2022 G5 Preview: That's A Whole Lot To Replace, Coastal Carolina
Coastal Carolina returns the best quarterback in the Sun Belt, but he's going to have to make up for a bunch of attrition.
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Jamey Chadwell has built a program that can last at Coastal Carolina.
The Chanticleers broke through behind an experienced team in 2020, drawing national attention for their delightful modernized triple-option offense and a defense that, while a bit leaky, could make enough big plays to win games. They fell back a bit in 2021, fading from the offensive schemes that worked so well in 2020 and suffering because of it, but the Chants still won 11 games, including a thriller over NIU in the Cure Bowl to end the season.
Chadwell has done something a lot of breakthrough G5 coaches don’t in these past two seasons. He’s parlayed that on-field success into recruiting wins.
Often, when a coach wins big at the G5 ranks, they largely forgo making improvements on the trail because they’re expecting a quick leap into the P5 ranks. It’s why so many G5 teams will make major leaps under one coach and then collapse under the next. Few coaches see these as “forever jobs,” so few put in the work required for maintaining a program across several years.
Chadwell has done that. Coastal Carolina just secured the finest class in program history in 2022, checking in at No. 2 in the Sun Belt and No. 70 nationally. They were third and 81st in 2021. The Chants haven’t mortgaged their future on transfers or JUCOs for greater immediate success. Chadwell has a plan for the long-term health of the program, and he didn’t abandon it when the success came.
Whether he’s doing this because he plans to stick around in Conway for the foreseeable future is both unknowable and unimportant. The point that matters here is that Coastal Carolina has the infrastructure, the scheme, and the players to sustain long-term success in this new-look Sun Belt East.
That’s important to open with because this program does legitimately deserve commending. It’s rare to see this kind of investment and structure building at this level, and Coastal Carolina will benefit greatly from it as it continues down this road. There’s not another program in the Sun Belt with a brighter future outside of maybe Louisiana as it stands currently.
It’s also important to note because frankly, this preview is going to be a bit of a downer. This season, I expect, is going to be a bit of a downer. Coastal Carolina returns the Sun Belt’s best player and one of the nation’s best quarterbacks in Grayson McCall. It has an incredible young defender in end Josaiah Stewart, a veteran CB1 in D'Jordan Strong, and a deep, talented room of running backs. Former freshman All-American Willie Lampkin and super senior Antwine Loper are back to lead one of the most entertaining and technically sound offensive line rooms in America, and the defense has plenty of young talent to be excited about.
But the attrition this team is facing this offseason is staggering. I’m not sure any team in college football has as much to replace as Chadwell’s Chants do. Per ESPN’s Bill Connelly, Hawaii and Nevada are the only teams returning less production. No one has fewer returning defenders than Coastal Carolina does.
Let’s rattle off a few departures: First, on offense, leading rusher Shermari Jones. He wasn’t as good as C.J. Marable, who departed after 2020, but he was tremendous through contact and carried 159 times for 1,040 yards and 13 touchdowns. Also in the offensive skill corps, Kameron Brown, Jaivon Heiligh and Greg Latushko, all three starting receivers, are departing. Heiligh led the team with 66 receptions, 1,128 yards, and seven scores; Brown added 36 receptions, 605 yards, and five touchdowns; Latushko didn’t touch the ball a ton but did start four games and played 12, all in the slot. Tight end Isaiah Likely can be counted essentially as a tight end, hauling in 59 receptions for 912 yards and 12 TDs. He’s gone too.
Up front, three-year starting right tackle Steven Bedosky, five-year starting right guard Trey Carter and three-year starting center Sam Thompson all graduate, leaving an offense designed around technically sound, athletic offensive linemen with three vacancies in the starting five. Plus, Isaac Owusu-Appiah, who backed up Carter, and Bedosky’s backup Kameren Stewart are both transferring.
The other side of the ball is a laundry list. Defensive end Jeffrey Gunter wasn’t quite as good in 2021 as he was in 2020, but he was still an all-league caliber player. He’s gone, as is B-gap tackle C.J. Brewer, who started every game, recorded 54 tackles, and was good at just about everything. Rotational end Myles Olufemi, owner of 32 tackles, departs as well.
Teddy Gallagher and Silas Kelly, multi-year battery mates at linebacker, both graduate. The former was very strong against all forms of the ball, the latter was one of the best linebackers in the Sun Belt by the time he graduated. Rotational linebacker E.J. Porter is transferring as well.
I’ll start with the good news in the secondary. Derrick Bush is the only major departure at cornerback. He started eight games opposite Strong and was a very good player, but there’s plenty of depth here to replace him.
