Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
	2022 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football team
First season	2003
Head coach	Jamey Chadwell ; 4th season, 36–20 (.643)
Stadium	Brooks Stadium; (capacity: 20,000)
Field	James C. Benton Field
Year built	2003
Field surface	FieldTurf
Location	Conway, South Carolina
NCAA division	Division I FBS
Conference	Sun Belt Conference
Division	East
Past conferences	Big South
All-time record	155–81 (.657)
Bowl record	1–1 (.500)
Playoff appearances	Div. I FCS: 6 (FCS)
Playoff record	Div. I FCS: 4–6 (FCS)
Conference titles	8 (7 Big South, 1 Sun Belt)
Division titles	1
Rivalries	Liberty (rivalry); Appalachian State
Consensus All-Americans	1
Colors	Teal, bronze, and black;
Mascot	Chauncey
Outfitter	Under Armour
Website	GoCCUsports.com

The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football team represents Coastal Carolina University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. The Chanticleers are members of the Sun Belt Conference, fielding its teams at the FBS level since 2017. The Chanticleers play their home games at James C. Benton Field at Brooks Stadium in Conway, South Carolina.

Their head coach is Jamey Chadwell, who took over the full-time position in 2019.^[2]^[3]

History

It was announced in the late 1990s that CCU would establish a football squad in the coming years. The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football program played its inaugural season in 2003 on campus at Brooks Stadium. The team's first coach was David Bennett, who held the position from the team's inception until December 9, 2011. The university named Joe Moglia, former CEO of TD Ameritrade, as its new head coach on December 20, 2011.^[4]

In the program's short history, the team has defeated such traditional Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) powers as James Madison University (ranked No. 1 at the time), Furman University, Wofford College, and the University of Montana. The program has won seven Big South Conference championships and has had several former players enter professional NFL careers.

Coastal's primary football rivals in FCS play are Liberty and Charleston Southern.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Coastal Carolina's first full season as an FBS team was in 2017. The Chanticleers earned the program's first win as an FBS program when they played The UMass Minutemen on September 2, 2017. The final score to this game was 38-28. The Chanticleers had a tough time winning games during the 2017 season, as they went on to finish the year with a record of 3-9. Ending the 2017 season on a positive note, Coastal Carolina earned the program's first Sun Belt Conference win with a 13-7 win over the Idaho Vandals. Idaho has since left the Sun Belt Conference. The final game of the 2017 season was the program's second Sun Belt Conference win with a 28-17 win at home against the Georgia Southern Eagles. The Chanticleers first FBS season in 2017 proved that, with the proper corrections made to the team, the Chanticleers could be a good football team. Building off their momentum built at the end of the 2017 season, Coastal Carolina took the next step as an FBS program and finished the season with a record of 5-7. Some notable wins for the Chanticleers during their 2018 season were against the UAB Blazers, Louisiana Lafayette Ragin Cajuns, and Georgia State Panthers.

David Bennett era (2003–2011)

In 2006, the Chanticleers made school history when the team received its first FCS playoff berth, also the first playoff berth for the Big South Conference, losing a first-round contest to Appalachian State. Appalachian State would go on to win the FCS national championship that season.

In 2010, Coastal went to the playoffs for the second time after winning the Big South Championship (a three-way tie with Liberty and Stony Brook) and received the Big South's first ever automatic playoff bid. The Chanticleers returned to the playoffs in 2012 and 2013. On November 9, 2014, Coastal was ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation, a first for the school and the Big South Conference.^[8]

On September 11, 2010, Coastal Carolina played a five-overtime game against the Towson Tigers, the longest game in school history. Coastal Carolina went to Towson, Maryland, looking for their first win of the season after losing the previous week to West Virginia. Coastal Carolina would lose the game 47–45.

