The Troy Trojans and Coastal Carolina Chanticleers clash Saturday in the college football Sun Belt Championship from Troy University Veterans Memorial Stadium. Coastal Carolina is 9-2 overall this year and coming off a blowout loss to James Madison. As for Troy, they’re 10-2 on the year. The Trojans beat Arkansas State in their last game.
Coastal Carolina opened the year with wins over Army, Gardner-Webb, Buffalo, Georgia State, Georgia Southern and LA-Monroe before a loss to Old Dominion. The Chanticleers beat Marshall, App State and Southern Miss in the next three games.
On Saturday versus James Madison, Coastal Carolina had an early lead but didn’t score after halftime. The Chanticleers ended up with a 47-7 blowout loss. Jarrett Guest posted 99 pass yards, one TD and a pick. Reese White led the rush on 29 yards from seven carries.
Over on the Troy side, they lost two of their first three games to Ole Miss and App State. The Trojans have since won nine games in a row over Marshall, Western Kentucky, Southern Miss, Texas State, South Alabama, Louisiana, Army, LA-Monroe and Arkansas State.
In the matchup versus Arkansas State last weekend, the Trojans were down 19-7 going into the fourth quarter. Troy roared back with 34 unanswered points in a 48-19 win. Kimani Vidal did most of the heavy lifting on offense with 33 carries for 208 yards and four touchdowns.
The Chanticleers are 4-1 ATS in their last five on turf and 4-10-1 ATS in their last 15 overall. Coastal Carolina is 3-8 ATS in their last 11 conference games.
Meanwhile, the Trojans are 4-0 ATS in their last four conference games and 5-0 in their last five in December. Troy is 5-2 ATS in their last seven after an ATS win.
PICK: I’m going to take a stab on Troy here. Probably not going near it, though. The Trojans played pretty ugly football for three quarters versus Arkansas State, but to their credit Troy turned it on late with 268 rush yards in the comeback victory. Troy has had some very close calls in this win streak, and the defense has kept them from imploding on several occasions.
As for Coastal Carolina, they posted a rough blowout loss against James Madison. The Chanticleers had a couple of very close wins in the two games prior: 35-28 over App State and 26-23 against Southern Miss. I think Troy can hang in there as well, especially if this ends up being a lower-scoring game.