Nov. 17, 2010
Coastal Carolina hosts Charleston Southern
2010 Regular Season Finale - CCU Senior Day
Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010 - 1 pm
Brooks Stadium/Benton Field
CCU Football Notes (vs Charleston Southern) in PDF Format 
CCU-CSU Series Information
This is the eighth meeting between Coastal Carolina and Charleston Southern. Coastal owns a 4-3 advantage in the series, but CSU has won each of the last two.
2003 -- Coastal secured a winning record in its first season with a 48-14 win at Charleston Southern. The Chants scored 21 second-quarter points, thanks to two CSU turnovers in the frame. CSU QB Collin Drafts threw two picks and fumbled three times. Coastal ran for 227 yards and was just 4-of-7 passing for 98 yards but had two 22-yard passing TDs.
2004 -- Coastal cruised to a 56-28 win, not only giving CCU its first Big South title, but becoming the first Big South team to win 10 games in a season. The Chants rushed for 412 yards, thanks to 195 by Patrick Hall and 116 by Ren McKinnon, while Aundres Perkins rushed for four TDs.
2005 -- Ranked 8th, Coastal led 24-17 with 2:39 left, but Charleston Southern scored twice to force overtime and eventually win 34-27 in 2OT. Up seven, Jerome Simpson misjudged his place on the field and time left, trying to run out the clock, and gave CSU the ball with four seconds left in regulation. Collin Drafts hit Markus Murray for a TD as time expired to forced extra time. Both teams hit field goals in the first OT with Andre Copeland scoring from two yards out in the second OT for CSU. On Coastal's possession, Tyler Thigpen's pass was broken up on fourth down.
2006 -- Then #12 Coastal scored 28 unanswered to win 31-17 and secure the outright Big South title. CSU jumped out to a 17-3 lead, thanks to QB Collin Drafts 59-yard scramble and run on the first play, setting up an early score. Tyler Thigpen threw for 325 yards (23-36) with three TDs, while Jerome Simpson caught six passes for 102 with two scores, including the go-ahead TD.
2007 -- Coastal wrapped the `07 season with perhaps its most dominant performance, winning 41-2. Anthony Steele set the tone, intercepting a pass on the first play from scrimmage and, on the next play, Mike Tolbert scored the first of his three TD, adding a two-point conversion as well.
2008 -- In one of the coldest games in CCU history (42 degrees at kickoff), Charleston Southern scored 24 second-half points to give the Chants their first ever shutout loss, 24-0. Zach MacDowall was 8-of-8 passing before leaving the game in the first half with an injury. Coastal would commit five turnovers (six total) and gain just 95 yards in the second half.
2009 -- Coastal scored first but the Bucs scored 10 points each in the second, third and fourth quarters to secure a 30-23 win. Antwan Ivey rushed for 145 yards while Coastal only managed 146 as a team on the ground.
Date Opponent CCU Result CCU CSU
11-22-03 at Charleston Southern W 48 14
11-20-04 CHARLESTON SOUTHERN W 56 28
11-19-05 at Charleston Southern L 2OT 27 34
11-18-06 CHARLESTON SOUTHERN W 31 17
11-17-07 at Charleston Southern W 41 2
11-22-08 CHARLESTON SOUTHERN L 0 24
11-21-09 at Charleston Southern L 23 30
Coastal Carolina Honors Seniors
The Department of Athletics honors its football seniors and thanks them for their contributions to Coastal Carolina. Several from this group will leave an indelible mark in the Coastal Carolina annals, some for their records and high standards set in the Chanticleer record book, others for doing numerous things that do not show up in the box scores and what they will accomplish in the future. For more information on the 23 seniors, refer to pages 22 through 41. Below are some career notes and stats leading into this regular-season finale.
#56 Robert Balkunas -- has played in 31 games in his third season, getting 64 tackles, including 11.5 tackles for loss with 1.5 sacks, adding a fumble recovery.
#65 Danny Bonifas -- has served as the starting long snapper over his career, recovering his first career fumble in the Chants' 45-31 win over #11 Liberty last week.
