The No. 23 Liberty Flames are bowl bound and will be taking on the No. 12 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers out of the Sun Belt Conference in the Cure Bowl. The Chanticleers are currently a 6 point favorite.

2020 SEASON

The Chanticleers are 11-0 overall and 8-0 in Sun Belt play. They finished the season officially as co-champions of the league as the Sun Belt Conference Championship Game between Coastal and Louisiana was canceled due to COVID issues at Coastal.

They began the season with a 38-23 win at Kansas. It was a win that garnered some national attention at the time. The Jayhawks would go on to finish the season winless at 0-9. Coastal would also defeat Campbell (43-21) and No. 8 BYU (22-17) out of conference.

In league play, the Chanticleers swept through their slate against Arkansas State (52-23), No. 21 Louisiana (30-27), Georgia Southern (28-14), Georgia State (51-0), South Alabama (23-6), Appalachian State (34-23), Texas State (49-14), and Troy (42-38).

SIMILAR OPPONENTS

Liberty and Coastal Carolina did not face any similar opponents this season.

KEY STATS

Coastal Carolina is averaging 37.5 points per game while allowing 18.7 points per game. The Chanticleers’ offense is about as balanced as you can be as they average 223.2 yards rushing and 223.6 yards passing each game. QB Grayson McCall leads the way as he is completing 69.3% of his passes for 2,170 yards, 23 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. He’s also second on the team with 473 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns.

Coastal’s defense is surrendering 340.7 yards per game, with 137.9 coming on the ground and 202.8 coming through the air.

HEAD COACH

CCU is led by head coach Jamey Chadwell. He has a 19-16 record in his three seasons at Coastal Carolina, improving each year from 3-9 (2-6) in 2017 when he was the interim head coach as Joe Moglia took a medical leave of absence.  After Moglia retired following the 2018 season, Chadwell led Coastal to a 5-7 (2-6) mark in 2019. Prior to his time in Conway, Chadwell was the head coach at North Greenville, Delta State, and Charleston Southern. He was 35-14 in four seasons at CSU leading the Buccaneers to consecutive FCS Playoff appearances before joining Coastal as their offensive coordinator prior to the 2017 campaign.

SERIES RESULTS

The series is tied at 7-7.

11/15/2003 in Lynchburg, VA – Liberty 38-21
10/23/2004 in Conway, SC – Coastal 33-6
10/22/2005 in Lynchburg, VA – Coastal 27-21 (3OT)
10/28/2006 in Conway, SC – Coastal 28-26
11/3/2007 in Lynchburg, VA – Liberty 37-24
10/4/2008 in Conway, SC – Liberty 43-38
10/17/2009 in Lynchburg, VA – Liberty 58-13
11/13/2010 in Conway, SC – Coastal 45-31
10/15/2011 in Lynchburg, VA – Liberty 63-27
10/27/2012 in Conway, SC – Coastal 36-12
10/19/2013 in Lynchburg, VA – Coastal 55-52 (2OT)
11/22/2014 in Conway, SC – Liberty 15-14
11/19/2015 in Lynchburg, VA – Liberty 24-21
11/17/2016 in Conway, SC – Coastal 42-7

BOWL HISTORY

This is Coastal’s first ever bowl game appearance.

NOTEWORTHY

Like Liberty, Coastal Carolina is one of the more recent FBS teams as they joined in 2017, when the Sun Belt invited them. The Chanticleers have steadily improved each season until their breakout this year with an undefeated regular season and shared conference championship. Prior to joining the FBS, Coastal and Liberty were long time rivals at the FCS level playing in the Big South Conference together beginning when the Chanticleers began their football program in 2003.