Troy vs Coastal Carolina, Sun Belt Home Opener
Troy vs Coastal Carolina
Where: Veterans Memorial Stadium, Troy
When: 2:30 pm
TV: ESPN3
Spread: Troy -14
It’s a new week in Troy and the Trojans are set to defend their wall against the invading Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina.
Based on our Sun Belt media poll, this is the very first conference meeting between two top five teams in the Sun Belt this season. Troy’s spot in the top three has been consistent as expected, but for the Chants, their rise up the ranks has been rapid.
After opening up the season with a road loss to South Carolina, Coastal routed UAB, smothered Campbell on a short week and just took down Louisiana-Lafayette on the road.
Coastal is rolling at the moment, despite only playing at home once. The team is has done a little more than three road games worth of travel thanks to Hurricane Florence, too.
Troy coach Neal Brown has noted that the extended togetherness the Chants have had has made them a dangerous group to contend with. Coastal has ripped its opponents open with its one-of-a-kind pistol option offense through the first month of the season.
Coastal often lines up with up to four different ball carrier options, similar to Troy, and will run it with any one of them. Marcus Outlow has been RB1 and has 358 rushing yards and five touchdowns.
Outlow’s partner-in-crime is Torrance Marable, who has 262 yards on 7.71 yards per carry. Starting quarterback Kilton Anderson has ran the ball himself the same amount of times as Marable has. Anderson, though, may make the biggest impact in this game.
Because he isn’t playing on Saturday.
Anderson went down last week with a high ankle sprain and is very doubtful to start against Troy.
It’s not been decided, but my guess is educated. See, his backup Bryce Carpenter has been serviceable in relief. Carpenter, a freshman, has a passing touchdown in each of the three games he’s made an appearance in. He also went 5/5 last week against the Rajin’ Cajuns, with the average completion being 16.4 yards down field.
He’s not the runner that Anderson is but has shown an ability to move the ball by way of the sky.
It’s for these reasons I’m putting Troy on upset alert for the second straight week.
Now let me explain why Troy won’t be upset in this one.
Troy fell apart last week thanks to the sheer talent of ULM’s Caleb Evans. His scrambling and improvising stretched out the Trojans and opened running lanes up the middle.
You see, with Coastal, everything is by design. The Chants biggest advantage is that it’s offense isn’t seen anywhere else at the FBS level.
Regardless, a disciplined Trojan front seven should be able to handle a run-heavy option. Need an example? Nebraska.
My biggest reason for confidence is one the other side of the ball, though. Brown is known to break out what looks like a whole new playbook once Troy gets into conference play.
I was pleased to see a new wrinkle added against the Warhawks in the triple option set. Taking advantage of Kaleb Barker’s feet, the speed of Sidney Davis and Jabir Frye and the power of BJ Smith all in one play.
RIP Coastal Carolina.
The Chants have given up a nasty 6.64 yards per carry this season. Coastal’s defense, while improved, is still a work in progress.
Prediction
It’s going to be strength vs strength on Saturday. Coastal has been highly efficient in the redzone thus far. It’s well known, though, that Troy’s bend-but-don’t-break defense is among the best in the country. The Chants will find the endzone a couple of times, but not enough. 34-20, Troy