FAYETTEVILLE — Coastal Carolina has had some tough losses this season in its first year of FBS action, but the one at Arkansas on Saturday no doubt cuts the deepest.
The Chanticleers (1-8) led the Razorbacks by 13 points with 10:23 left in the game only to have Arkansas score two touchdowns and pull out a 39-38 win before an announced crowd of 61,476 at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
“I thought our team played with extreme effort and played with just a great passion and there was no intimidation, no looking like we were whatever kind of football team we were,” Coastal Carolina interim head coach Jamey Chadwell said. “We had our chances to win the football game and let it slip away.
“That is what I am most disappointed in. We had a chance to put it away a couple of times or at least make it harder on them and we didn’t do it. You give them (the Razorbacks) credit for fighting back, but I am very proud of our team and the effort they showed tonight. You just wonder where that has been all year?”
It was the fifth loss by eight points or less for Coastal Carolina, a traditional power on the FCS level before making the move up this season.
“It’s tough,” Chadwell said. “Our kids played with everything they had, but have nothing to show for it again. We told them that if they learned the lesson of giving everything you have no matter the circumstances, no matter the situation, no matter what the outcome and that if you continue to fight with a purpose, play with a why, you can keep your head up.
“We also want to win, but we are playing for ourselves and to show the country because we knew this was the one time that we could show the country what was going on about Coastal Carolina.”
Coastal Carolina nearly pulled off the win over Arkansas (4-5) despite losing its starting quarterback Tyler Keane to a fractured thumb before halftime.
“In that position over the last two years, we have played nine different quarterbacks due to injury or whatever it may be,” Chadwell said. “I thought Tyler was having a really good game before he got hurt, but I thought (backup) Kilton (Anderson) handled himself really well until the moment got a little big for him and we made some mistakes at the end.”
The Chanticleers were 10-2 last season before joining the Sun Belt. They have lost eight straight games after a season-opening win over UMass, a 24-23 loser at Mississippi State on Saturday.
“They might identify us a a 1-7 football team, but our character is a lot stronger than that,” Chadwell said. “I think we showed that. When you play with that type of emotion, it hurts. When you go through the motions, those losses don’t mean as much.
“It was a tough locker room because I felt like our team really wanted to show that you shouldn’t judge us based on what our record is, but on how we play.”
Arkansas sophomore tailback T. J. Hammonds had 7 carries for 119 yards and a touchdown and also caught a short pass that he turned into a 60-yard score.
It was Hammond’s 88-yard touchdown run just after Coastal Carolina took a 38-25 lead that Chadwell looks back on as a game-changing play.
“Every time he got the ball something great happened,” Chadwell said.
Arkansas had 523 yards total offense to Coastal Carolina’s 359.
“We knew they were going to get yardage,” Chadwell said. “So that’s why our plan was to control the clock and we did a good job of that until the fourth quarter. We were able to do that, but the one run there was just a back-breaker because they didn’t eat any of the clock and got right back into the game."
Chadwell said he decided to not go for two when his team went up 38-25 because of there still being 13 minutes left and he thought his team would score again.
“We did,” Chadwell said. “We thought about, but we thought it was too early in the fourth quarter because we thought we were going to have a chance to get back down there again. The next time we would have definitely gone for it, but I think there were like 13 minutes left in the game.
“In hindsight, you know we probably should have went for it. We just thought it was the best decision at that time. You make decisions and you move on. You make it and you roll with it. Obviously you got beat by one point, but we had plenty of chances after that, too.”
The emotions were still raw when Chadwell came to the interview room.
“You are on such a high because you are in the ballgame for all four quarters and you are focused and you are giving everything you can and then they get momentum and you couldn’t get it back,” Chadwell said. “You could feel it. You were trying to make a play.
“They put the ball on the ground in the fourth quarter and we had a chance to get it. If we do, we end it right there…and we were not able to do that. There were a couple of those. We had some plays go our way, but the ones that you needed to go late didn’t.”
One of those that did was a lateral by Kelley that was ruled a fumble and ran in 31 yards for a score by Nicholas Clark to put the visitors up 28-17.
“You needed something positive to happen,” Chadwell said. “Usually the way our games have gone we get to halftime and something goes wrong and we fall apart.”