Rekdiver wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2019 1:23 pm
They sling the ball all over the field. Good receivers.....prone to interceptions but that doesnt stop them
They are a run first team out of some wonky version of the veer, similar to Georgia Southern's shotgun spread option they ran with Fritz. It really is unique to Coastal. Their primary choice would be to run the ball 50 times a game and only throw 10 to 15 times, ala Scott Satterfield when Sun Belt play came around.
They want to run the ball and stop the run. They want to force a team to beat them passing and gas the opposing defense by lengthening the game for that side of the ball. Look at what they did to Kansas, holding them to 7 points the week before Kansas went and dropped a 50 burger on Boston College (who isn't about average to slightly less than average for the ACC these days). By all accounts, their defense is finally catching up to where their offense has been since moving to FBS, thanks in large part to their defensive line play. The trench game when moving from the Big South to the Sun Belt was a much bigger leap than it was for App or Southern and it showed. Last year they finished 5-7, losing a game they had no business losing in Mobile 31-28.
This is Year 3 for them and they are now only 3 wins from getting to that magical 6 for the first time. They had their WTF game against EMU and have been improving every since. They lost to EMU by 7 in a game that they were down by 3 with 8 minutes left. They gave up a big 3rd quarter forcing them to abandon the run and begin throwing, resulting in 43 pass attempts and 4 interceptions. Against Kansas you saw them get back to where they want to be, running the ball, only throwing for 98 yards. Then against Norfolk State they throw for 65 and against UMass they saw an opportunity to tinker with the offense and fine tune some things, throwing for 302 yards and rushing for 334 (against the worst team in FBS and a team that may actually lose to Norfolk State if they were to play).
Overall, Coastal is who they have been but with better execution thanks, in part, to their talent from their transition year coming into maturity, Chadwell being given the reigns of the program and getting buy in, and a culture change that needed to occur this off-season.
If fans aren't prepared for what could happen, let me warn you, this could look a lot like the Charlotte game in terms of it being closer, for longer, than we would like. Coastal could play UNC close and maybe win. They likely get to a bowl game this season in a situation where 4 out of 5 teams in the Sun Belt East could probably win the West. If Roof doesn't get input from Gasparato and Smith on how to play this option offense, we could be in for a long day. Look to Georgia Tech's performance against Georgia Southern in 2014 while they were running that shotgun spread option look under Fritz for comparison.