The bad news is the safety room. I don’t know how it’s even possible to lose this many safeties.
De facto free safety Alex Spillum, a starter in 12 games in 2021; hybrid box safety Enock Makonzo, a starter in every game; free safety/box hybrid Brayden Matts, a starter in six games in 2021; Shi'heem Watkins, Matts’ replacement when he wasn’t starting; box safety Mateo Sudipo, a starter in one game; slot Kendricks Gladney Jr., who played every game. All gone. Everyone but Sudipo is graduating, and Sudipo is in the transfer portal.
McCall is a stud. So is Stewart. But this? This is going to be a whole lot to overcome. The Chants have a workable schedule, drawing Army, Gardner-Webb, and Buffalo at home to open the season and wrapping non-league play at Virginia on Nov. 19. They can win every one of those games and should be favored across the board.
In the East, Coastal Carolina will travel to Georgia State, James Madison, and Marshall, while hosting Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, and Old Dominion. It landed a friendly West draw, with a road trip to ULM and a home bout against Southern Miss.
To come out of this schedule with three losses is not out of the question – great quarterback play can take you a long way – but to do much more than that would take something very, very special. The outlook here moving forward is extremely bright. The young players on this roster will be very good. But Coastal Carolina is going to have to rely on a whole lot of them, a whole lot earlier than it would probably like. That’s going to yield some growing pains.
There’s still plenty to be excited about, though.
Firstly, at the top of the lineup, McCall’s impact can’t be overstated. He was fantastic in 2020 and he was just as good in 2021. He shreds blitzes with extreme ease, he’s just about perfect off the play fake and he can make every throw the offense requires of him. Coastal Carolina needs to do more of the triple option in 2022 than it did in 2021 (don’t abandon the scheme that got you here!) because McCall is so good at directing those plays, but to have him leading the offense is in itself such an immense advantage. He can and will win several games for this bunch on his own.
Next to him, the departure of Jones shouldn’t be a major issue. Coastal Carolina rotates running backs and plays them at the same time enough that there are two ready-made replacements in Braydon Bennett and Reese White, with CJ Beasley looking to be the likely option to slot into the RB3 role that While filled last year.
Bennett, who rushed 74 times for 636 yards and seven scores (while catching another 24 passes for 295 yards and two touchdowns), may have been the best halfback on the team last year and certainly will be this year. He cuts a bizarre profile for this offense at 6-2, 190 pounds, but he has that long-striding track speed almost reminiscent of a wide receiver and was extremely hard to bring down with just one defender. He’s much more physical than his lanky frame leads on, but his best work is going to be done on the perimeter this season.
The 5-10, 195-pound White can work more as the dive man at halfback. He’s yet to establish himself as a truly great back, but he rushed 72 times for 515 yards and seven touchdowns last season. He can certainly handle himself within a rushing attack as diverse and well-designed as this one. Beasley is a bit of an unknown commodity, carrying 14 times for 47 yards a season ago, but he’s filled out his frame well and Coastal Carolina hasn’t yet missed in producing a running back. He should be ready to join the rotation entering his redshirt sophomore campaign.
The receiver room is a whole lot shakier. Aaron Bedgood, Deon Fountain, Tyson Mobley, and Tyler Roberts are the only internal replacement options with any real experience under their belts, and none of them caught more than six passes (Mobley) or 82 yards (also Mobley) last season.
Of that bunch, Mobley is an easy pick for one of the three vacant starting roles. He started a pair of games last season and though he didn’t produce a ton, he did at least show that he has the trust of the coaching staff. His best work has come in short-yardage situations, but I won’t yet declare him a short-yardage receiver because of the sample size.
I’d guess that Bedgood earns the nod in Latushko’s slot role, and could see a pretty significant increase in targets compared to his predecessor. Coastal Carolina essentially used Likely as an oversized slot last season and without him around, those targets will need to go somewhere. Bedgood had five catches for 69 yards and a score last season. Like Mobley, the sample size is just tiny, but he did flash some nice speed as a screener and could flesh out that role.
The other starting spot is going to an outsider. Sam Pinckney is transferring in from Georgia State and will star on the outside if his health permits. He was limited in 2021 because of an injury, but the 2020 version of Pinckney was a second-teamer in the Sun Belt, hauling in 47 receptions, 815 yards, and seven TDs while serving as an elite deep threat. There’s no reason to think he can’t do that here.
Coastal Carolina isn’t going to replace Likely at tight end to round out the receiving room. Xavier Gravette and TJ Ivy Jr. will compete for the job and probably split time. They will add value as blockers and can make some plays in the passing game. They will not replace Likely. There may not be a tight end in college football who could.
