Chants look to keep rolling against Blue Hose

For as long as coach Joe Moglia and staff have been at Coastal Carolina, the Chanticleers have piled up yards and points in bunches against Presbyterian.

Well, they’ve done that against a lot of teams, but none more consistently than the Blue Hose.

The Chants’ 50.3 points per game the last three seasons against Presbyterian is their highest average against any opponent they’ve played at least three times since 2012, and there’s no indication the matchup will be any different Saturday as the Blue Hose visit Brooks Stadium for the teams’ Big South opener.

For what it’s worth.

“I mean, the past is the past. You can’t focus on that when you’re playing a team,” senior quarterback Alex Ross said. “Especially when you’re the top team in the country – everyone’s going to come after you, as you’ve seen every other week as far as Bryant, Western Illinois. Everyone’s going to come after us, so we have to be prepared, we have to be ready.”

That was the standard company line this week around practice, of course, and it is true that Presbyterian held a brief 14-13 third quarter lead over Coastal Carolina last year in Clinton before the Chants pulled away for a 40-28 win.

They were “held” to 479 yards in that game after putting up 642 and 625 yards against Presbyterian the previous two years.

But coming off a dominant 55-0 win last week against Alabama A&M in which they scored 32 points in the second quarter alone, the No. 1/2-ranked Chants (5-0) simply don’t project as a good matchup for Presbyterian (1-4), which comes in ranked last in the Big South in total defense while surrendering 428.6 yards per game.

Ross (1,041 yards passing, 10 touchdowns, two interceptions) and junior running back De’Angelo Henderson (second in the FCS with 634 rushing yards to go with 264 receiving yards and nine total touchdowns) are two of the 25 announced candidates for the STATS FCS Offensive Player of the Year award and will look to add to their respective cases against a familiar foe.

“They’ve done pretty much the same stuff this year as they’ve done in the past,” Ross said of studying film of the Blue Hose. “Nothing’s really stood out or surprised me this year. We just have to have a good understanding of what that is and what they’re going to do and just execute our assignments.”

On defense, meanwhile, the Chants will look to prove their stifling performance from last week was a sign of things to come, as they face a favorable matchup on that side of the ball as well with the Blue Hose coming in ranked last in the conference in scoring (12.2 points per game) and total offense (223.2 yards per game).

Presbyterian boasts the Big South’s second-leading rusher in Darrell Bridges (527 yards, five touchdowns), but the Blue Hose have been one dimensional offensively.

Quarterback Tamyn Garrick has completed just 39.8 percent of his passes this season for 413 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions.

For his part, Moglia said the numbers don’t tell the full story.

“I think last year there was tremendous improvement in their overall play and their overall program. I think they were a team to be reckoned with,” he said. “It kind of seems if you look at the stats that they’ve gotten off to a slow start, but I would suggest the following – they’re 1-4, but they played two FBS schools (a 26-7 loss at Miami of Ohio and a 34-10 loss at Charlotte) and they weren’t embarrassed by either one of those FBS schools and they played Chattanooga, which is the No. [6] FCS team in the country. ... I think they’re better than what their record indicates.”

The question, though, is how good can Coastal Carolina be?

Putting together two complete performances in a row would be a nice sendoff into a much-needed bye week for the Chants and a strong indicator that this team is ready for the stretch run.

That’s what Moglia’s hoping to see at least.

“As we approach the second half of the season, the second half Coastal Carolina football team has to become a better team than what the first half was,” he said plainly. “And poise and discipline and combat mindset will get us there.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2015 at 8:48 PM with the headline "Chants look to keep rolling against Blue Hose."