CCU football notebook: Chants seeking more on offense, but keeping perspective

The residual byproduct of doing something at an elite level over an extended period of time is that it becomes the standard for comparison moving forward.

And so for Coastal Carolina, an uncharacteristic chunk of the commentary and scrutiny from fans and media this football season has been directed at the perceived shortcomings of the Chanticleers’ offense.

Perhaps aware of this or simply weary of continued questions about the unit’s performance and potential, Chants offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude felt it was time to lend some perspective Tuesday before practice.

“Here’s the thing. We’ve got to stop worrying about how many points we’re scoring, we’ve got to stop worrying about last year, we’ve got to stop worrying about all the things that don’t mean anything to this football program,” Patenaude said. “The only thing we’re worried about is winning one game one week [at a time].

“And the fact of the matter is that if we don’t drop two balls we score 35 points last week. So I think that there’s stuff you have to iron out. There’s always stuff that you have to work on, but the guys on our floor are as confident as ever in anything that we do.”

To his point, No. 1/2-ranked Coastal Carolina – which will take a perfect 7-0 overall and 2-0 Big South record into a pivotal conference clash at No. 19/24 Charleston Southern (6-1, 3-0) on Saturday – has been more than respectable on offense.

Despite coming off their two lowest scoring outputs the last two games in a 24-17 win over Presbyterian and a 23-20 win at Monmouth, the Chants rank second in the Big South and 22nd in the entire FCS in scoring at 35.1 points per game. They are also second in the league and tied for 23rd in the country in total offense at 441.7 yards per game.

They boast two FCS national offensive player of the year candidates in senior quarterback Alex Ross (1,524 passing yards, 10 touchdowns, three interceptions) and junior running back De’Angelo Henderson (849 rushing yards, 267 receiving yards and 11 total touchdowns).

But the unit will continue to be compared to its production from last season (37.3 points and 463.4 yards per game) or the year before (41.0, 477.5) when the Chants not only ranked 13th and fifth nationally in scoring output, respectively, but only seemed to get stronger down the stretch.

“We’ve got to eliminate the issues that are causing us to stall out drives,” Patenaude acknowledged. “We caught one, we fumbled it, we dropped one for a first down, we dropped another one for another first down and then we gave up a couple pressures. But other than that we are pretty much going to do the same stuff that we have been doing. If we execute those throws, it’s a different game.

“From week to week, it’s survival. And when you’re the No. 1 team in the country, you get everybody’s best shot and at the end of the day you’ve got to come out standing. And we’ve done that seven times, so I feel good.”

Again, the point of Patenaude’s comments were for perspective. His message to players this week, meanwhile, has been a little more pointed because he does indeed believe there is another level this offense has yet to reach.

“He kind of got on us yesterday about what he expects from us, and just the way we’ve been playing the past few weeks is not acceptable,” Henderson said. “I think what he said yesterday really sunk into us and made us all really think and gave us all a reality check to what we needed to do. So going into this week here, I know they’ll put us in the best position and it’s on us to execute.”

For his part, head coach Joe Moglia has not been hesitant to offer blunt critiques throughout the season, and during his weekly news conference Wednesday he too acknowledged that he believes the Chants are capable of more as they face their toughest challenge yet this fall.

Charleston Southern leads the entire FCS in total defense, allowing just 218.1 yards per game.

While it might be hard to amp up the output against such a stout Buccaneers squad, the Chants will no doubt need to be sharp and disciplined Saturday night.

“We have not been able to improve [offensively] as well as we need to be able to improve if we’re really going to be a good football team, but our guys know that, our coaches know that,” Moglia said. “... I think it’s a matter of a little bit more of a sense of urgency. We’ve got to get this right, let’s not go through the motions, let’s get this right and I think it goes back to a matter of poise of discipline.”

Injuries

All three of Coastal Carolina’s starting receivers were nursing injuries in practice early this week, with both Moglia and Patenaude saying it was too soon to know their status for the game Saturday.

