*Preview courtesy of Libertine on AGS.
2015 was, without question, the high water mark in the history of the football program at Charleston Southern University. CSU captured the conference crown outright, the first squad to do that since Stony Brook in 2011 and only the third team to do it since the Big South moved to a playoff-eligible six teams in 2008. The Bucs took their accomplishment two steps farther by defeating crosstown foe, The Citadel, in the second round of the playoffs before ultimately losing to Jacksonville State in the quarterfinals. Until that game, CSU had won every FCS game on their schedule, including two eventual playoff teams in The Citadel and Coastal Carolina during the regular season (their two losses were to FBS Troy and Alabama), and the final 2015 polls gave the team and head coach Jamey Chadwell a great deal of the recognition that CSU has long sought after. The question and the challenge for the team in 2016 then is one of consistency. Can they do it again?
On offense, Chuck South returns several key players in the backfield, most notably RB’s Darius Hammond and Ben Robinson. The receiving corps returns solid possession receiver Colton Korn and explosiveness of Kenny Dinkins. However, leading receiver Nathan Perera, a big-time target anywhere on the field, graduated after his sixth year in blue. His experience as well as his ability both to produce and to draw defenders was invaluable in 2015 and there’s a big statistical dropoff at the position after him. Three starters on the offensive line graduated as well, as did 6’8” tight end Nathan Prater (who was also a sixth-year player). The most glaring loss on the offense, however, has to be at quarterback. Chadwell’s option-based offense tends to be a little rough on quarterbacks and the Bucs have had to play at least three QB’s in every year that Chadwell has been there. The nominal starter for the last two seasons, one-time UAB transfer Austin Brown, graduated following the 2015 season and so did fellow QB, Danny Croghan. This leaves only rJr Kyle Copeland as the only returning Q with any game experience. Chadwell and his staff are optimistic that Blinn JC transfer Robert Mitchell can shoulder some of the load but history suggests they’re going to need one more.
CSU didn’t have any particular standout talents on the defensive side of the ball. What they did have was a group of players who had played together for several years and knew their assignments backward and forward. Graduation, however, claimed three starters in the secondary, three more in the linebacking corps and one more along the defensive line. On their own, none of these losses is dramatic; however, these losses taken together represent a pool of experience on the field that must now be re-filled in short order. The defensive line will be all right and linebackers Zane Cruz and Solomon Brown are the leading tacklers returning from last season but there is a dearth of experience behind them.
The special teams unit has been inconsistent for the Bucs for a couple of years. Their undefeated season in 2013 was derailed in what was primarily a special teams meltdown at Gardner-Webb and special teams miscues contributed largely in their pivotal 7-3 loss to Presbyterian in 2014. 2015 started off much the same way for CSU and, at one point mid-season, Chadwell opened up a full-team tryout at kicker. Things settled down for them, however, in the last half of the season as true freshman Tyler Tekac took over the FG duties and converted the majority of them.
The schedule:
@ North Dakota State (8/29)
Kentucky State (9/3)
@ Florida State (9/10)
@ Monmouth (9/24)
@ Coastal Carolina (10/1)
Albany State (10/8)
Presbyterian (10/22)
Bucknell (10/29)
Gardner-Webb (11/5)
@ Liberty (11/12)
Kennesaw State (11/19)