The Chanticleers left the Big South Conference at the end of the 2015–16 school year and joined the Sun Belt Conference, initially as a non-football member.^[9] At that time, the football team began a two-year transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).^[10] The first season of the transition in 2016 was spent as an FCS independent; the Chanticleers officially joined Sun Belt football July 1, 2017, with full bowl eligibility following in 2018.^[11]

Jamey Chadwell era (2019–present)

Jamey Chadwell was introduced as the program's third head coach on January 18, 2019. He was previously the team's interim head coach in 2017. On October 14, 2020, Coastal Carolina got its first-ever win against a ranked FBS team, 30–27 over No. 21 Louisiana. Following the win, AP ranked Coastal Carolina No. 25, making it their first time being nationally ranked. The first College Football Playoff rankings ranked Coastal at No. 20. For the rest of the regular season, Coastal remained in the AP Top 25 with their highest AP ranking being No. 14 in the fourteenth week; in that week, the CFP ranked Coastal Carolina No. 18. Their original opponent for Week 14 was the Liberty Flames, but citing COVID-19 concerns, Liberty canceled the game, which led to their new opponent being the No. 13 ranked BYU Cougars.^[12] The attention drawn led ESPN’s College GameDay to take place in Conway on December 5th. Coastal won 22–17 where the final play ended with BYU being short of the goal-line by a yard. As a result of the victory, Coastal Carolina was ranked No. 11 by the AP Top 25 Rankings and No. 13 by the CFP Playoffs for Week 15. However, they would not get a chance to assert themselves as the champion of the conference, settling for a co-championship with the University of Louisiana, both being named champions after the Chanticleers found themselves unable to play when a positive COVID-19 test was found in the Coastal Carolina football program.^[13] Coastal ended the season by competing against Liberty in their first bowl game in team history. They would face Liberty in the Cure Bowl, losing 37–34 in overtime.^[14]

The following year, the Chanticleers were ranked at 22 to start the season. They won their first six games to rise up to 15 before a loss to the Appalachian State Mountaineers ended the streak. They won four of the next five games but finished second in the East Division. However, they were invited to the 2021 Cure Bowl. They beat Northern Illinois 47–41 for their first bowl victory in school history.^[15]

Championships

Conference championships

Coastal Carolina has won seven Big South Conference championships, winning two of them outright and five shared, and has won one Sun Belt Conference championship which was shared with Louisiana in the 2020 season. The 2020 Sun Belt Conference Football Championship Game was not played when Coastal Carolina was unable to participate due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[16]

Season	Conference	Coach	Overall Record	Conference Record
2004	Big South Conference	David Bennett	10–1	4–0
2005†	Big South Conference	David Bennett	9–2	3–1
2006	Big South Conference	David Bennett	9–3	4–0
2010†	Big South Conference	David Bennett	6–6	5–1
2012†	Big South Conference	Joe Moglia	8–5	5–1
2013†	Big South Conference	Joe Moglia	12–3	4–1
2014†	Big South Conference	Joe Moglia	12–2	4–1
2020†	Sun Belt Conference	Jamey Chadwell	11–1	8–0

† Co-champions

Division championships

Coastal Carolina won their first division championship in the 2020 season.

Year	Division	Coach	Opponent	CG result
2020	Sun Belt Conference - East	Jamey Chadwell	Louisiana	No Contest

^ The 2020 championship game was not played due to Coastal Carolina being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic^[16]

Bowl games

Coastal Carolina has participated in two bowl games, going 1–1.

Season	Coach	Bowl	Opponent	Result
2020	Jamey Chadwell	Cure Bowl	Liberty	L 34–37
2021	Jamey Chadwell	Cure Bowl	Northern Illinois	W 47–41

Conference affiliations

Big South Conference (2003–2015)
Sun Belt Conference (2016–present)

Head coaches

Coastal Carolina has had three head coaches.^{[citation needed]}

Years	Coach	Record	Pct.
2003–2011	David Bennett	63–39	.618
2012–2016, 2018	Joe Moglia	56–22	.718
2017†, 2019–present	Jamey Chadwell	35–19	.648

† Interim head coach in 2017 due to medical sabbatical taken by Joe Moglia.

NCAA Division I FCS Playoff Appearances

Coastal Carolina made six appearances in the I-AA/FCS playoffs before moving to the FBS in 2017, going 4–6.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
2006	First Round	Appalachian State	L 28–45
2010	First Round	Western Illinois	L 10–17
2012	First Round Second Round	Bethune-Cookman Old Dominion	W 24–14 L 35–63
2013	First Round Second Round Quarterfinals	Bethune-Cookman Montana North Dakota State	W 48–24 W 42–35 L 14–48
2014	Second Round Quarterfinals	Richmond North Dakota State	W 36–15 L 32–39
2015	First Round	The Citadel	L 38–41