On the line, Dillon Luther has transferred in from Western Carolina and seems the likely pick to replace Carter. He started every game of the 2020-21 spring season and was… fine. He’s a better pass blocker than he is a run blocker, but he fits Coastal Carolina’s athletic and size requirements and should be a suitable plug-and-play option without a whole lot of internal experience at right guard available. Three-year reserve Will McDonald is as ready as he’ll ever be to take over at center and should be a positive in the running game.
The battle at right tackle is a bit up in the air but likely falls to either Zovon Lindsay or Donnell Wilson. Lindsay is a former NC State transfer who served as the No. 3 RT last year, Wilson was the backup at left tackle and should be the favorite here, assuming he can make the move from one side to the other. The line is going to take a step back. I don’t think there’s any way around that.
On the defensive line, Stewart leads a group that, despite its departures, should be fine. It may even get a little better.
The man atop the lineup sheet plays a big part in that. Stewart racked up 43 tackles, 16 TFL, and 13 sacks last season as a TRUE FRESHMAN. He was named a freshman All-American and a Sun Belt first-teamer and made himself unbenchable in the back half of the season. He has some work to do as a run stopper, but he was downright elite in rushing the passer in his first season of college football.
“He’s unreal,” Kelly said of the freshman. “He’s a beast. He’s got a special talent and he works really hard day in and day out, especially as a freshman. I can’t imagine being a huge contributor on the team when it was my freshman year and he’s done a great job handling it and picking up the defense. He plays lights out every week and goes as hard as he can in practice.”
I’m excited too about Adrian Hope, a transfer from Furman who started every game for the Paladins and earned second-team All-Southern honors. He was a first-teamer in 2019 and the top defensive freshman at the FCS level in 2018. He’s without a truly dominant trait, like his new counterpart’s pass-rushing ability, but he’s strong with just about everything and should be able to start from day one.
Nose tackle Jerrod Clark returns to the starting lineup to bolster what should be a very strong pass-rushing unit, with Georgia Tech transfer Quon Griffin looking likely to join him in the B-gap tackle spot. Travis Geiger Jr. is a very capable rotational player on the inside and will see plenty of snaps, too.
The linebacker room is a mess. It’s not as difficult to decipher as the safety room is, but it’s a mess all the same. Three of the top four snap-getters from last season are gone and basically no one else played linebacker at all last season as a pair of 2020 rotational players faced season-ending injuries. JT Killen can likely slot into a starting role as the lone returner from that top four, but the starter next to him is a mystery.
If Coastal Carolina wants an internal promotion, Shane Bruce and Jamar Darboe would both make sense. These are the two who missed the 2021 season. Bruce had 11 tackles in 2020, Darboe had 22 in 2019. I’m not crazy about either as the pick.
I’d guess the job goes to South Carolina transfer Jahmar Brown, listed as a SPUR on Coastal Carolina’s roster, which translates essentially to a coverage linebacker. He can certainly cover and he picked up experience playing in the box, the slot, and as a deep safety with the Gamecocks.
In the secondary, we’re going to have to get a little creative. Strong is starting as CB1 and Lance Boykin looks like CB2 after he earned three starts there last season. He’s a very good run defender, but he’s going to need to improve in his coverage or teams will pick on him.
Coastal Carolina usually likes to deploy three starting safeties, but there are not three safeties on this team that I can justify putting into a starting lineup, so I’m going to toss the slot safety role to Manny Stokes Jr. A fourth-team punt returner in 2021, he didn’t play a ton of defense but does have experience in the slot and was decent at everything. If nothing else, he’s aggressive and fast. He’s also here and not in the NFL draft, which gives him a leg up over just about every other member of the backfield.
Those last two safety spots go to Tobias Fletcher and Dre Pinckney. Fletcher played nearly every game as a true freshman, racking up 23 tackles while splitting his time among free safety (61 snaps), the slot (45), and the box (30). That splits lines up roughly with Spillum’s, so we’ll put him in that role for the sake of consistency.
Pinckney is a little easier to project because, despite redshirting last season, he played a ton in the final three games of the season and started the Cure Bowl. He split time too, taking 75 snaps in the box, 58 at free safety, and 17 in the slot. Those are Makonzo numbers, although I’m not sure that Pinckney is going to replicate his predecessor’s production as a pass rusher. That’s pretty rare for a safety.
Both of these guys are extremely young, probably too young to be starting as the bookends at safety, but they were at least capable when they played in 2021. Both flashed a ton of ability as tacklers and they, if nothing else, have a ton of potential. Plus, they won’t have to defend the forward pass until week four against Georgia State, because Army, Gardner-Webb, and Buffalo open the season. We’re all about seeing the positives here.