#52 E.J. Brown -- has played in 31 games in his third season, ranking among the team leaders in tackles in 2009 and tallying 79 for his career. Has added two picks, 4.5 tackles for loss and four sacks.
#88 Ben Collins -- has played in 38 games in his career. Caught two passes for 12 yards in his first three years but has made two big receptions in the last two weeks, including a key 53 yarder at VMI.
#4 Keon Cunningham -- will leave Coastal Carolina as the career record holder for interception return yards (currently with 225 on eight picks) and is the only Chant to return two picks for six. His eight career INTs rank fifth all-time and he has 116 career tackles, including 8.0 for losses, with 10 pass break ups.
#36 Dominique Davenport -- has been a Big South Defensive Player of the Week this season and a National Defensive Player of the Week once. His 250 career tackles ranks third all-time and his seven career picks -- including four this season -- ranks sixth.
#14 Justin Durham -- with a career-long 46 yard field goal in last week's win over #11 Liberty, Durham has made 41 career field goal to give him sole possession of the school record. His 64.1 percent on field goals made is also a CCU record, while his 226 points ranks fourth in school history.
#23 Ben Erdman -- this first team All-Big South pick in 2008 owns several school records, including career punt yards (7,052), career punt attempts (199) and season yards per punt (27.96 in 2008).
#33 Anthony Frye -- transferred to Coastal for his final two years and he has played in every game over his two years in Conway. Frye has 18 career rushes for 66 yards and has been a warrior on special teams.
#2 Racheed Gause -- has played in 38 career games and his 532 career rushing yards ranks 10th on the CCU all-time list. He averages 4.0 yards per attempt and has scored four touchdowns.
#58 Kent Harper -- came here as a walk-on and will leave as one of the most productive defensive lineman in school history. In his 42 games and of his 60 career tackles, Harper has 12.5 tackles for losses, including a 8.5 this season, for minus 65 yards including six sacks.
#21 Tarvorris Jolly -- was the Big South Special Teams Player of the Week for his 94-yard score off a blocked field goal this year versus Delaware State. Starting his career at North Carolina, Jolly has 38 tackles and a pick in his two years at CCU.
#15 Trae Long -- has been the epitome of perseverance. After catching just two passes in his first three years, Long continued to work hard and has been rewarded with five receptions in 2010 with a TD.
#10 Zach MacDowall -- will rank first or second in every career passing and total offensive statistic in CCU history, while ranking among the Big South all-time top 10 as well. His 667 career rushing yards is ninth, his 15 career rushing TDs is fourth, his 5,820 career passing yards is second, his 40 career passing TDs is second and his 59.2 career completion percentage is first.
#28 Carlton Mitchell -- has been hampered with injury in his final season, but he has 39 career tackles in three years with an interception, while averaging 18.6 yards on his five career kickoff returns.
#85 Jonathan Morgan -- ranks third on the CCU all-time list by averaging 15.8 yards per catch. Morgan has 21 career catches for 332 yards and has been stalwart on the special teams for his career.
#22 Eric O'Neal -- ranks second on the CCU all-time rushing attempts list (387) while ranking third on the career rushing yards list (1,752). Also a valuable receiver, O'Neal ranks fifth on the CCU career receptions list (66). He has 11 career rushing TDs and one receiving TD, scoring 72 career points to rank ninth on the school's all-time list.
#54 Jamie Perkinson -- has served as the team's long snapper over his career, mainly as the snapper for punts over his first three seasons, playing in 27 career games.
#12 Brian Sanders -- has played in 43 career games, registering 77 career tackles with an interception and a sack. Is enjoying a solid senior season, getting 30 tackles -- one off his season best of 31 from 2008 -- and came through with a key forced fumble in the Chants' win over #11 Liberty this past weekend, leading to a 10-7 CCU lead and Coastal would not look back.
#68 Seth Smalls -- has started all 10 games to date at left guard and is an All-Big South candidate as the Chants lead the Big South and rank fifth in the nation, allowing just 0.70 sacks per game this season. Smalls started all 11 games as a redshirt freshman and has been a fixture on the front five ever since.
