Heading into the 2026 season, we know more about the West Virginia offense than we do about the defense and its capabilities. Well, for Coastal Carolina, it’s the exact opposite. They have a boatload of questions on the offensive side of the ball, while the defense has more experience and known commodities.
The Chanticleers were able to retain six players who had started games and then brought over a few guys on the defensive line with them from Missouri State, so they are in much better shape than you might expect on that side of the ball, which is head coach Ryan Beard’s baby.
The one thing you will notice very early in the game is that Coastal will try to force West Virginia to drive the length of the field.
WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez alluded to this the other day in his press conference, stating, “They’re going to be very well-coached. They very rarely give up big plays or easy, cheap ones. They’re going to be in the right spot, and you can tell that by watching their games and their scheme and what they’re doing. They’ve got some really good football players, but you’re not really sure where they’re going to be lined up all the time, so that’s going to be a little bit of a challenge. And then offensively, they could be a whole lot of new stuff that we hadn’t seen.”
Well, to put some context to it, we have some numbers to give you an idea of their tendencies, at least from what they did as a staff at Missouri State, since that’s really the best thing to go off of.
There, they loved to park a safety over the middle of the field to close off the top. As a matter of fact, they ranked third in the country (66%), playing a middle-of-the-field closed look with a safety up top. That played a big factor in them ranking 2nd in Conference USA in 20+ yard plays allowed while also ranking 3rd in the league in 30+ yard plays allowed, and 2nd in 40+ yard plays allowed.
From a coverage standpoint, they only played man 25% of the time and blitzed just 27% of the time, which ranked 71st. But when it got to third down, Missouri State nearly doubled its man coverage percentage (49%), which ranked 17th nationally. They’ll trust their corners, who have good length to match up with Jaden Bray, John Neider, etc., and get after the quarterback a little bit more in those situations.
If WVU starts winning some of those 50/50 balls downfield, it could force Coastal out of that look. The same goes for the run game. If Cam Cook, Amari Latimer, and Mike Hawkins Jr. start running all over the Chants, they’re going to have to spill more resources into the box to try and slow things down, which then, of course, gives you a chance to go over the top once they start creeping down.
What this really means is you are going to need great execution from Hawkins and the receivers in the passing game, particularly in the quick and intermediate game, balanced by a solid rushing attack. The explosive plays are still there for the taking, but very rarely are they going to allow it to come on deep shots. You are going to have to earn it by making things happen after the catch underneath or by making defenders miss in the run game.
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