CCU football midseason report

Halfway through the season, the Coastal Carolina football team couldn’t be in a better position.

The Chanticleers are 6-0, ranked No. 1 in the FCS Coaches Poll and No. 3 in the STATS FCS media poll as they enter their bye week.

And yet, neither the offense nor the defense feels it’s played to its full potential.

Health has something to do with that as key starters have been ailing, and the bye week seemingly couldn’t come at a better time.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s been good and what could be better heading into second half of the season.

Offense

MVP: De’Angelo Henderson. After a brilliant sophomore season, “Hop” Henderson has managed to elevate his game to yet another level. The junior star ranks third in the FCS with 758 rushing yards and is also second on the team with 265 receiving yards while totaling 10 touchdowns. And with a touchdown in 20 straight games, he’s tied the FCS record with a chance to break it next week.

Breakout Playmaker: Osharmar Abercrombie. The sophomore running back is putting together a really nice season despite getting limited opportunities behind Henderson. He’s rushed for 322 yards and three touchdowns while averaging a team-high 7.2 yards per carry.

FCS ranks: The Chants rank 15th nationally in averaging 37.2 points per game and 19th in total offense at 450.5 yards per game.

Analysis: The tough thing in evaluating the Coastal Carolina offense is the standard to which it is held. The fact is the Chants have a top-20 FCS offense, which would be the envy of most programs, but because their potential is so great there has been a feeling thus far that the offense hasn’t achieved all it can. That’s a feeling held by the coaches and players as well.

The biggest areas of frustration have been untimely penalties – largely attributable to communication issues with a young offensive line – and seeing too many drives stall in the red zone.

The Chants had perhaps their quietest day offensively last Saturday in their 24-17 win over Presbyterian and offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude is using the extra practices this week to emphasize the need for improvement inside the opponent’s 35-yard line.

“We are consistently shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said. “We dropped too many balls, we missed some open targets, we had some guys jump offsides. And those are the things we have to clean up. When we don’t do that, we’re really tough. When we do that, we’re really average. And especially when we get the ball inside their own territory, we have to do a better job of scoring touchdowns and not kicking field goals.”

Senior quarterback Alex Ross, meanwhile, emphasized the penalties as the main area the Chants need to improve heading into the final stretch of the season.

“That’s the most frustrating thing is putting ourselves in situations that are going to make second down longer and third down longer,” he said. “It’s difficult, not a lot of teams complete a high percentage on third-and-long. Getting ourselves out of those easy situations and making them more difficult on ourselves, that’s the most frustrating thing and that’s something we have to figure out and fix this week.”

Again, though, the potential is there. There aren’t many FCS teams that boast the bevy of impact playmakers Coastal Carolina has, from Ross (1,242 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions) to Henderson and Abercrombie to the deep stable of receivers led by junior Bruce Mapp (26 catches for 340 yards and four touchdowns).

“I feel like we’ve got a great offense,” Ross said. “We’ve got some young guys at the offensive line position, but they’re really starting to improve tremendously. We’ve got phenomenal receivers and we’ve got a phenomenal running back corps, so I feel like we really are going to take off the second part of the season.”

Health Report: Ross has been playing through an ankle injury he sustained in the third game against Western Illinois that has probably impacted his play more than he’s been willing to let on publicly.

But he and the coaching staff are optimistic the bye week will allow him to get back close to 100 percent for the second half of the season.

“He’s probably 70 percent of what he could be,” Patenaude said. “He’s gutted through it, it’s been an amazing effort to just get through what he’s getting through. He’s in rehab pretty much all day – he’s got his classes and he’s in there watching film and that’s pretty much all he’s doing. He wasn’t able to really drive the ball as efficiently as possible and the run game stuff wasn’t as effective. So we got through the first half with him being probably 75-80 percent and now he’ll be healed up and hopefully be able to get back to being the explosive player that he was.

“Now that being said, he’s played really well. He’s just not as explosive and not as consistent being able to do some of the things he’d like to do.”