#38 Chris Walls -- has 160 career tackles (10th on the CCU all-time list), 20.0 tackles for losses (fifth on the CCU all-time list) and 6.0 sacks (eighth on the CCU all-time list). Walls has at least 40 tackles in each of the last three seasons.
#25 Brandon Whitley -- is coming off a career game, getting eight catches for 144 yards, boosting his career totals to 96 cacthes for 1,318 yards -- both second on the CCU all-time lists behind All-American Jerome Simpson. Also has 12 career TD receptions, second in school history, while average 13.7 yard per catch for his career.
#86 Marquel Willis -- after starting his career at The Citadel, Willis has caught 66 passes in three seasons with the Chants, ranking fifth on the school's all-time list. He has 10 career TD receptions, third on the CCU all-time list. Had 27 catches for 387 yards and six scores in 2008 and, in one less game to date in 2010, has 25 catches for 376 yards and fur scores.
MacDowall Gets Big South/National Honors; Hazel Adds Big South Honor
After tying a school record in leading the Chanticleers to a 45-31 win over #11 Liberty, Coastal Carolina quarterback Zach MacDowall was named the National Offensive Player of the Week by The Sports Network and the Choice Hotels Big South Football Offensive Player of the Week, while wide receiver Matt Hazel, who tied a school record as well, was named the Big South Freshman of the Week.
MacDowall (Acworth, Ga.) tied his own school record with 382 passing yards in the win. (Ironically, his other 382-yard passing game came two years ago versus Liberty.) He completed 25-of-37 passes, threw for three touchdowns and rushed for one score. The 382 passing yards is the most in the Big South this season and seventh-best (tied) on the Big South single-game list. For the game, MacDowall led Coastal to points on each of its six possessions of the first half and helped Coastal convert 7-of-8 of its third downs in the first half. Overall, Coastal was 11-of-18 on third downs. Of its 11 third downs converted, MacDowall threw completions eight times, including three touchdowns, and rushed for one first down for a total of nine third-down conversions. Also in the first half, starting with his first touchdown pass, MacDowall completed 15-of-16 passes until late in the second quarter.
This is the second Big South weekly honor for MacDowall this season. He was also Offensive Player of the Week for his play at Presbyterian, where accounted for 301 yards of total offense and was responsible for four touchdowns. MacDowall has been very productive over his last two games. In the VMI and Liberty wins, MacDowall has completed 70.5 percent of his passes (43-of-61) with five passing TDs (one INT) and two rushing scores, averaging 318.0 yards passing per game and completing 16 straight at VMI.
This marks the fifth time a Chanticleer has been named The Sports Network National Player of the Week, joining Jerome Simpson (Oct. 19, 2006), Marrio Norman (Nov. 20, 2006), Dominique Davenport (Sept. 9, 2008) and Josh Norman (Nov. 9, 2009).
Hazel (North Augusta, S.C.) tied a school record, previously set by Jerome Simpson in 2005, by catching three touchdown passes in a game - one shy of the Big South single-game record. He finished the game with four receptions for 41 yards. All four of his catches were significant as all three TD catches came on third down and his other catch was an 11-yarder giving Coastal a first down.
11 then 10 ... Spreading the Wealth
Over the last two games, Zach MacDowall threw completions to 11 different receivers at VMI, then 10 versus Liberty. MacDowall also hit 11 different receivers at Richmond and he has completed passes to at least seven different receivers in nine of his 10 games, completing passes to "just" six different receivers at WVU. The following is a breakdown of MacDowall's completions by game and the number of different receivers he hit in doing so:
West Virginia 13 completions--6 receivers
Towson 19 completions--7 receivers
Georgia Southern 27 completions--9 receivers
Delaware St. 13 completions--8 receivers
Richmond 20 completions--11 receivers
Presbyterian 11 completions--7 receivers
Stony Brook 13 completions--8 receivers
Gardner-Webb 16 completions--8 receivers
VMI 18 completions--11 receivers
Liberty 25 completions--10 receivers
Big South Conference Football Automatic Qualifier Scenarios
The Big South Conference's first-ever automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs will be determined this Saturday, Nov. 20, and Stony Brook (5-0), Coastal Carolina (4-1) and Liberty (4-1) are still in contention. The Conference's first three tiebreakers would not be enough to break the three-way tie, therefore, the fourth step - Points allowed in Conference games - would be the next procedure needed to break the three-way tie. Should this step fail to break the tie, the next step of Sagarin ratings following the Nov. 13 games will be used. If multiple ties are reduced to a tie between two teams, the Conference's two-way tiebreaker formula shall be utilized.
