How 1 yard and brutish play factored into No. 18 Coastal Carolina’s win over No. 13 BYU
One yard.
That was the difference between Coastal Carolina continuing its magical season as an unbeaten team with aspirations of playing in one of college football’s six biggest bowls, and Brigham Young bolstering its undefeated resume at the expense of Coastal’s’ wildest dreams Saturday at Brooks Stadium.
BYU quarterback Zach Wilson hit Dax Milne with a 14-yard pass at the 4-yard line on the last play of the game. Milne turned for the end zone and was hit at the 1-yard line by a pair of Chanticleers, and backup safety Mateo Sudipo pulled Milne away from the goal line to rescue CCU’s historic 22-17 win over the Cougars.
“After this game was announced, basically it was a coronation for them to go to the New Year’s Six [bowls] and solidify their chance to overtake Cincinnati, and we’re not good enough, etc., etc.,” Coastal coach Jamey Chadwell said. “One thing about our football team, if you slight us, we find that and use that as motivation.”
The eyes of a college football nation were watching, as the matchup between BYU (9-1) and CCU (10-0) – ranked 13th and 18th respectively in the College Football Playoff rankings – was one of just two on Saturday featuring teams ranked in the CFP top 25, along with No. 12 Indiana at No. 16 Wisconsin. And the ESPN College GameDay show was broadcast from the stadium Saturday morning.
The game received extra attention during the week when BYU replaced Liberty just two days before the scheduled contest with the Chants when the Flames backed out due to coronavirus cases within their program.
“I’m proud of the effort and just the way we handled really the circus here,” Chadwell said. “All week it was a circus and something that we hadn’t experienced, and our guys just never flinched, and they’re resilient and well deserving of this win.”
Coastal answered the doubts that were loudly discussed nationally of whether it would be able to withstand the physicality of BYU. The answer came in the first quarter in the form of a 17-play, 94-yard drive that took 9 minutes and 5 seconds.
“ESPN, when [people] were talking about this game, they probably mentioned Coastal 10 percent of the time maybe, it was all about BYU, BYU,” senior offensive lineman Trey Carter said. “You know we took that personal and we went out there and did something about it. If you watched the game we can obviously play with BYU at the line of scrimmage.”
That touchdown drive established that the Chants weren’t going to be bullied, and they continued their brute play – sometimes crossing the line of accepted football decency – to earn the biggest win to this point in program history in the first December non-bowl meeting of undefeated FBS teams since 2009.
Coastal rushed for 281 yards on 54 carries, including 132 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries by senior C.J. Marable against a defense that had been allowing 89 yards rushing per game, and held a nearly 16-minute advantage in time of possession.
“Our offensive line, who nobody said had a chance to block them, we held the ball for 37 minutes,” Chadwell said. “I give credit to those guys up front. They took it personal and we were able to make plays. The only way we were going to win that game was to keep it away from [Wilson], and we did that.”
Coastal’s defense matched the physical nature of the Cougars as well. BYU has one of the nation’s most prolific offenses led by Wilson and entered the game averaging 47 points, 202 yards rushing and 333 passing yards per game. The Cougars were held 30 points below their average and to 405 yards of total offense, and CCU had five tackles for loss for a total of 33 yards compared to BYU’s one TFL for 1 yard.
“That’s just Coastal Carolina defense, that Black Swarm, man,” junior outside linebacker Jeffrey Gunter said. “We get after anybody and we feel we can play with anybody in the country, and we proved that tonight.”
Marable scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 2-yard run with 11:30 to play and the Chants barely held on, as BYU drove 81 yards in seven plays in the final minute without the benefit of a timeout.
Wilson, a Heisman candidate, completed 19 of 30 passes for 240 yards with a TD and interception, and was 5 of 6 for 90 yards on the final drive. Grayson McCall completed 10 of 15 passes for 85 yards and rushed for 68 yards on 12 carries for CCU.
“[McCall] was tough. In the games like this you’ve got to be tough and you’ve got to get some hard, physical yards,” Chadwell said. “He’s gritty. He’s tough. . . . He plays through stuff. He’s a tough kid and he learned tonight. I think this was the best defense that we’ve played and some of those windows that are usually open weren’t as open as much, but he gutted through it, and I think that’s the sign of a young quarterback continuing to learn and grow.”
