By Ryan Young
CONWAY — One of coach Joe Moglia’s most consistent messages to his Coastal Carolina football team – and to anybody who asks, for that matter – is that he doesn’t concern himself with things that he can’t control.
It doesn’t matter if a stadium is full or empty, he’ll say, or whether it’s raining or sunny or whatever.
But this week, the Chanticleers will most certainly be spending a little extra focus something they can’t control, and that is the frigid forecast that as of Tuesday night was calling for a high of 8 degrees and a low of minus-2 for their NCAA FCS playoff game Saturday at No. 8-seeded Montana.
“I think the No. 1 thing is just an understanding of what the cold really means,” Moglia said Tuesday during practice. “It is not possible for the human body to acclimate to serious freezing temperatures when you’re used to 45 or 50 degrees. So we’re going to need to make sure our guys understand … this is about the prevention of heat loss. So what kind of clothes are we going to wear, how we wear them, how we might protect our skin, how to stay reasonably warm on the sideline, the use of heaters, chicken soup at halftime, things like that.”
Moglia is having Josh Stoner, the team’s director of speed, strength and conditioning, give the players a 10-minute clinic Wednesday on how best to prevent heat loss, and the Chants will be leaving Thursday for Missoula, Mont., in time to hold a couple practices in the environment they’ll face inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
“That won’t fix it, but it will help,” Moglia said. “We’re going to do everything in the world we can to keep our guys as reasonably warm as possible.”
Offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude talked about the adjustment his guys will have to overcome in catching and gripping a cold football, but he is not worried about it affecting the Chants’ production.
“It really just becomes a mental thing more than a physical thing,” he said.
Of course, some of Coastal’s players learned that lesson the hard way a couple years ago when the team visited Stony Brook on a wet, windy and bitterly cold day. The Chants never adjusted and lost that game 42-0.
It was only in the 30s that day – not the single-digits – but the team was ill prepared with equipment to combat the weather, and that’s one key difference the Chants are hoping will serve them better this time.
Senior safety LaDarius Hawthorne, for one, shares Patenaude’s philosophy on the situation.
“I know it’s going to be cold,” he said. “When I think about it, I feel like we’re all created the same. They’re human, just like I’m a human, so if they can go out there and take it, we can go out there and take it.”
Injury report
Sophomore receiver Tyrell Blanks is expected to play this week after leaving with a shoulder injury in the first half Saturday, but he is being brought along slowly.
“[He’s] a little tender still … but I think by game time he’ll be ready to play,” Patenaude said.
Blanks ranks fourth on the team in receiving with 23 catches for 353 yards and three scores, including two grabs for 69 yards and a touchdown last weekend.
Moglia said no other starters were in question for this week.
“Knock wood, but one of the best gifts that we’ve had all year is that we’ve been pretty much injury free,” Patenaude said. “As you look at all of the success that we’ve had, a huge piece of that is that we’ve had the same guys playing week after the week, the same five guys up front and we’re relatively healthy going in.”
Unleashing Sampson
The Coastal defense gave one of its most disruptive efforts of the season against Bethune-Cookman on Saturday while racking up five sacks, 12 tackles for loss and a fumble return for touchdown.
Part of that, defensive coordinator Clayton Carlin said, was because the Chants took a more aggressive approach with blitzes.
“We blitzed a lot. We probably blitzed more than we have all season and [used] different types of blitzes and things they hadn’t seen,” he said.
Specifically, Carlin said, the Chants made sophomore free safety Richie Sampson a focal point of that aggressive approach, and Sampson responded with three tackles for loss (including two sacks), nine total tackles and that forced fumble that set up senior Mike McClure’s 39-yard touchdown return in the first quarter.
Whether or not that approach was simply catered to the matchup with Bethune-Cookman or represents a change in style for the Chants is still unclear, but after his performance Saturday, Sampson is probably in line for more pass-rushing opportunities.
“It was matchup-based and their scheme and maybe just getting Richie more involved,” Carlin said, not tipping his hand for this week. “It takes a skill to blitz. Some guys are good blitzers, other guys are not really good blitzers. We felt Richie was able to create some things back there.”
Coordinators takes
Speaking before practice Tuesday, Carlin offered his general assessment on Montana’s offense.
The Grizzlies average 37.9 points and 444.4 yards per game, led by junior quarterback Jordan Johnson, who has passed for 2,999 yards, 28 touchdowns and four interceptions this year.
“Their quarterback’s very good. He’s very athletic, gets himself out of trouble, makes plays with his legs and his arm,” Carlin said. “[They’re] very big up front, very, very big and strong, and they’ve got great skill. They’re very, very explosive. I’m very impressed.”
Patenaude, meanwhile, broke down the Montana defense – a unit that allows 21.3 points and 373.1 yards of offense per game, led by a senior linebacker in Brock Coyle who has 113 total tackles, 11 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles and two interceptions.
“[They’re] really good up front, strong, hold their gaps really well, physical, run to the ball well. I think that they mix their coverages really well,” Patenaude said. “Not a huge blitz team, more of a disguise, move-around-the-coverage type deal. But they’re really stout up front, solid on the back end – they’re kind of what we expected them to be.”
Coastal comes into the game ranked third at the FCS level in scoring at 43.0 points per game and 10th in total offense (492.7 yards per game).
Taliaferro misses cut
The three finalists for the Walter Payton Award were announced by The Sports Network.
Eastern Washington quarterback Vernon Adams, Eastern Illinois quarterback Jimmy Garappolo and Towson running back Terrance West were invited to the FCS Awards Banquet on Dec. 16 in Philadelphia.
Coastal senior running back Lorenzo Taliaferro finished 11th in the award voting, which was based on the regular season. Taliaferro broke a Coastal record this year with 1,572 rushing yards, 24 rushing touchdowns and 26 total touchdowns.
The Walter Payton Award is considered the Heisman Trophy of the FCS level.
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