• Stony Brook (5-0, 68 points allowed in Conference games) has clinched at least a share of the Big South football championship and can clinch the League's automatic bid with:
o A victory at Liberty to finish as outright Big South champions at 6-0; or
o A loss at Liberty coupled with a Coastal Carolina victory over Charleston Southern to tie as co-champions at 5-1, plus finishing with fewer points allowed in Conference games than Coastal Carolina and Liberty.
• Coastal Carolina (4-1, 106 points allowed in Conference games) can clinch the League's automatic bid with:
o A victory over Charleston Southern AND a Stony Brook loss at Liberty to tie as co-champions with Stony Brook and Liberty at 5-1, plus finishing with fewer points allowed in Conference games than Stony Brook and Liberty.
• Liberty (4-1, 110 points allowed in Conference games) can clinch the League's automatic bid with:
o A victory over Stony Brook AND a Coastal Carolina loss to Charleston Southern to tie as co-champions with Stony Brook at 5-1, and winning the two-way tiebreaker of head-to-head; or o A victory over Stony Brook and a Coastal Carolina victory over Charleston Southern to tie as co-champions at 5-1, and finishing with fewer points allowed in Conference games than Stony Brook and Coastal Carolina.
Norman Answers Challenge
Junior Josh Norman tallied a career-high 12 tackles, including a tackle for loss on a screen play, with two pass breakups in the Liberty win. He had the task of guarding one of the nation's top receivers in Chris Summers. While Summers did catch seven passes for 127 yards, 80 of those yards came on a TD pass with 2:23 left in the game and Coastal leading 45-24 (keeping Summers to six receptions for 47 yards and a long of 11 yards of in the first 57 minutes of the game). Both of Norman's PBUs came when guarding Summers. The first came on fourth and five from the CCU 35 in the third quarter to force a turnover on downs. The second was a key third-down breakup from the CCU six in the endzone with seven minutes left (Coastal, leading by 14, would end up forcing a turnover on downs the next play and used the momentum to drive 94 yards, score a TD and put the game out of reach).
7 • 7 • 7; Norman Hits Trifecta
With his two pass breakups versus Liberty --and five over his last four games Josh Norman has seven pass breakups this season to tie for fourth on the CCU single-season list. Who is he tied with, himself twice as he also had seven PBU as a freshman (2008) and seven PBU as a sophomore (2009). His 21 career PBU ranks third on the CCU all-time list behind fellow All-Americans Quinton Teal (31) and Marrio Norman (23).
Other Notes from the Liberty Win
•Coastal defeated its fifth nationally-ranked team and first since taking down then #3 Furman in 2006.
• Coastal rolled up a season-high 541 yards of total offense versus Liberty, the sixth-most in school history and most since gaining 555 at VMI in 2006 ... The 541 yards was the most allowed by Liberty since giving up over 600 to William and Mary in 2005 ... Also, Liberty entered the game ranked 11th in the nation and first in the Big South, allowing just 288.44 yards per game.
• Coastal scored on all six of its offensive possessions in the first half and converted 7-of-8 opportunities on third down (the only time they did not convert, the Chants kicked a field goal).
• Brandon Whitley had a career game, catching eight passes (fourth-tied on the CCU single-game list) for 144 yards (sixth on the CCU single-game list).
• David Duran also had a big game, catching five passes for 86 yards, missing his career best of 88 yards by two yards ... Duran also sealed the win by getting an on-side kick and returning 40 yards.
