The 2021 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football team represented

Coastal Carolina University Coastal Carolina University (CCU or Coastal) is a public university in Conway, South Carolina. Founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College, and later joining the University of South Carolina System as USC Coastal Carolina, it became an in ...

during the 2021 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Chanticleers were led by third-year head coach

Jamey Chadwell Jamey Chadwell (born January 10, 1977) is an American football coach and former player, who serves as the head coach at Liberty University; he also served as head coach for Costal Carolina and interim HC in the 2017 season while permanent head co ...

and played their home games at Brooks Stadium. They competed as a member of the East Division of the Sun Belt Conference.

Previous season

In a season limited due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the Chanticleers finished the 2020 season 11–1, 8–0 in Sun Belt play to finish in first place in the East Division and shared the regular season conference championship with

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. The Chanticleers received an invitation to the

Cure Bowl The Cure Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game that has been played in December of each year in Orlando, Florida since 2015. It was originally held at Camping World Stadium before moving to Exploria Stadium in 2022. The Cure Bow ...

, their first time postseason FBS bowl game. There they lost to No. 23

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

in overtime. The Chanticleers were ranked as high as No. 9 in the

AP poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broad ...

and No. 12 in the

Coaches poll The Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has been known officiall ...

and

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

standings. The team notched wins against two top 25 teams and a win against a Power Five conference team.

Preseason

Recruiting class

Source:

Award watch lists

Listed in the order that they were released

Preseason

Sources:

Sun Belt coaches poll

The Sun Belt coaches poll was released on July 20, 2021. The Chanticleers were picked to finish tied for first in the East Division and second overall in the conference.

Sun Belt Preseason All-Conference teams

Offense ''1st team'' *

Grayson McCall Grayson McCall (born December 13, 2000) is an American football quarterback with the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. Early years At the age of 12, McCall joined a traveling Little League all-star baseball team that played in a televised tourname ...

– Quarterback, RS-SO * Isaiah Likely – Tight End, SR * Jaivon Heiligh – Wide Receiver, SR ''2nd team'' *Trey Carter – Offensive Lineman, SR *Willie Lampkin – Offensive Lineman, SO Defense ''1st team'' * Jeffrey Gunter – Defensive Lineman, RS-SR * C. J. Brewer – Defensive Lineman, SR *Silas Kelly – Linebacker, SR *D'Jordan Strong – Defensive Back, SR ''2nd team'' *Teddy Gallagher – Linebacker, SR Special Teams ''2nd teams'' *Massimo Biscardi – Kicker, SR

Personnel

Schedule

The 2021 regular-season schedule consisted of 7 home and 5 away games. The Chanticleers traveled to Sun Belt foes

Arkansas State Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

, Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, and

South Alabama South Alabama is the various parts of southern Alabama. Although it is not a strictly defined geographic region, it generally includes all Alabama counties south of the Black Belt (region of Alabama), Black Belt. In that view, ''South Alabama'' co ...

. Coastal hosted Sun Belt foes Louisiana–Monroe,

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...

, Georgia State, and

Texas State Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

. The Chants hosted three of their four non-conference opponents at Brooks Stadium:

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a public senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one of six senior military colleges in the United States. ...

, from the

NCAA Division I FCS The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic ...

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly k ...

;

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

of the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

; and UMass, an FBS Independent. They traveled to Buffalo of the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

Rankings

Game summaries

The Citadel

Kansas

at Buffalo

UMass

Louisiana–Monroe

at Arkansas State

at Appalachian State

Troy

at Georgia Southern

Georgia State

Texas State

at South Alabama

vs. Northern Illinois (Cure Bowl)

References

{{Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football navbox Coastal Carolina Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football seasons Cure Bowl champion seasons

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football team represents Coastal Carolina University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. The Chanticleers are members of the Sun Belt Conference, fielding its teams at the F ...