Coastal Carolina Football: Can Chanticleers make it to postseason in 2020?

Defense still needs to take step forward

For the Chanticleers want to compete against the upper echelon of the Sun Belt, the defense needs to take a step forward. They gave up over 30 points six times in twelve games last season. They gave up 28 to UMass as well.

Their offense was their best defense last season. Coastal finished 10th in the country in time of possession. They wanted to play keep away. However, keep away doesn’t work when you give up big plays. Teams completed nearly 70 percent of their passes against Coastal’s defense.

The pass defense was marginal for two reasons. First, the Chanticleers did not have much of a pass rush. Outside of Tarron Jackson — who might be the best defensive end in the Sun Belt — they did not have a player with more than three sacks.

Their secondary was young last season and took their lumps. Last season they went to finishing school and will be better this season. They also add JUCO transfer D’Jordan Strong to the secondary.

The 160 yards per game they gave up on the ground wasn’t awful but they were shredded by some of the better run offenses in the conference. They gave up over 200 yards to Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Louisiana and Louisiana-Lafayette.

They need to be better against the better teams in the conference if they want to get to the postseason.