Saturday night’s 38-0 loss at home to East Carolina was one of the worst home losses in Brooks Stadium history so there really is not much to review from it other than what was discussed on Sunday Strut 34.
Opportunities were there for the better part of three quarters, but when the defense finally wore down after keeping the Chanticleers in the game, those opportunities no longer mattered. Once again, we saw an offense that seemed dysfunctional, lacked confidence and in disarray. Injuries along the offense line forced some reshuffling which didn’t help matters.
Tad Hudson started at quarterback and at times looked OK. He hit some chunk plays down the field, but he also turned the ball over five times, which just cannot happen if this football team has any chance to win. In fairness, his wideouts/targets didn’t help him much with numerous dropped passes – something that plagued CCU in 2024. Who starts Saturday night at South Alabama? I’ll bet that’s wide open at this point.
The Coastal running game never got untracked and again untimely penalties were drive-killers. At this point in the season, the Chants are dead last in FBS in points scored (6.7 per game) and turnover margin (-3 per game with 11 turnovers so far).
Defensively, that side did everything it could. They played hard, they played with purpose and they did a pretty good job all things considered. Shane Bruce got his second pick of the season, as Bruce, Tray Brown, Xamarion Gordon and J’Marion Wayne all had productive games for Coastal.
The kicking game was serviceable, as the Chants missed a 48-yard FG early on which would have avoided the first home shutout since 2008, but punting and kick coverage were both OK.
Moving forward to this Saturday night at South Alabama, Sun Belt conference play opens against a Jaguars football team that, while also 1-2 like the Chants, has been infinitely more impressive. After cruising to victory against Morgan State in their opener, they battled 3-0 Tulane to the wire in a 33-31 loss the following week and were very respectable in a 31-15 road loss at #24 Auburn last week.
After the East Carolina drubbing, head coach Tim Beck said the Chants must “go back to the drawing board” this week and get things fixed on offense. With Coastal mired in unprecedented and historic futility, each week brings new hope.
If Coastal can get organized on that side of the ball, operate from the same sheet of music, instill some confidence, find an effective quarterback on the roster, catch the football when it’s thrown, score some points and stop giving the football away like Halloween candy, they can put themselves in a position to win. That’s a lot, isn’t it?
The good news is, there’s nowhere to go but up for this offense and this football team and hopefully going up starts this Saturday night in Mobile.
CHANTS UP!