Typically, after each game in 2025, I would post a blog recapping some view or opinion of the Coastal Football contest from the weekend. Given the recent turn of events around the leadership of the program and how the game against James Madison turned out (about as I expected), I’m not going to spend many words on the game itself.
The Dukes (11-1, 8-0) smashed Coastal 59-10 and were superior in every aspect. The Chants actually battled in the 2nd quarter, going into halftime down only 20-10. But the second half turned into a JMU rout, as CCU finishes the regular season 6-6, 5-3 in the Sun Belt. Coastal is now awaiting its bowl destination and that announcement should be coming soon.
For the rest of the column, I want to focus on the future of the program following the Sunday announcement of the dismissal of head coach Tim Beck.
It was mid-day when the news broke that VP for Intercollegiate Athletics and Campus Rec Chance Miller was making a change with football leadership. After three seasons and a 20-18 overall record, Beck was relieved of his duties as head football coach at CCU and that defensive coordinator Jeremiah Johnson will serve as interim HC through the bowl game.
In my view, this wasn’t a matter of whether this would happen, but when. It just wasn’t working with Coach Beck and the problems were apparent. The bottom line is over the past two seasons, Coastal just hasn’t been competitive on the field when they’ve lost games, which was far too frequent. I believe the culture was toxic, talent evaluation was poor, and the on-field product overall left much to be desired.
As I stated in our Sunday Strut 45 pod, my opinion of Beck was that he is/was much more comfortable in the role of assistant coach than he ever was as the head football coach at Coastal Carolina. Something that should have been discerned during the interview process and background research on him, if any of that was even done. Beck was a solid OC and QB coach at a number of stops and he’ll be somewhere doing that again soon.
So now we look forward to the fifth head football coach in program history, and we know that Miller is currently at work looking for that coach. I could throw out a bunch of names of guys I would like to see but everyone is doing that right now. What I will offer are three qualities I think we need in the next coach.
- Experience: I firmly believe the next head coach HAS to have successful college head coaching experience. Division II, FCS, FBS (G5/P4), some combo of that, it doesn’t matter but there has to be a track record of successfully running a college football program on the resume. Beck was hired with no college head coaching experience and no previous experience at a G5 to understand what G5s deal with and how different it is than the power level. To me that was a massive miscalculation and one that shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.
- Culture: The next head coach has to be able to build an organization with a winning culture, where everyone is held to the same standard, goals are set and achieved, players, coaches, support staff and administrators are all connected in a positive way. There is no doubt that each Saturday, players are going to play as hard as they can play, and the coaches will put them in the best positions to be successful. Obviously, NIL and the portal have made culture building and sustaining much more difficult than it was in the past. Guys come and go far more frequently. I get that. But I don’t think it’s impossible and at the end of the day, it has to be done.
- Communicator: The next coach needs to be ready, willing and able to clearly communicate his vision for the program to everyone. He needs to be able to delegate tasks to his staff to free him up to go out and talk to groups and organizations, the community, students, faculty and stakeholders in Coastal Football. He has to be comfortable in that setting because selling the program externally is a must at the G5 level. He also needs to be able to clearly communicate with his players and coaches so they know what’s expected and where they stand.
Should the next coach have primarily an offensive or defensive background? I’ve debated this with some offline, and my preference would be an offensive guy since that is where Coastal has traditionally been the strongest. Football is about offense for the most part and that’s what gets teal cheeks into teal seats.
However, that is not a showstopper for me because some of the best head coaches in the country have great offenses but developed on the defensive side of the ball.
Who will Miller choose? As of this blog, who knows but I trust he will make the best hire he can for Coastal Football. He already put one notch in his belt in October, striking a deal to retain head baseball coach Kevin Schnall. That was big and this hiring is equally as important.
In the meantime, we’ll wait until we see the proverbial white smoke emanate from Chance’s office, indicating the decision has been made.
CHANTS UP!
Thoughts and opinions? Find me on X at cashionj68 or email me [email protected]