Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 2026 Season Preview

Beard Inherits a Mirage

Ryan Beard takes over a 6-7 team that won 5-3 in conference play despite getting outgained badly in those same games, a gap that points toward a real step back rather than a breakout. Only 23% of production returns, and the defense let opponents score too cheaply, needing just 13.5 yards per point allowed against a 14.6 league median. The lone bright spot buried under the record is a wasteful offense that spent 14.7 yards for every point it scored, room to get more efficient even as the overall picture says sell high on 2025.

Numbers Without a Passer

Coastal Carolina's offense finished 124th nationally in yards per play last season with almost no vertical threat, a bottom-third passing attack that made every third down a coin flip at a 33.0% conversion rate. Ryan Beard inherits that mess in year one and hands it to Tre Guerra, whose 2026 season is the whole story since he arrives with no prior stat line to lean on and must simply be better than a passing game that ranked 117th in the country. The defense is no refuge either, allowing 33.1 points and 445 yards a game, so whatever Guerra builds through the air has to cover for a unit that gave up chunks on the ground at 210 yards per contest.

Coastal Carolina turned over its entire quarterback room, and Tre Guerra takes the reins with zero passing snaps on record, an odd fit for a passing attack that finished 117th in yards per game and 121st on third down. The production Guerra replaces was middling anyway: Tad Hudson threw for 1253 yards but posted 7 interceptions against 6 touchdowns, and Samari Collier and MJ Morris combined for more picks than scores in limited work. Deuce Bailey's clean 335 yards with zero interceptions offers a stylistic contrast if Guerra struggles, but new coach Ryan Beard is building his passing game around an unproven starter and hoping the surrounding rushing attack, 69th nationally, can mask growing pains through the air.

No single back replaces Ja'Vin Simpkins and his 590 yards, so Coastal Carolina is spreading the carries between Dominic Knicely (384 yards, 3 TD) and Jevon Edwards (371 yards, 1 TD) while adding Rice transfer Daelen Alexander, who put up 392 yards and 3 TD of his own last season. That's three backs with legitimate starter production for a run game that finished 69th nationally in rushing yards per game, well ahead of an offense that ranked 124th in yards per play and 117th in passing. Ryan Beard's first season will lean hard on that ground crew to keep the offense on schedule while the passing game sorts itself out.

No returning Chanticleer caught more than 29 balls last year, so new coach Ryan Beard rebuilt the room through the portal rather than trust internal growth from a passing game that ranked 117th nationally. Missouri State transfer Tristian Gardner (30 catches, 465 yards, 6 TD) and Florida A&M's Goldie Lawrence (27-420-2) both outproduced every returner Coastal has back, and they'll pair with Clayton Coppock Jr. and Robby Washington in what's now a five-deep group of proven college pass-catchers. The bet is clear: more established bodies at receiver fixes a unit that couldn't separate, not scheme continuity, since none of last year's top four departed targets are walking back through the door.

Coastal Carolina's tight end room lost every trace of its passing-game production, with Brooks Johnson (11 catches, 87 yards) and Zach Courtney (9 catches, 120 yards) both gone, and none of the returning names in Jackson Kohl, Brown Reaves, Ben Verges or Bryson Wood carry a stat line to show for it. Cyrus Ellison arrives from South Carolina State with 14 catches for 159 yards and a touchdown, modest production but more proven work than anyone else in the group, and he projects as the closest thing to a known target in new coach Ryan Beard first offense. That matters given how far this passing attack fell in 2025, ranking 117th in passing yards per game and 121st on third down, numbers a real receiving threat at tight end could actually move.

Ryan Beard inherits a line that helped produce 4.87 yards per play (124th) and a 33.0% third-down rate (121st) last season, numbers that made every third-and-manageable a coin flip. Twelve linemen are out the door, more than the eleven coming back, so seniors Tray Franklin and Daniel Jones are the closest thing to a foundation while three-star transfers Apisa Poumele, Mason Barton and Daughtry Richardson get thrown into the mix immediately. This is a room being rebuilt from scratch rather than patched, and the 23 sacks allowed a year ago set a low bar the new mix has to clear just to keep Coastal's run game, which managed 156 yards per game, functional.

