a very competitive football team last year and this year we’ve got to figure out a way to win more games. ...

”Even though we’re very young when you look at our two-deep – not many juniors or seniors in comparison to the teams that we play – a lot of the guys have been in our system for a year or two years and understand what our expectations are and the level of competition we have to play at.”

That last part could just as easily be said for the Chants as well – but with the expectations set at an all-time high.

And Deveaux made a point to underscore that while there is considerable excitement within the locker room as well for this home opener and the expected large crowd, the focus remains within, on taking care of individual responsibilities and assignments to keep this season building toward the ultimate goal.

“Although it feels good to start the season [2-0], to be No. 1 in the nation, we still have to go out every week and prove ourselves and prove why we’re No. 1 to remain at that place where we are,” he said.

“It’s exciting. Teal field, come back to the home crowd being No. 1 in the nation, I mean it feels good to play in front of your support system, your fans, your family. But we can’t allow [other factors] to get us off course of what we’re trying to do. ... Our main focus is taking care of our schemes, taking care of our preparations.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 7:19 PM with the headline "Buzz building as Chanticleers’ home opener nears."