What Coastal Carolina Head Coach Ryan Beard Said Following the Loss to WVU

The West Virginia Mountaineers (1-0) moved past the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (0-1) in the season opener 31-24.

Coastal Carolina head coach Ryan Beard gave his thoughts on the outcome following the game.

Opening Statement

“Definitely a tough one. You look at the football game, you have all the mistakes you made in the first half defensively, getting gashed early, offensively, putting together drives, but not being able to get any points on the board, and the turnovers. You do all those things and go into halftime, 21-0, and to be able to show resiliency and fight back like that.

That second half was the football team I know and love. I'm proud of our guys. They took their coaching at halftime. They settled into the game nicely. The staff made some really good second-half adjustments. We just played cleaner football. We have to get rid of the penalties. We have to be better on third downs on both sides of the ball, and you can't turn the football over.

That's a high-quality football team (West Virginia). I have so much respect for Rich Rod and (WVU defensive coordinator) Zac Alley and those guys over there. They have a great football team that plays hard, plays physical, and plays fast. But I have to be honest, I like our football team as well.

I love where the locker room’s at right now. They're disappointed. They're hurt. They feel like they put together a decent second half. But you have to play a full game, and that's one thing when you're trying to rebuild, and you're trying to get the culture that you want it to be. You have to have those, and I'm excited to get back to work next week.

Going for it on fourth down rather than kicking the field goal on the Chants’ opening drive of the game

In a game like this, you've got to score points - touchdowns. I think that showed our players we are going to be aggressive, and I think that's what we'll do again. If you watch the play, we had an open look, decent ball. Just got to come down with it, and all of a sudden we're telling a different story.

Again, I think that inspires a football team when they know you have their back and are willing to roll the dice. And I don't even think it was a roll of the dice. I think it was the right thing to do at the time, because again, West Virginia is a good football program.

A ton of resources. They got bodies for days. We had to get touchdowns, so that was the basis for the decision.

On the adjustments made to limit West Virginia’s rushing attack in the second half

“I think the biggest thing you saw was efficient tackling. We probably pressured a little more and just made the ball go on the perimeter. And really, we just fit things better. I think we just kind of settled into the game, and I think that was the biggest thing. When you have running backs like that and especially a running quarterback, you got to make the layups. When you get a chance to get them down, you’ve got to get them on the ground.

On Michael Hawkins Jr.’s performance for West Virginia

“He’s a hell of a ball player. He was up there making checks. He was tough to bring down. He was making throws, sitting plays on his feet, everything we talked about all week in regards to who he is as a player - it showed up, and it hurt us. That was one of the talks at halftime. You got to contain the young man. You got to limit his looks and get him on the ground when you can.”

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