Strange stuff happens in night games at Coastal Carolina

By Chris Lang
Sports writer
Published: October 1, 2008

James Madison and Furman both went into Coastal Carolina’s Brooks Stadium for night games as ranked opponents.

Both left with losses.

Thus, a mystique was born. Strange things happen in Conway at night, some said. The Chanticleers, who host No. 20 Liberty in a 7 p.m. game Saturday, won those games by a combined six points in front of standing-room only crowds packed with rowdy students.

But, as Liberty coach Danny Rocco points out, “I know Presbyterian went down there and beat them at night.”

So did Georgia Southern, as the Chanticleers slipped last year to 5-6 after posting consecutive nine-win seasons.

Coastal is promoting the game as a “Blackout,” and encouraging fans to wear all black for Saturday night’s game, which will go a long away in determining who wins the Big South championship.

(As an aside, the “Blackout” is 1-for-2 in recent weeks. It failed miserably at Georgia, as Alabama ran the Bulldogs off the field in the first half last Saturday. It worked at U.S. Cellular Field Tuesday as the White Sox beat the Twins to clinch the A.L. Central title.)

Two major factors played in Coastal’s favor during the Chants’ night home wins over JMU and Furman.

For one, Coastal was really good. In both of those seasons, Coastal spent much of the year ranked in the Top 25, and in 2006 — when it beat Furman — CCU advanced to the FCS playoffs.

The other factor? JMU (CAA) and Furman (Southern) were both from respected, established conferences. It was easy to overlook a team from an upstart conference like the Big South.

Coastal will have no such luck when it comes to Liberty, considering the Flames’ athletics department spends much of the year drilling into the heads of its students and athletes that Coastal is the school’s No. 1 athletic rival.

“It’s a rival game and it’s a conference game,” Liberty receiver Dominic Bolden said. “I think we’re going to be hungry when we go down there. We’re going to want it just as much as they will.”

Flames tailback Rashad Jennings is anticipating an electric atmosphere Saturday, but that’s nothing different from what LU saw on the road last week at Youngstown State.

The crowd of 18,978 was the 10th largest in Stambaugh Stadium history, and with Liberty forced to run its two-minute drill to set up a game-winning field goal as time expired, the Flames had to deal with that crowd at its rowdiest.

“I expect there to be a lot of talking and a lot of cheering, and I expect it to be loud,” Jennings said. “The offense won’t be able to hear the snap count. I expect them to come full speed and hit us right in the mouth, as hard as they can, on every play.

“The louder it gets, the more you have to focus. So I think (noise) helps in that sense.”