The Charleston Southern Buccaneers entered their first meeting against Coastal Carolina coming off a beatdown against Vanderbilt last week, marking the school’s 28th straight loss to an FBS opponent. The Buccaneers have lost 12 consecutive games overall. Coastal came into the game after taking a loss at Virginia 48-7.
The Chanticleers were favored by 28.5 points in front of the biggest sellout crowd in school history. Concession stand items were free if you had the voucher app on your phone, and there was a drone show at halftime. All the things that would make the first home game of the 2025 season special. The food and drinks weren’t stale, but the play on the field was.
MJ Morris, a Maryland transfer who spent two seasons at NC State, would try to get back on track against an FCS opponent after completing only 55% of his passes against the Virginia Cavaliers and throwing one interception. The two teams would trade punts for the entire first quarter. It wouldn’t be until the 2nd quarter that Coastal would get on the board with a field goal by Kian Afrookhteh.
Toward the end of the 3rd quarter, the Chants would make a quarterback change, bringing in sophomore Tad Hudson, who played reasonably well as a freshman in the Myrtle Beach Bowl last season against UTSA. Morris wasn’t able to get the job done after throwing three interceptions against the Bucs, giving him a total of four interceptions in seven quarters of play. Coastal was able to find a little bit of space running the ball, but Charleston Southern was an athletic team that used schemes and disguises to bait Morris into bad throws.
It would appear that Hudson may be the starter going forward for Coastal after coming in and leading Coastal Carolina down the field to at least pull away comfortably and get a win. Hudson is a big body QB who is 6-foot-3, and isn’t afraid to lower his pads and mix it up with smaller defensive backs. Through 3/4 of the game, Coastal Carolina’s offense was stale and lethargic, and it will need to make some personnel changes from here on out to give this team a spark when it comes to Sun-Belt conference play.
The backup QB is always the most popular person on the team when things go south. But, fans are now questioning the abilities of head coach Tim Beck to get this team back to where it once was.
Coastal won the time of possession battle, which is usually a key sign of the outcome, but lost the turnover battle. It wasn’t a perfect game by any means, but Coastal is glad to put a one in the win column. The Chanticleers will stay home and welcome the East Carolina Pirates to Conway on Saturday at 7:30 PM EDT.