Coastal took a pair of leads in the first half. The first after what would have been a 91-yard touchdown reception by BYU’s Neil Pau’u was called back because of a holding call against tight end Isaac Rex against pressure from Gunter.
Coastal’s first scoring drive was capped by a 6-yard touchdown run up the middle by Marable.
BYU answered quickly on a 42-yard scoring run by Tyler Allgeier, needing only four plays to drive 76 yards in 1:15.
A 20-yard Marable run moved CCU into Cougars territory on the ensuing drive, but McCall fumbled while pulling the ball from Marable’s arms on an option run and the ball was recovered at the BYU 42 by Isaiah Kaufusi.
BYU was faced with a fourth-and-1 near midfield and failed on a trick play to turn the ball over on downs. Wilson pitched to running back Lopini Katoa moving to his right, who threw a lateral back to the left to Wilson, who in turn opted to ignore Rex open about 15 yards downfield and threw 30 yards to Gunnar Romney down the left sideline. The throw was broken up by CCU cornerback D’Jordan Strong.
Coastal took advantage of the short field, driving 51 yards in 11 plays to score on a 1-yard Reese White run up the middle on fourth down to take a 13-7 lead.
BYU again answered quickly. A penalty on the kickoff return set the Cougars back to their own 6, but they covered 94 yards in six plays including a 17-yard run by Wilson followed by a 41-yard touchdown reception by Milne, who caught the pass near the left sideline and was pushed but was able to remain in bounds for the score with 1:45 left in the half.
Down 14-13 with a possession starting at its 25 with two timeouts remaining, Coastal played conservative with three runs and a holding penalty on an attempted pass on second down and punted with 45 seconds left in the half.
BYU nearly reached midfield to set up a Hail Mary on the final play of the half and it was intercepted and returned 40 yards by CCU cornerback Derick Bush. Linebackers Gunter and Teddy Gallagher took some liberties with Wilson during the runback.
They double-teamed Wilson on a block, driving him to the ground on two occasions, the first time forcefully driving his head into the teal turf and the second resembling a wrestling suplex by Gunter.
“I was just trying to do my job,” Gunter said. “It’s a physical game, emotions are high and I saw a person to block and I did it. I didn’t mean anything malicious just trying to play football.”
A melee ensued that involved just about every player on both teams at the location of Wilson’s mugging, which didn’t lead to any known penalties or ejections.
In the second half, BYU took a 17-13 lead on a 29-yard field goal by Jake Oldroyd following a tackle on a third-down Wilson run by C.J. Brewer. The 56-yard scoring drive included a 15-yard penalty on Gunter for a late hit out of bounds on Wilson after a scramble.
Gunter forced a fumble on a Tyler Allgeier run that was recovered by Silas Kelly on the BYU 29, but the Cougars defense held three runs to 7 yards and CCU settled for a 41-yard Massimo Biscardi field goal to pull within a point midway through the third quarter.
The first sack of Bush’s career for a loss of 12 yards to midfield led to a punt, and Coastal embarked on another long TD drive, going 85 yards in 13 plays in just over 6 minutes for a 2-yard Marable TD run with 11:30 to play.
“You look at the line of scrimmage,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “. . . We gave up too many yards. First down was the biggest issue, whether it was missed assignments, or scheme, or whatever. We made some adjustments, it felt like we were getting into the right positions, the right schemes. We just ran out of time.
“They made more plays tonight. Obviously they made one more and we were a few inches short of winning the game.”
A loss of 16 yards on a catch by BYU’s Chris Jackson, who gave ground while trying to reverse field and was tackled by Enock Makonzo, led to a Cougars punt with 9 minutes left.
Following a CCU punt, senior linebackers Silas Kelly and Gallagher tackled Allgeier for a loss of 3 yards on third-and-2 at midfield to force a BYU punt with 5 minutes remaining, and the Cougars’ final possession ended at the CCU 1.
“Everybody in the country knows who Coastal Carolina University is now, I believe after this one,” Carter said. “That’s just a huge thing for the community and the fans and everything. We were excited when we found out GameDay was coming and we knew we had an opportunity to show what we had, and we did that.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2020 at 9:04 PM with the headline "How 1 yard and brutish play factored into No. 18 Coastal Carolina’s win over No. 13 BYU."
