CCU Football Notebook: Chants looking for sharper performance on defense after inconsistent start

The Coastal Carolina defense has shown what it’s capable of this season when everything is working, thoroughly shutting down S.C. State just two weeks ago for one of the more dominating performances in defensive coordinator Clayton Carlin’s four seasons with the program.

Last weekend, though, the Chanticleers showed they are also still very much a work in progress on that side of the ball.

No. 1/2-ranked Coastal Carolina came up with two game-saving stops late in its 34-27 win over Western Illinois on Saturday, but for the second time in three games, the Chants allowed more than 500 yards of offense as the Leathernecks tallied 370 yards through the air and 176 on the ground while taking four leads.

“I thought we made some progress, but we took a step back,” Carlin said in reviewing that performance.

The Chants (3-0) will try to bounce back this week against a 2-0 Bryant team tied for 77th in the FCS in total offense at 324 yards per game, but they could be without a key starter Saturday as senior defensive end Calvin Hollenhorst’s status is uncertain.

“He banged up his elbow the other day. He’s got elbow [and] shoulder issues, so I’d say right now he could play, but he’s a question mark,” coach Joe Moglia said Wednesday.

If Hollenhorst can’t go, senior Aaron McFarland would take over. Meanwhile, the Chants will get a boost in the secondary as senior nickel Datarius Allen (ankle) is expected to return to action after missing two games. That’s significant as the team’s depth at that spot is thin right now with reserves Dimitri Lee and Eric Church out several weeks with knee injuries.

Regardless of who is or isn’t in the lineup, though, Carlin wants to see a sharper performance from his unit, attributing the Chants’ inconsistency to mental mistakes.

“The good thing was I thought we kept our poise in a tight game against a really good team. So that was good,” he said of the win Saturday. “What needs to be fixed is we had a lot of mental errors. That’s on us. We can’t do that against a talented team, a well-coached team.”

One of the most glaring mistakes came on a 38-yard completion for Western Illinois in which quarterback Trenton Norvell found J’Vaughn Williams wide open behind the defense to set up a touchdown two plays later. Carlin called the play “a complete bust” as the safety was supposed to pick up Williams in coverage.

In general, sophomore safety Kerron Johnson said the Chants simply need to do a better job communicating as a defense.

“Our biggest issue right now is that we have to consistently do the ordinary things extraordinarily well, like coach always says,” Johnson said. “So when we are communicating with each other and echoing calls back to each other, it’s flawless. But those mental breakdowns come from us not communicating with each other and probably focusing too much on what we’ve got to do individually instead of the team collectively together.”

The defense was something of a question entering the season with five new starters and a leadership void after losing three-time Big South Defensive Player of the Year Quinn Backus, but Carlin reiterated that he doesn’t feel the relative inexperience at some positions should be a factor at this point.

“At some point you’ve got to throw that out the window. There’s no excuses,” he said. “So we’ll keep plugging.”

Ross ready to go

Senior quarterback Alex Ross is good to go after spraining his ankle on the first play of the game last Saturday.

Ross played through the injury and finished 15-of-23 passing for 153 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions in the win over Western Illinois, but it was clear the ankle was bothering him. He’s been back at practice this week, though, preparing for Bryant.

“His ankle is still a little sore. We’re anticipating he’ll be ready to go, but his ankle is still bothering him,” Moglia said Wednesday. “He was in practice yesterday, wasn’t wearing a boot, but the ankle is still sore.”

Ross, meanwhile, was more definitive about his status.

“It’s very minor. It just got rolled up on a little bit, but nothing too serious,” he said.

Fan support

Coastal Carolina reported a record Brooks Stadium crowd of 10,311 for the home opener, including an overflowing student section, and Moglia and the players speaking at the team’s weekly news conference Wednesday shared their appreciation for that fan support.

“Our guys all very much appreciate that and I want to thank the students for having been as supportive as they were last Saturday, and certainly we’ll be looking forward to them just continuing to do that,” Moglia said. “For those students that are not there, appreciate kind of really what’s going on. It is a fun environment. It is an exciting environment. Everything we talk about is the fact that we represent them, so when they’re there that means a lot to us.”

Junior left tackle Voghens Larrieux and Johnson said they fed off the crowd during the game.

“It was awesome. It was probably the best crowd I’ve seen at a home game since I’ve been here,” Larrieux said. “Just the energy level and especially on third down for the defense, everybody’s cheering. It was just very energetic. I enjoyed it.”

Said Johnson: “It honestly felt good. We felt appreciated and it just made me want to go harder. I think that’s probably the loudest I’ve ever seen our stadium. That last drive, I was cramping up a lot and I just knew I had to keep going.”

As of Wednesday, Coastal Carolina had 250 standing-room only tickets remaining for the game Saturday night against Bryant and had about 800 student tickets claimed so far after capping student tickets at 3,600 last week.

Success in close games

Two of the Chants’ three wins this season have been decided by a touchdown or less, continuing the program’s track record of success in close games under Moglia.

In his four seasons, Coastal Carolina is 9-4 in games decided by seven points or fewer.

The players attributed that to the way the coaching staff sets up practice, preparing for the pivotal situations that decide such games.

“We do the third-and-9, third-and-6, third-and-3, fourth-and-1, fourth-and-2, fourth-and-3 (scenarios). They put us in the situations so that when were put in those situations [in a game] we can excel,” Johnson said. “For example, at the end of practice coach will put the field goal team up and he’ll have the whole team screaming at (junior kicker Ryan) Granger, and if he makes it we’ve got two sprints; if he misses it we’ve got six sprints. So we’re just used to being put under pressure in a loud atmosphere. We’re just used to being put in those situations.”

Said Larrieux: “Our coaches really try to emphasize game speed in our practices, just game atmosphere. The thing I realized at the start of last year was that our practice wasn’t that much different from the game. Even how the scout [team] plays, everybody goes hard. I think that’s why we’re successful as a team.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 6:20 PM with the headline "CCU Football Notebook: Chants looking for sharper performance on defense after inconsistent start."