Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

CCU football: Big-name foes take their toll

CONWAY -- It's the 10^th week of college football's regular season, and every player in the nation is starting to feel the physical and mental fatigue.

The small injuries often hurt a little more and don't heal as fast as they did in September. Major injuries are sometimes more prevalent, the result of three months' wear and tear on the body.

Every team in the country is dealing with the same problem, but Coastal Carolina and Gardner-Webb, who meet today at Brooks Stadium, are members of a select group of Football Championship Subdivision schools that may be feeling the pain a little more. Only 16 of the 125 FCS schools are playing two Football Bowl Subdivision opponents this season.

The Chanticleers, who have lost to Kent State and Clemson, and Bulldogs, who have lost to Buffalo and N.C. State, are the only FCS schools to play opponents from both the Atlantic Coast and Mid-American Conferences this season. They have collected big paydays and national exposure in exchange for the losses, but they've likely also taken a worse physical beating against players who are typically bigger, faster and stronger.

"The one physical effect you definitely see, because there is a speed difference between the levels, is that the chances of injury definitely go up," Coastal head football trainer Jeff Pounds said. "It's because the collisions are definitely different than what they are used to. When somebody is used to certain speeds, they're trained for it and used to protecting themselves. When you change speeds, there is always a chance of injury."

The Chants exited the Clemson game in much better health than they did against Stony Brook a week earlier, but Pounds doesn't expect the full impact of the Clemson beating to be evident for several weeks.

He believes the cumulative effect of playing two FBS opponents is greater than it is immediately after such a contest. Considering the current economic climate, many programs that usually play one game per season against a major-college foe have added a second in recent years to help solidify their athletic departments' bottom lines. That was not Coastal's motivation. The Chants had an agreement to play Kent State and only scheduled Clemson when it appeared the Flashes were going to back out of their contract.

Coastal (3-5) coach David Bennett won't get any sympathy from his Big South brethren, however. Gardner-Webb has played two FBS opponents in two of the last three seasons. Charleston Southern will play two FBS teams each season through 2011, a span of four years.

"It's a mental drain as well as physical," said Gardner-Webb coach Steve Patton, who team nearly beat Georgia Tech in 2008. "When you wake up and you're not feeling 100 percent, it begins to be a mental thing. And then practice and things can become drudgery.

"It does affect you, especially when you have two and one of them is in the middle of the year. It's definitely a cumulative effect both mentally and physically."

The timing of the Clemson game certainly didn't help Coastal's psyche. Last week's 49-3 loss in Death Valley extended the team's losing streak to three games. However, offensive lineman Seth Smalls believes that, despite the final score, the experience might have done more for the Chants than a win over an FCS opponent.

"I don't really think it takes a toll," he said. "It's a great experience to go out there and measure yourself against [FBS] opponents. Kent State and Clemson did hit hard, but I don't know that they hit harder than anybody else we play on the [FCS] level."

Though he lost three players to injury against Clemson - tailback Eric O'Neal, receiver Adrian Sullivan and kick returner Jake Owen probably won't play today - Bennett sees positives in playing two FBS opponents this season.

"The positive is our guys know what it takes to achieve greatness now," he said. "What they have to do and how much stronger they have to become, and how much more dedicated they have to become [to play at that level]."

To view Hoke's CCU sports blog, "The Roost," go to TheSunNews.com.