Coastal Carolina lost its top three tacklers up front in Zeke Campbell, Sawyer Goram-Welch and Noah Arinze, so new coach Ryan Beard went shopping at Missouri State, importing Mitchell Toney, DJ Wesolak and Ahmad Poole as a package deal. Wesolak's 30 tackles and 4 sacks and Toney's 5 TFL project as immediate answers for a line that managed just 19 sacks and ranked 132nd in yards allowed per game a year ago. Ibrahim Diawara's 6 TFL give the rebuilt group its one proven returning piece, but the identity of this front is now a Missouri State transplant operation rather than a homegrown unit.

Coastal Carolina is replacing nearly its entire linebacker corps, with Se'Von McDowell (45 tackles), Dontae Lunan (56 tackles, 7.5 TFL) and Luke Murphy (36 tackles) all gone from a defense that already allowed 210 rushing yards per game (130th nationally). Wyatt Gedeon is the only proven returning piece with real snaps, while Bryant transfer Azarel Juste (11 tackles, 1 TFL) and Michigan State transfer Marcellius Pulliam (8 tackles) arrive to plug the gap immediately rather than develop behind it. With that much production walking out the door against a run defense already ranked 130th, the portal additions have to produce right away or Coastal's front seven takes another step back in Ryan Beard's first season.

Gone are Xamarion Gordon's 62 tackles and Dante Thomas, so new coach Ryan Beard is leaning on transfers to plug a secondary that allowed 235 passing yards per game (101st) a year ago. Jalen Lee arrives from South Dakota State with 33 tackles and 2 TFL to start immediately at safety, joined by Tyler Woodard from Mississippi State, while Myles Woods (46 tackles) and Dre Pinckney (38 tackles) are the only real holdovers with production. With five newcomers and just two proven returnees carrying real snaps, this group's floor depends on Lee translating that FCS production against Sun Belt competition.

Coastal Carolina replaces its entire kicking operation for Ryan Beard's first season, and the answer arrived from Florida A&M in Daniel Porto, who made 15 of 16 field goals with a 51-yard long. That accuracy has to cover for Kian Afrookhteh's departure, and Porto's steadier percentage is an upgrade in a phase where last year's group missed four kicks. At punter, incoming Roland Podesta from Ryan Beard takes over for Emile Sebafundi's 71 punts with no track record yet, leaving the new staff to establish its net-punting identity from scratch.

Beard Hands Guerra a Gutted Roster

Ryan Beard takes over a program that shed both quarterbacks who threw for it in 2025, along with leading rusher Ja'Vin Simpkins and top target Bryson Graves, and the 43 outbound portal transfers dwarf the 33 who arrived. Tre Guerra is the settled answer at quarterback, but he inherits a skill group rebuilt almost entirely through the portal, with Tristian Gardner and Goldie Lawrence replacing the departed receivers and Daelen Alexander taking over the backfield. The defense leans on the same fix, importing Missouri State's DJ Wesolak, Ahmad Poole and Mitchell Toney up front to offset the linebacker and secondary production that walked out the door, which makes this a program betting on transfer continuity rather than continuity itself.

Tre Guerra

Coastal Carolina hands the offense to Tre Guerra with zero prior passing statistics to lean on, a blank slate replacing Samari Collier's modest 489-yard, 7-touchdown output. Guerra gets a loaded backfield in Dominic Knicely and Jevon Edwards plus a receiving corps stacked with returners Clayton Coppock Jr. and Robby Washington alongside transfer addition Tristian Gardner, but new coach Ryan Beard whole first season rides on whether an unproven quarterback can distribute to that many weapons.

Road Trouble, Home Value

Coastal Carolina's split tells a road story, going 2-4 against the number away from home and covering just 33% of the time as a road underdog, a pattern new coach Ryan Beard inherits rather than fixes overnight in year one. Inside the Sun Belt the Chanticleers were sharp, covering 63% in conference play, so the market undervalued them against familiar competition but not against the ranked opponent they saw, an 0-1 non-cover. With a first-year coach installing his system, expect the same shakiness on the road early before any conference-only value returns.