Chants try to shake off heartbreaker

Coastal Carolina's heartbreaker of a loss to Colgate on Sunday — the Raiders won, 23-19, on the last play of the game, turning a botched field goal try into a touchdown — defies description.

So we'll let Chanticleers coach David Bennett, whose homespun style and sense of humor makes him one of the state's most entertaining football coaches, tell the story.

"We're up 19-11 with 9:22 to go in the game, and there's a lightning delay. We had them on the ropes pretty good, it was dadgum hot, and there's an one hour and 50-minute delay. So we come back out and drive it down there to the 35. It's fourth-and-1, and we don't get it. So they drive and score and go for two and miss it, so it's 19-17.

"All we've got to do is get a first down. They burn their timeouts, it's third-and-2 — and we don't get it. But we get a 49-yard punt and they are on their 30, no timeouts, but they drive it. And their quarterback goes to spike the ball, and we hit his arm, and it's a fumble. They recover, and that clock is ticking down, 15, 14, and our clock operator stops the clock at 12 seconds. We're saying, 'Why? Why? Run the clock!' and they start it back up again.

"But the officials stop it with eight seconds left, time for them to kick a field goal. They bobble the snap, and we try to tackle him, and the kicker's all tangled up. But the holder takes three steps and fires it up, and their wingback catches it in the flat and scores the touchdown and they beat us.

"It's like my grandmother told me, you better not cry over spilt milk; if you don't clean it up, it'll curdle. We've got to move on."

It brought back memories of Coastal's "Super Safety" loss to Charleston Southern in 2005, which knocked the Chants out of the FCS playoffs. But that was the last game of the season; this year's Chants must recover in time to play Saturday at Monmouth.

"It's like (Coastal basketball coach) Cliff Ellis told me," Bennett said. "The best thing to do is get back out on that field."

Brushing up on Colgate

Furman coach Bobby Lamb went to school on the tape of Coastal's battle with Colgate — his team visits the Raiders this week — and got an eyeful of Colgate running back Jordan Scott.

Scott, a 5-11, 205-pound senior, gashed the Chants for 190 yards and a touchdown on 43 carries. His longest carry was just 14 yards, but he still averaged 4.4 yards for 43 attempts on a stifling 93- degree day in Conway.

"Phenomenal," Lamb said of Scott's performance. "He's a great player with tremendous desire, and the longer the game goes on, the better he seems to get. We've got a difficult challenge ahead of us."

Scott, an FCS All-American, sat out the Raiders' opening loss to Stony Brook with an injury.

Extra Points

--Penn State is supposed to be Linebacker U., but Charleston Southern's next foe can't be far behind. All three of the Miami RedHawks' starting linebackers — Caleb Bostic, Joey Hudson and Clayton Mullins — are on the watch list for the Dick Butkus Award, given to college football's top linebacker. The RedHawks are believed to be the first team in college football history to have all three of its starting linebackers up for the award.

"They are good," CSU coach Jay Mills said.

--Presbyterian's game at Elon on Saturday might take five hours to play, given how both teams love to throw the ball. The Blue Hose are averaging more than 45 passes per game, while Elon puts it up more than 40 times per contest.

"They throw it more than we do, amazingly enough," Elon coach Pete Lembo said of PC. "And they are getting better. We were talking as a staff today, and Presybterian reminds me of where we were a year ago. They really are an improved team."

--S.C. State is working on its run defense after allowing 182 rushing yards to Benedict last week. The Bulldogs open MEAC play against Bethune-Cookman on Saturday at Johnson Hagood Stadium.

"I'm just hoping that we can figure out how to clean some of that stuff up," said coach Buddy Pough, who does get back defensive lineman Xavier Littleberry, who missed the Bendict game with a concussion.

--Charleston Southern's Gerald Stevenson has been named national special teams player of the week by The Sports Network. He set a Big South record with 255 yards in kickoff returns in Saturday's 42-23 loss at Wofford, averaging 36.4 yards per return. His returns of 47 and 61 yards set up CSU scoring drives ... Coastal defensive back Dominique Stevens won The Sports Network's national defensive player award with a school-record 20 tackles against Colgate.