#47 Coastal Carolina

Conway, SC

Brooks Stadium December 5, 2020 Coastal Carolina 22 – (Not Liberty) BYU 17 (ESPN Recap)

If you go to enough random college football games attempting to see the best product that a program has to offer, you will eventually get lucky and catch a game like I did this weekend. A game that has been tabbed “Game of the Year” by writers on ESPN and blue check mark Twitter. It’s either this game or the Clemson/ND 2OT game, but I wasn’t in South Bend for that one so I’ll vote this game. One of the best games I have ever been to.

Two top-20 ranked 9-0 teams, slugging it out in front of a national audience with a lot of hype going into the game. It went down as the biggest win in Coastal’s relatively young program history.

A Timeline:

Sunday I booked flights on Delta to Dirty Myrtle through ATL on Delta points, bought two tickets to see 9-0 Coastal play 8-1 Liberty on SeatGeek (forced to buy two due to COVID protocols – pictured), bet large on Coastal -6.0 (pictured) despite being nervous about Malik Willis, and found a 5-star hotel for $100 for the night. I told myself and the Coastal families at last week’s game in San Marcos that if the Chants covered -16.5 against Tx St, that I would see them in Myrtle. Had to follow through and in the process, close out state #3 on this journey.

Monday ESPN College Gameday announced they were going to Coastal to host the weekly show. Been to many Gamedays, but still a pleasant surprise to add another tally.

Tuesday The line explodes from -6.0 to -11.0, a very not normal early week move that means something changed about the showdown. Turns out, COVID struck a couple of Liberty starters and more would also likely have to sit due to contact tracing protocols. There is also a rumor that they do not play at all and have to cancel. I love my bet and feel less nervous about Liberty.

Wednesday Rumors start to fly about 9-0 BYU replacing 8-1 Liberty for the game. Too much on the line for there to be no opponent, but a logistical and preparation stretch to believe a team from Utah could be ready for a game Saturday in South Carolina. This is bittersweet for me as BYU would be a bigger game and bigger stage, but also be a bigger threat to win and beat my guys.

Thursday It’s official! More 2020 stuff happening, and BYU is officially playing Coastal in two days. They sent the equipment truck Wednesday night hoping the game would occur. One practice. Minimal film time for either team. Just show up and let’s play 60 minutes. ESPN gets a gift, and the country gets to see two of the three best undefeated Group of Five teams play one another. BYU opens -10 and O/U 61.0 I take Coastal ML and the over for more. I didn’t want to straight bet against my guys but I didn’t have the conviction to take them like I had all season.

Friday One of the most drunk football games I have seen on TV with two Fun Belt teams playing in pouring rain. Louisiana holds off App St by 3 despite their long-snapper having the worst individual performance I have ever seen by a college football player and the Louisiana coach making a horrible decision to take a 45-yard loss safety with 1:50 left and up by 5 to give the ball back to App St with plenty of time, 1 TO, and only down 3. Of course, it ended with a missed 30-yard FG by the all-time leader in Sun Belt scoring on the last play. This game and the U51.5 kept me up on a night I needed to go to bed earlier to catch a 7am flight to MYR. And right before I fell asleep, Joe D texts me that the Coastal game is cancelled and my heart sinks in bed…but he was just 48 hours late on the Liberty news and I will kill him for that pump fake. He might find out Vandy fired their coach by mid-next week.

Saturday The rest of the world begins to realize how special this Coastal team is with the various Gameday video montages about how much fun they are having: young coach, mullets, post-game opponent specific themed locker room celebrations. Senior leadership. A stud freshman QB. The messages start coming in throughout the day about Coastal, but the CFB world moves the line to BYU -11/-11.5.

I make it to MYR at 11:30am. It was my 13th anniversary from senior week. Definitely a different Myrtle experience. Check-in at the hotel, and take a Lyft to downtown Conway, SC (about 8 mins from stadium by car and much longer if I was in Troy AL and had to walk) to post up at the Crafty Rooster. Three TVs going with noon bets (Texas A&M, Ohio St, and Oklahoma St games) along with beers and food. Great time and great second half by the Aggies.

Lyft to the stadium at 4pm for a 5:30 kick.. I’ve got a second ticket to the game I was hoping to scalp in-person that I paid $240 for (attendance restriction to 5,000 really impacted supply and demand for Liberty, and then my tickets were $840/ea when BYU was announced since they travel and are having a special season). However, I get there and cannot help but laugh at the West endzone, which has perfect unblocked views on a raised sidewalk behind a transparent 4-foot chain link fence (aka, you can happily watch the game from there for free). I didn’t even try to sell the ticket.

Hop onto a tailgate with Robert W of Myrtle Hyundai. He gives me the program biography, coaching history, school history, and an all-important bud light 16oz. His crew was nice, but one guy is very concerned about his taxes going forward. Very concerned.

I head to the gate 30 mins before kick and get a few “Hey, you were at Texas State last week!” shout outs. Then I bumped into Nick from Tx St game, and I sat 40-yd line Coastal sideline near them rather than upper deck BYU where my tickets were.

I add a max bet on “team to score first: Coastal” at +135 since felt like that was a 50/50 prop. Helped soften the over loss.

The game was as jacked up of an atmosphere as 5,000 fans could ever be. Coastal pounded the rock with CJ and Reese (and Grayson), controlled tempo and possession, and were down a point at halftime. My over was in a lot of trouble from the beginning and never got there. I spent a lot of time dreaming up OT scenarios. Didn’t come close. It was clear that neither Grayson McCall nor Zach Wilson were comfortable in the pocket. Aside from the first play of the game for BYU which was an 80-yard house call that didn’t count due to holding, there were no big pass plays in the game. CJ Marable was my MVP on Senior Night, ripping 132 and 2 on 23 carries.

Teams traded fumbles for effectively a 1-1 turnover margin (Wilson threw a pick on last play of 1H that didn’t matter). The eye test sometimes made it feel like BYU was the better team, peaking when they ripped a 50-yard TD run down the middle which looked way too easy (probably busted assignment somewhere). Their secondary must have been a level above the receiving core of Coastal because there was not much testing down the field at all and my guy Isaiah Likely was held to 3 catches. But credit to the boys in white and teal playing on Teal turf. They were dogs, pulled ahead, and held on in an epic last 2 mins of the game. Other than a missed XP, fumble on an exchange, and worst soft pretzel I have ever had, they played a flawless game.

BYU pulled a Kevin Dyson and fell 1-yard short of winning the game as time-expired on the last play. The crowd went wild. Some students rushed the field. Fans were crying of happiness. Singing in the parking lot. It was amazing!

Mullets beat the Mormons

I deserved this game