Stakes high as CCU visits Charleston Southern

While many Coastal Carolina fans had the regular-season finale at Liberty pegged as the pivotal matchup on the schedule this fall, it seems now that the biggest obstacle in the Chanticleers’ way is the one they’ll encounter Saturday night at Charleston Southern.

The No. 1/2-ranked Chants (7-0, 2-0 Big South) and the No. 19/24 Buccaneers (6-1, 3-0) are the only teams still unbeaten in conference play, and the winner will have the clearest path to the regular-season championship.

Beyond the reality of the standings, where expected top contender Liberty already has two league losses, the Bucs have simply played like the top challenger in the Big South to this point.

Despite their flawless record, the Chants haven’t quite been building the same momentum, but they’ll get their chance Saturday night at Buccaneer Field to remind everyone why they hold a No. 1 national FCS ranking.

“If our guys don’t understand that it’s like they’re living in a cave somewhere in the mountains. We all know,” Chants coach Joe Moglia said in regard to the significant stakes Saturday. “We’re not talking about this as a championship game, but we know this is the biggest game we’ll be playing so far this season and we know this is probably the best team on our schedule. ...

“We know they’re good. They have been good. They upset us two years ago.”

And there’s that.

Coastal Carolina is a remarkable 33-2 over its last 35 regular-season games against FCS opponents, and because of that it’s really easy to remember the lone setbacks. Especially this week.

It was two years ago that an undefeated Chants team with a number of the same players went down to Charleston and took a 31-26 loss.

“I definitely think the guys who were on the team two years ago remember what happened last time we were down there, and that’s going to be fresh in our minds,” senior defensive end Calvin Hollenhorst said.

While the Chants bounced back last year to dispatch the Buccaneers rather convincingly in Conway, this Charleston Southern team looks to be even better than it has been at any point under third-year head coach Jamey Chadwell.

The Bucs’ option attack is still proficient as they rank 10th in the entire FCS in rushing at 251.1 yards per game – with Darius Hammond (586 rushing yards, 7.1 yards per carry) and Mike Holloway (357, 6.7) leading the charge – and sixth in time of possession, but the defense has reached an elite level.

Charleston Southern enters the week ranked as the top defense in the FCS, holding opponents to an average of 218.1 yards per game – 47.1 yards better than the next best defense . And since opening Big South play, the Bucs have been even stingier, giving up just 122.3 yards per game, including just 49.0 passing yards per game over their recent stretch against Monmouth, Presbyterian and Gardner-Webb.

“Without question for us, this is a very real challenge for us,” Moglia said. “We need to play together like a real football team. We need to come together as a team, we need to support each other as a team, we need to recognize that this is about the competition, this is about going out and for 60 minutes we’re going to have a dogfight and our job is to give it our very, very best each play.

“Some of the things that we’ve been doing that we’ve been struggling with, we can’t continue to do that. We know that. Our coaches know that. Our guys know that. ... Sometimes we play a little bit passive. That can’t happen.”

Coastal Carolina is coming off its two lowest scoring outputs of the season in a 24-17 win over Presbyterian and a 23-20 win at Monmouth. The Chants were outgained 475 yards to 389 by the Hawks last week and yielded 268 rushing yards.

Overcoming that against Monmouth is one thing, but the Chants know they’ll need to be much sharper against Charleston Southern.

“We understand we haven’t been playing to our potential. We’ve been playing as an average football team, and [with] the talent we have on both sides of the ball we know we’re above average,” junior running back De’Angelo Henderson said. “So we have to stop playing average, execute our assignments the way we know how to and most importantly just do our job.”

Chadwell, meanwhile, isn’t buying that the timing of this matchup is ideal for his team as the Bucs are dominating defensively while the Chants have not yet reached their full stride offensively.

He simply point out that whatever the numbers, Coastal Carolina still has Henderson (sixth in the FCS in rushing with 849 yards along with 267 receiving yards and 11 total touchdowns), senior quarterback Alex Ross (1,524 yards passing, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions) and a deep receiving corps.

“I know they’ve had their two lowest scoring [games the last two times out], but I think that’s more so just that sometimes you make some plays and other times you don’t make them,” he said. “... They still obviously have the chance to explode on you anytime with the skill they have at running back, the receivers and obviously the quarterback. This will be by far the best offensive team that we’ve played over the last run that we’ve had with our defense.”

In regard to his team, Chadwell said his message to the players has been about playing for first place in the Big South, not so much about the Chants’ No. 1 ranking.

But he acknowledged what a win would mean for his burgeoning program in the broader sense.

“As far as beating the No. 1 team nationally – the recognition a Charleston Southern would get, because I think people know us around this area, but maybe not as much in the FCS national view – that would go a long way toward hopefully giving us more validity with our program and where we’re trying to go and what we’ve done over the last three years here as a program,” he said.

“Everybody in the country knows who Coastal Carolina is, nobody hardly knows Charleston Southern. Maybe a win over a No. 1 team, people will start taking more notice.”

For a Coastal Carolina team with FCS national championship hopes looking to surge down the stretch and position themselves for a postseason run, well, the stakes are just as high.

“This is not just a big game in the Big South; it’s a big game nationally in the FCS,” Moglia said. “It’s a big game for Charleston Southern and it’s a big game for us.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 8:23 PM with the headline "Stakes high as CCU visits Charleston Southern."