Said Ross: “I look forward to the progress this week is going to bring.”

Sophomore wide receiver/punt returner Chris Jones did not play last Saturday due to a toe injury, but Patenaude said he will be back in action next week against Monmouth.

Defense

MVP: Jabarai Bothwell. The junior defensive tackle joined the starting lineup when Marcus Crowder decided to step away from football after the first game, and he’s been a stalwart up front for the Chants. Bothwell has been chosen by the coaches as the team’s defensive MVP in three of the six games so far and ranks fourth on the squad with 26 tackles and two tackles for loss. He had a game-high 11 tackles Saturday against Presbyterian.

Breakout Playmaker: Marcus Williamson. The sophomore defensive end has gotten extended opportunities due to injuries at the position and he’s made a nice impact with 17 tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack, a team-high five quarterback hurries, a forced fumble and a blocked kick. And he should only get better with two more years of eligibility remaining.

FCS ranks: After two solid defensive efforts the last two weeks, Coastal Carolina is up to 16th nationally in scoring defense (giving up 18.3 points per game), but the Chants rank just 68th in total defense while allowing an average of 398.7 yards per game

Analysis: The defense has shown the ability to be absolutely dominant, putting together two stifling performances against South Carolina State in week two (a 41-14 win) and Alabama A&M in week five (a 55-0 shutout). But at other times, the unit has been far less than dominant.

The main weakness has been in pass coverage. The Chants rank last in the Big South in pass defense, giving up 261.2 yards per game through the air. Yielding those big plays through the air – and at times on the ground – has allowed a few opponents to stick around late into games and push the team for all four quarters, and defensive coordinator Clayton Carlin feels the breakdowns are on the simple things he stresses to the team.

“We’ve got plenty of room for improvement,” he said. “We’ve got to be more consistent week in and week out and then series in and series out. [Against Presbyterian], we strung together a lot of three-and-outs and then you spit up a run or long pass. I’d just like us to be more consistent. We’re giving up too many explosive plays. If we get rid of them, I think we’ll be that much better the rest of the season.”

With only five returning starters from last season (after Crowder’s departure), there was bound to be growing pains for the defense. But the last two weeks may be signs that it’s coming around as the Chants followed that 55-0 shutout with a nice effort in the 24-17 win over Presbyterian, including a final stand as the Blue Hose failed to tie the game with four tries from inside the Chants’ 10-yard line.

“I think we’re going to take these two weeks to really step up some little things,” junior linebacker Alex Scearce said. “We’re not going to take off even though it’s a bye week. We’re going to stay with what we’ve got to do and try to improve as best we can.”

Health Report: Senior defensive end Calvin Hollenhorst has missed the last three games with a shoulder injury, but Carlin said the two-time All-Big South second-teamer should be back in action next Saturday at Monmouth.

Special Teams

MVP: Devin Brown. The junior kick returner has been so dominant in his craft that opponents are wary of even giving him a chance to touch the football now. Presbyterian did Saturday and Brown looked to have his sixth career kickoff return for touchdown, which would have tied the FCS record if not for a penalty that negated the play. He does have two touchdown returns this season and ranks third in the FCS in kickoff return yardage, averaging 33.3 yards per return.

Breakout Playmaker: Ryan Granger. The junior kicker has been everything the Chants could have hoped for in his first season as a starter, converting 10-of-12 field goal attempts, all 19 PATs and even scoring a touchdown last weekend on a fake field goal play.

FCS ranks: Coastal Carolina leads the FCS in kickoff coverage, holding team to an average return of 13.31 yards, and ranks fourth in punt coverage. None of the Chants’ first six opponents have even tried to return a punt against them yet.

Analysis: Special teams has been a huge advantage for Coastal Carolina this fall, in almost every phase. The kicking game is reliable, the return game is potent with Brown on kickoffs and Jones on punts and the coverage units have been simply excellent.

Health Report: Jones (see offense).

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 4:45 PM with the headline "CCU football midseason report."