On an ugly, rainy night at Brooks Stadium, Coastal Carolina did enough to get the job done.
The Chanticleers (3-3, 2-1 Sun Belt) erased the memories of last week’s lopsided road loss to Old Dominion and played a physical brand of football in a waterlogged game that featured as-expected sloppy play. But the Chanticleers did just enough, leaning on a dominant rushing attack to knock off Louisiana-Monroe, 23-8.
“That was a great victory,” CCU Head Coach Tim Beck said after the win. “I’m really proud of our football team. Just resilient. We kept battling and found a way to win. I appreciate all the fans that showed up and stayed through the weather. It was certainly an interesting game to say the least… I’m proud of the whole team rallying and the way we played.”
The game was all Kian Afrookhteh’s early on, as the redshirt junior booted three field goals to make the difference in the early going. Afrookhteh knocked a 38-yarder and a 26-yarder in the first quarter before drilling a 39-yarder to extend the CCU lead to 9-0 in the second quarter.
CCU QB Tad Hudson went 2-3 passing early before exiting the game in the first half, heading to the locker room and giving way to senior Samari Collier, who helped the Chanticleers with a dual-threat option at quarterback.
Collier led a late scoring drive in the first half, a seven-play, 73-yard drive that was capped off by an eight-yard touchdown pass to junior tight end Brooks Johnson.
Beck did not specify Hudson’s injury or any expected timeline after the game.
“It’s too soon to really tell,” Beck said. “We probably won’t know anything for a day or so.”
Collier battled the difficult weather conditions throughout the night and went just 5-for-15 passing with 35 yards, but he did plenty with his legs to help lead the Chanticleers to the win. On the ground, the Hutchinson Community College (JUCO) transfer ran it 11 times for 86 yards, including a 39-yard touchdown that put the Chants up 23-8 in the third quarter, the score that would stick.
“He took care of the football and made really good decisions,” Beck said of Collier’s play. “He brought a different element with his feet. And we needed it in this element, the way it was. It was hard to get snaps… I thought he played really, really well.”
Coastal was dominant on the ground against ULM, rushing 51 times for 277 yards. Ja’Vin Simpkins had 63 yards over 10 carries, while four other CCU rushers contributed 20 yards or more.
ULM had several opportunities in the second half as Coastal’s offense sputtered and failed to do much under soaked conditions, but the Chanticleer defense sealed the deal. Safeties Xamarion Gordon and Avyonne Jones added interceptions to help close out the night.
“I thought [defensive coordinator Jeremiah Johnson] and the defensive staff put together a great defensive game plan and I thought our guys played really well,” Beck said. “… We were able to maintain and contain them.”
Coastal will hit the road next week to battle Appalachian State (4-1, 1-1 Sun Belt). The Mountaineers were dominant on the road at Georgia State on Saturday, picking up a 41-20 win. App State defeated Oregon State, 27-23, last weekend; its two losses were against Boise State (47-14) and Southern Miss (38-22).
“We’re just playing one at a time, really,” Beck said. “We keep talking about the Chants not beating the Chants. And today we played well on special teams, we played well defensively, we rushed the football again very efficiently and we made a couple of big plays.”