• Eric O'Neal became the first Chant to rush for 100 yards in 2010, gaining 102 on 24 attempts for an average of 4.2 yards per carry ... It was O'Neal's third career 100-yard rushing game and first versus a Big South opponent, gaining 115 vs Colgate in 2008 and 130 vs North Carolina A&T in 2009.
Justin Durham Sets CCU Field Goals Record
Justin Durham split the uprights from a career-long 46 yards out on Coastal's first drive in the win over Liberty, giving him 41 career field goals made and sole possession of the CCU record for FG made. Durham accomplished the feat in 42 games compared to 45 games by previous record-holder Josh Hoke. Durham also set the CCU career record for field goals attempted in the game, now with 64.
Durham scored nine points in the Chant's 45-31 win over Liberty, making all 1-of-3 field goals and all six PATs.
After missing two PATs at Richmond and starting the season 10-of-14 on extra points, Durham has made each of his last 20 PATs and is 3-of-5 on field goals over the last five games.
Duran: 4th in the FCS Among TE in Receptions; 3rd in Yards Per Catch
David Duran has surpassed his 2009 season totals (19 catches for 273 yards and 1 TD), when he was a first team All-Big South pick. With one game left in 2010, Duran has amassed 32 receptions for 446 yards and 2 TDs. His total leads the Big South tight ends and ranks second on the team.
FCS TE Receptions Leaders FCS TE Yards/Catch Leaders (25+ rec.)
Andrew Kennedy (Columbia) 44 (582 yds) Alex Jones (Indiana State, 28-501) 17.89
Shadrae King (Robert Morris) 38 (463 yds) Julius Thomas (Portland St., 27-439) 16.27
Stephen Skelton (Fordham) 35 (383 yds) David Duran (Coastal, 32-446) 13.94
David Duran (Coastal) 32 (446 yds)
Tyler George (Momouth) 32 (331 yds)
Home Sweet Home
After playing six of its first nine games on the road to start the 2010 football season, Coastal Carolina closes 2010 at Brooks Stadium for just the fourth and fifth time this season hosting Liberty and Charleston Southern.
The Chanticleers play in Brooks Stadium with Benton Field being natural grass. For its history, Coastal has played 72 of its 89 games on natural grass. The Chanticleers are 51-21 (.708) on natural grass overall -- 32-12 (.727) at home and 19-9 (6.79) on the road. Coastal is 5-2 on natural grass this season.
When playing on artificial surfaces, Coastal is just 4-13 in its eighth year.
Get Back; Chants Lead Big South in TFL, 18th Nationally
Despite facing Heisman Trophy candidate and an explosive offense at West Virginia, Coastal Carolina's defense dropped the Mountaineers behind the line of scrimmage nine times for minus 27 yards. Leading the way were sophomores Andrae Jacobs and Chris Thomas, each with 1.5. Coastal added seven versus Georgia Southern's formidable triple option attack, 11 versus Delaware State, 10 at Presbyterian and 11 at Gardner-Webb.
With an average of 7.30 TFL/game, Coastal leads in the Big South and ranks 18th nationally in tackles for losses. This stat should not surprise the Chanticleer faithful as Coastal has ranked first or second in the Big South in tackles for loss in each of the last five seasons.
CCU leads Big South, Ranks 5th Nationally in Fewest Sacks
Coastal's sack stat of allowing no more than one sack in any game was in jeopardy at VMI as Zach MacDowall was sacked on Coastal's third play from scrimmage. However, the team rallied and did not allow another sack the rest of the game. The Chants kept the stat alive, allowing just one sack in the win over #11 Liberty.
Coastal did not give up a sack in back-to-back games -- at Presbyterian nor versus Stony Brook -- and also did not allow a sack at West Virginia.
Coastal has not allowed more than one sack in any one game this season. The Chants rank fifth (tied) in the nation, allowing just 0.7 sacks per game --seven total.
Last year, Coastal Carolina allowed 25 sacks -- 2.18 per game --to rank 73rd in the NCAA and allowed 25 -- 2.08 avg -- in 2008 (69th).