All three had big games last weekend at Monmouth as junior Bruce Mapp hauled in six catches for 79 yards, senior Tyrell Blanks had five catches for 84 yards and senior John Israel caught five balls for 70 yards.

“We have a bunch of guys down with nicks and bruises,” Patenaude said. “We’ll find out more during the week. ... We should have most of them.”

Said Moglia: “We’ll see how some of them are today, we’ll see how some of them are tomorrow and some of the guys it will be a little bit more of a Friday, Saturday type of decision.”

Speaking during the team’s weekly media session Wednesday, Henderson suggested that Blanks was likely not going to play this week.

Fortunately for the Chants, their depth is great at the position and an absence or two would only mean more opportunity for promising sophomore Chris Jones (14.6 yards per catch on 11 receptions) or an expanded role for dynamic junior Devin Brown, who is the star of the team’s special teams unit.

“Tyrell, I think he’s out this week, but [with] Devin and Chris Jones and those guys, anything is possible on offense,” Henderson said.

Charleston Southern, meanwhile, might get another weapon of its own back if sophomore quarterback Kyle Copeland (concussion) is able to return to action this week.

Copeland, a role player in the Buccaneers’ option attack, helped key the team’s 10-7 win at Presbyterian on Oct. 17, rushing for 62 yards on just five carries – with 58 of those yards coming on a go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.

Overall, he’s fourth on the team with 177 rushing yards and has completed 20-of-35 passes for 296 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions while working in behind starter Austin Brown.

“He was a game-time decision last week and just didn’t do well in warmups so we withheld him,” Charleston Southern coach Jamey Chadwell said Tuesday. “We feel he should be 100 percent by Saturday. He’s not 100 percent right now. If I had to say, he’s probably 85 percent as far as being able to go out there and function and play at a high level. He’s not ready for that. We’re hoping by Saturday he will be.”

About that Bucs’ D

Charleston Southern is the first team in Big South history to hold three straight opponents to less than 200 yards of offense.

The Buccaneers limited Monmouth to 112 yards in week 6, gave up just 142 yards to Presbyterian in week 7 and allowed only 110 yards to Gardner-Webb last weekend. The Runnin’ Bulldogs averaged just 2.1 yards on 31 rushing attempts and completed only 7-of-21 passes for 46 yards and two interceptions.

Overall, Charleston Southern has held six of its first seven opponents to fewer than 300 yards, including five in a row to tie a Big South record.

And not only do the Buccaneers lead the FCS in total defense, it’s not even close as they are giving up 47.1 yards fewer per game than the next best team.

“They are an outstanding defensive team,” Moglia said. “They will blitz you anytime they can, they will not hesitate to do that. They’re sound when they do, they’ll come from different spots, they do a decent job of disguising. They will mix up their fronts, they will mix up their man and zone and they have tough kids who do a good job. There’s a reason why they’re one of the best defensive teams in the nation.”

Big deal for Big South

With Charleston Southern moving up to No. 19 in the FCS Coaches Poll this week and into the STATS FCS media poll at No. 24, the game Saturday night will mark only the second time in Big South history two nationally-ranked conference teams have met.

The other occurrence was in 2013, also between these two programs. No. 16/18 Charleston Southern defeated No. 3/5 Coastal Carolina, 31-26, a game that also occurred in Charleston.

Chadwell said Charleston Southern has plans to expand its seating capacity beyond Buccaneer Field’s usual 4,000 for the much-anticipated matchup.

“There’s a lot of excitement on our campus, but really just around here in the Low Country,” Chadwell said. “It works out, most of the teams here in the state are playing early games so we’re sure to be the only show that night. We expect a great crowd, obviously probably more than we can hold. I think we’re going to bring in additional stands for the game. But I expect it to be a great FCS college atmosphere.”

This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 7:00 PM with the headline "CCU football notebook: Chants seeking more on offense, but keeping perspective."