Texas State vs. Coastal Carolina: Preview and Prediction

Location: Brooks Stadium, Conway, SC

Kickoff: Saturday, November 29th 11:30 p.m. CT

TV/Radio: ESPN+/San Marcos: AM 1300, 930 AM, 89.9 FM. Conway: WRNN-AM/FM Hot Talk 99.5, 1450 AM/105.5 FM

Series Record: Bobcats lead series, 1-0

Last Meeting: Texas State won 27-7, in 2017.

Betting Line: Coastal -6.5, O/U: 52

No frills, no thrills, just late November college football for bragging rights. Rivalry week at its best.

Eh. This isn’t Army-Navy, Harvard-Princeton or the Egg Bowl.

It’s two teams with young head coaches looking forward to the future.

Coastal coach Jamey Chadwell is in his first full year as head coach (he was interim head coach in 2017) and has already made an impact.

Chadwell and his Chanticleers championed a signature win over Kansas earlier this season. Even though Coastal escaped with a 3-1 non-conference record, they’ve been 1-6 in Sun Belt play.

On the other side, Texas State’s first-year head coach Jake Spavital has had some ups and lots of downs. The squad has had lots of adversities, but play hard every game as Spavital has instilled a championship mentality.

Chanti-clear Days Ahead

Junior running back Torrance Marable has been Coastal’s main weapon.

Last week’s 172-yard performance was a career high, and the back is 36 yards short of his first 1,000 yard season. If Marable reaches that milestone, he’ll be only the fourth Chanticleer to rush over 1,000 in a season.

Marable has the team lead in total offense by over 770 yards and his 13 touchdowns more than doubles the second place player.

On defense, Coastal Carolina has the 6-foot-5 Jarron Jackson wreaking havoc on opposing offenses. The junior is having a breakout season with 6.5 sacks and is truly coming into his own as one of the Sun Belt’s best.

Texas (State) Strong

One of the thing the Bobcats have shown in recent years is heart. Especially the defense.

The last few seasons we’ve seen games where Texas State looks strong against the odds at the beginning only to falter at the end.

Last week against ranked Appalachian State, the defense kept the Bobcats above water only down 14-13 late in the third quarter. Hopefully, the defense can have a repeat performance but keep the momentum all game long.

Wide receiver Javen Banks broke out against against the Mountaineers with a career high 82 yards and the speedster showed what he can really do in the open field.

No matter who is under center for Texas State during the game they’ll have success if they can spread it out to Banks and fellow receiver Hutch White.

Conclusion

The last review of the year and honestly this matchup could go either way but give me the 27-23 Bobcat win.