One of last year’s sort-of highlight weeks was Buffalo’s tightly contested games against Coastal Carolina. In the first-ever meeting between the schools, Buffalo took the undefeated and ranked Chanticleers to the edge.
Last season Coastal went 11-2, and lost the sun belt title but of note is that their two losses came by a grand total of five points.
Not only did the Chanticleers keep it all going, and not only did they win a bowl game, but those two losses came by a grand total of five points.
This year UB will take a trip down south to once again test the Chanticleers. For the first time in several years Carolina will be rebuilding, though the teams undisputed leader Grayson McCall is back.
McCall has lost most of his receiving targets, what’s left is running back Braydon Bennett, the teams leading returning receiver with 24 grabs coming out of the backfield.
Fortunately for Grayson is that enough of the line returns, and there is enough depth to think he will have the time he needs to run the Chants’ offense.
On defense, there is a similar story. Carolina held onto quite a bit of the line, enough to worry about if you’re Buffalo, but their back seven was very senior heave last season.
Nearly every significant linebacker from last season is gone. JT Killen is probably the leader for that unit going forward. He tallied 17 tackles as a backup role in the middle last year and this year is going to have to run the show.
In addition to that most of their secondary is save D’Jordan Strong. Overall the talent is there, Coastal has been recruiting well, but it remains to be seen how well the units come together.
This is a game that a well-coached Buffalo team should be able to play well in. It’s early enough in the season that both teams will still have a lot of chemistry to develop. But if UB offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery cannot put some pressure on the Chants’ it’s hard to think a player as dynamic as Grayson McCall won’t make a ton of noise.
Leave a Reply