Coastal Carolina football back from bye week after BSC standings shakeup

While the Coastal Carolina football team was enjoying a timely week off after a 6-0 start, the Big South standings were undergoing quite a shakeup.

Liberty, which dealt the Chanticleers their only regular-season loss last year and was expected to again be a top challenger for the conference title, is now 0-2 in league play after back-to-back losses to Gardner-Webb and Monmouth.

That would seem to help the No. 1/2-ranked Chants’ path to another Big South championship. But five games still remain, and coaches and players weren’t as concerned last week with what was happening elsewhere around the league as they were with trying to maximize their own potential the rest of the way.

That meant a very specific focus as the team practiced last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before getting two extra days off during the bye week and then turning its focus to Saturday’s road game at Monmouth.

“The reason why I feel confident is because it’s a different feeling on the field,” sophomore safety Kerron Johnson said. “Everybody’s like jumping around, [if] somebody makes a play it don’t get looked past, everybody’s like, ‘Good job.’ Everybody’s out there just working. This second-half team is definitely going to be something to watch.”

Again, the Chants are undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the FCS Coaches Poll. It’s not like they stumbled into the break reeling.

But there was also no question that with a bevy of veteran playmakers, Coastal Carolina could get more out of its offense, and that the Chants’ defense needed to find consistency after an up-and-down start to the season.

So the coaches used the three extra practice sessions last week to hone in on those two points.

“We’re all making a commitment as a team this year that the second half of the season is something that we’ve really got to be focused on,” head coach Joe Moglia said Wednesday during his weekly news conference. “We know what we need to do. If there are things that we are consistently making mistakes on then it’s the coaches job – let’s stop doing those things. Whatever it is, don’t do those anymore. We’ve already been together now for six weeks this season playing games so we’ve got to be able to eliminate that.”

For the offense, the issues have been penalties – untimely offsides mishaps due in large part to a new offensive line smoothing out its communication – and a feeling that the red zone execution has been lacking.

That latter point is not really backed up by statistics, though.

Coastal Carolina has produced a Big South-best 31 red zone opportunities, scoring on 27 of them (87.1 percent), including eight field goals. Overall, the Chants are scoring touchdowns on 61.2 percent of their red zone chances. Those numbers are pretty much in line with the 2014 team, which scored on 83 percent of its red zone trips (62-of-75) and scored touchdowns on 63 percent (47-of-75).

Nonetheless, the message was made clear by offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude in practice last week.

“During the bye week Coach Patenaude got on us real hard. We weren’t executing in the red zone during the season, so we did a lot of red zone work,” junior wide receiver Bruce Mapp said. “Anytime we didn’t score, we had some type of discipline for it during the bye week and eventually you’re going to get sick of doing that, right? So I think by Thursday we started turning it around and then Sunday you could actually see the big turnaround, us picking it up [and] executing in the red zone. Everybody was just having fun with the game.”

Defensively, the Chants simply have to find a way to limit the breakdowns. They’ve been dominant in two games – week 2 against South Carolina State and week 5 against Alabama A&M – and too vulnerable otherwise.

Moglia said the coaching staff continues to work to simplify what it’s asking of the defense to eliminate costly assignment mistakes and he says he was pleased with the response he’s seen in practice.

Johnson, meanwhile, said defensive coordinator Clayton Carlin had his own specific point of emphasis for the team last week.

“Coach Carlin drilled consistency and focus, like laser focus,” he said. “Like walk-throughs, everything, there’s no talking -- it’s straight laser beam focus because when we’re consistently focused and handling our job, we’re doing our thing out there. But when we have those mental breakdowns, the big plays happen. ... It’s the mental errors that give up those big plays and it makes it look worse [than we’re actually playing].”

Coastal Carolina enters the second half of the season ranked third in the conference and 18th in the FCS in scoring defense (giving up 18.3 points per game), but sixth in the league and 70th nationally in total defense (allowing 398.7 yards per game).

Offensively, the Chants are second in the Big South and 16th nationally in scoring at 37.2 points per game and second in the league and 19th in the FCS in total offense at 450.5 yards per game.

“I think our defense is more consistent than we were a year ago, but we’ve had too many breakdowns as well,” Moglia said. “I think they started against Western Illinois and we’re trying to fight our way back from that. I’m still optimistic that our defense will play good football, good consistent football.

“I have no doubt that our offense still has the potential to be an elite offense. We haven’t done that yet. We can do that, just eliminate the stupid mistakes. And a big part of that is the coaching. Stop asking our guys to do something we’re struggling with.”

INJURY REPORT

Senior defensive end Calvin Hollenhorst is expected to return to action this week after missing the previous three games with a shoulder injury. Hollenhorst is a two-time second-team All-Big South selection.

“Calvin is probable. I think he’ll be OK, but he’s probable right now,” Moglia said.

And senior quarterback Alex Ross benefited from the extra week of rest as well while continuing to strengthen an ankle injury he’s played with the last four games.

“Alex looks as healthy as he’s been since he hurt his ankle,” Moglia said.

N.J. TIES

The trip to Monmouth, located in West Long Branch, N.J., will bring a number of Chants close to home.

Coastal Carolina has six players from New Jersey, including Johnson (Woodbury), junior offensive lineman Sam Ekwonike (Cinnaminson), sophomore nickel Eric Church (Pennsauken), junior linebacker Denzell Thomas (Jersey City), sophomore defensive tackle Dwayne Price (East Orange) and redshirt-freshman tight end Laquay Brown (Mays Landing), while Mapp is from nearby Philadelphia, Pa., junior center Dom DiGalbo is from Colingdale, Pa., and sophomore wide receiver Jesse June is from Wilmington, Del.

Johnson said he expects to have 50 family members and friends at the game.

“I’m very excited because it will be the first time I’ll be playing this close to home since I’ve been playing,” he said. “Not many of my family have been able to make it down to see me, so this will be the first time some of my family have seen me play since high school.”

Mapp, meanwhile, expects to have 30 or so people in attendance. He was also teammates with Monmouth outside linebacker Anthony McDonnaugh at West Catholic Preparatory High School.

“I’m excited as well,” Mapp said. “It’s going to take me back to the high school [days]. I used to always have a big crowd of family out to the games to support me, whether it was t-shirts or signs or whatever. My family’s going to be out there real strong.”

REACTION TO MONMOUTH UPSET

Monmouth’s 20-17 overtime win over Liberty last weekend was the Hawks’ first-ever win over a top-25-ranked opponent.

Overall, Monmouth is 3-4 and 1-1 in the Big South, including a lopsided 37-7 loss to Charleston Southern.

But the Hawks caught everyone’s attention last weekend, and the surprise of the league so far is seeing the Flames at the bottom of the standings at 0-2 after those back-to-back losses to Gardner-Webb and Monmouth.

“I was surprised. I know Gardner-Webb’s supposed to be a good team. Gardner-Webb is a good team period, I think we’re just finding out now how good they really are. I was surprised to see Monmouth beat Liberty,” Moglia said. “I think Liberty playing Monmouth at Monmouth after the loss to Gardner-Webb, they didn’t look like the Liberty you see when Liberty is playing at home at night time and really going after it.

“So it’s almost like Liberty seems to have two teams -- a team that’s really kind of going after it and another team that’s, going through the motions, just too many mistakes, not executing as well. But I don’t think anybody in the league would have thought Liberty would lose two games, let alone two games at this point of the year.

“Now give credit to Gardner-Webb and give credit to Monmouth. Monmouth did a good job against them. Don’t underestimate that. ... The league looks really solid.”

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 8:08 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina football back from bye week after BSC standings shakeup."