CCU Football Notebook: No looking back for Chanticleers as playoffs begin

The Coastal Carolina football players didn’t want to reflect much on last Thursday night or its aftermath. Nor did they have any intentions of sharing how they processed and moved on from the costly loss to rival Liberty in the regular-season finale.

In an ideal world for the Chanticleers, they would have won that game and had a bye in the first round of the NCAA FCS playoffs, but that’s not the way it played. As a result, it’s back to business this week preparing to host The Citadel in a first-round game Saturday afternoon at Brooks Stadium.

The Chants (9-2), now No. 9/10 in the two major FCS national polls, say there has been no difficulty regrouping and turning the focus forward – not with everything that is at stake as the No. 18 Bulldogs (8-3) come to town.

“Same thing every time you lose – you get knocked down, but you’ve got to get back up again,” senior quarterback Alex Ross said after practice Tuesday. “It really doesn’t matter from this point on. The game against Liberty, it wasn’t for a conference championship – Charleston Southern had already won it outright. Obviously you want to win the game, unfortunately that didn’t happen, but we’ve got to move on and move forward and we’re looking at something bigger than a conference championship right now.”

Meanwhile, the message from the coaching staff has been simple.

“The reality of it is we’re pissed off about the result last Thursday and I think the guys have a little bit of an edge to them,” Chants offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude said. “We spent Friday licking our wounds a little bit, feeling sorry for ourselves and all that, but the fact of the matter is we set out this season to win a national championship and the thing that we talked about with the guys is, ‘It’s all right there. The ultimate goal is still in front of you, and now we have to go to work and prepare for a good Citadel team.’”

Head coach Joe Moglia said the team returned to classes on Friday and went through meetings and film review after that 24-21 loss last Thursday night in Lynchburg, Va., before taking Saturday off and awaiting the unveiling of the playoff bracket Sunday.

The team was back to work that evening, the players then had Monday off as usual and practices resumed with morning workouts Tuesday, Wednesday and one more scheduled for early Thursday before the guys are dismissed for Thanksgiving.

When they take the field Saturday, the Chants will be launching their fourth-straight playoff push, having won at least one postseason game in each of Moglia’s first three seasons. They reached the third round the last two years and, as Patenaude stated, are aiming even higher in their final year of eligibility for the FCS playoffs before beginning the transition to FBS.

With that in mind, there hasn’t been any time this week to dwell on what might have been if not for the ending last Thursday night.

“We’re really trying to not focus on Thursday and the loss against Liberty because it’s over with. We’ve got to focus on The Citadel,” junior running back De’Angelo Henderson said. “That’s the most important thing right now. It’s playoff time. It’s win or go home. The game against Liberty is irrelevant right now.”

Citadel makes a splash

Before the Chants knew who’d they’d be playing in the first round of the playoffs, The Citadel already had their attention – and everybody else’s, for that matter.

The Bulldogs scored a signature win in coach Mike Houston’s second season at the helm, stunning South Carolina in a 23-22 upset win at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday.

“I think it gets the whole country’s attention and I think it’s great for FCS football. I think it’s phenomenal,” Chants defensive coordinator Clayton Carlin said. “It certainly got our attention, but I think it gets everyone around the country’s attention when that happens.”

While the Bulldogs are now riding an extra surge of momentum, the Coastal Carolina players made it clear in their comments they aren’t looking at this game any differently because of that result against the Gamecocks.

“They’re a good team. That’s going to give them momentum coming into this game. That has nothing to do with how we prepare and how we get ready for this game, though,” Ross said.

Said junior linebacker Alex Scearce: “I know they definitely have some confidence after beating big, bad South Carolina, but you watch the game and South Carolina had a few good drives, but it didn’t seem like some of them wanted to be there. It looked like The Citadel wanted it more than they did, so that’s definitely the reason they came out on top. I think they’re going to be real confident when they come in here thinking they can whup up on us physically, but I think this year we’ve been able to handle it OK between the tackles, especially towards the end of the season. So I think it’s going to be a challenging game for them as well.”

Injury Report

Senior linebacker Devon Brant, who did not play in the second half at Liberty due to an ankle injury, is expected to be active Saturday, but the Chants will likely be without two other key defensive players.

Sophomore cornerback Dontay Hears (head) is considered doubtful and freshman safety Michael Billings will remain sidelined from the concussion he suffered two games ago. According to the team’s game notes, sophomore Ray Lewis III is listed atop the depth chart at cornerback alongside junior Kamron Summers and could be in line to make his first career start.

As for Brant, Carlin said Tuesday, “He didn’t practice today, but he’ll be good to go. I’ll be surprised if he’s not.”

Offensively, junior receiver/kick returner Devin Brown is expected to be fine after getting banged up in the Liberty game, but the status of senior wide receiver John Israel remains uncertain with the knee injury that has sidelined him the last four games.

“He’s running around, it’s just a comfort level [thing] for him,” Patenaude said. “He’s pushing through it, he practiced today and hopefully by the end of the week he’ll have a better [comfort with it]. It’s just coming along a little bit slower than I think he had hoped.”

Junior center Dom DiGalbo is also a question mark for the game Saturday, but the Chants have been pleased with the play of true freshman center Jamarion McBride, who started the last two games.

Jones has arrived

Israel’s absence has been easier to absorb for Coastal Carolina with the emergence of sophomore Chris Jones this season.

Jones has 12 catches for 299 yards and three touchdowns over the last two games and managed to earn second-team All-Big South honors for his breakout season. Overall, he ranks second on the team with 537 receiving yards and four touchdowns despite only starting four games.

Patenaude said he’s not at all surprised, though.

“He had a great spring, he had a great camp and even last year he made a bunch of plays. The thing with him is he’s got great body control, he’s got great hands,” Patenaude said. “... He’s a really good route runner, he knows how to set the routes up, he knows how to get in and out of breaks. So he’s really done an excellent job stepping in for John.”

Jones was nearly the star of the game last Thursday with an 83-yard reception – the second-longest in program history – that set up the Chants for a go-ahead touchdown in the final minutes before Liberty answered with a decisive score of its own.

With Israel graduating this year, Jones will have a full-time job next season. Pairing next season with this season’s leading receiver Bruce Mapp, the Chants’ receiving corps will be fully stocked.

“The thing about it is that’s what you’re trying to create. You’re trying to get as much competition and as much depth at each position and bring young guys along,” Patenaude said. “I like some of the young guys that are in the pipeline also. You would hope with the kind of offense that we run and putting a bunch of wideouts on the field at all times and throwing it and the screen game and having those guys help us in the run game with reverses and speed sweeps, you’d hope we’d be able to recruit quality guys at wideout.”

Ticket update

As of Wednesday afternoon, Coastal Carolina had dispensed just over 5,300 tickets for the playoff game – including paying for any student tickets that were claimed – according to assistant athletic director for ticket sales and revenue Michael Jacobs.

Tickets are $20 for upper seats and $15 for lower and can be purchased online at www.ticketreturn.com/prod2/Team.asp?SponsorID=8464

Tickets will also be available for purchase at Brooks Stadium starting at 10 a.m. Saturday.

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 4:55 PM with the headline "CCU Football Notebook: No looking back for Chanticleers as playoffs begin."