Brice, Appalachian State upset No. 14 Coastal Carolina

BOONE, N.C. – Chase Brice is determined to make the most of what is left of his roller-coaster college career. He took a big step forward Wednesday night.

Brice threw for 347 yards and two touchdowns, Chandler Staton kicked a 24-yard field goal as time expired and Appalachian State upset 14th-ranked Coastal Carolina 30-27 in front of a capacity crowd of 31,061 at Kidd Brewer Stadium.

After spending three years at Clemson mostly backing up Trevor Lawrence and then going 2-9 last season as a starter at Duke, Brice transferred to Appalachian State looking for a new start and a chance to win big football games.

“Right now I’m getting an opportunity to kind of flip the script on certain things about me that get talked about and written about,” Brice said. “So that’s kind of my goal.”

Malik Williams had a monster game catching some well-placed bombs from Brice, finishing with 10 catches for 206 yards and a touchdown. Camerun Peoples ran for two touchdowns and Corey Sutton had 113 yards receiving and a score for the Mountaineers (5-2, 2-1 Sun Belt). They have never lost at home to the Chanticleers.

The Mountaineers moved into the driver’s seat in the conference’s East division and the loss could prevent Coastal Carolina (6-1, 2-1) from reaching the championship game.

“We’re in control of our own destiny right now,” said Appalachian State coach Shawn Clark, whose team bounced back from a 41-13 loss last week at Louisiana-Lafayette. “I’m so proud of this team and everyone involved in our organization.” Coastal Carolina came in averaging 48.8 points, but the Chanticleers were outgained 575 to 376 and the offense struggled to protect QB Grayson McCall in the second half.

“Look how it’s flipped,” Coastal Carolina coach Jamey Chadwell said. “One loss and now we’re acting like everything in the world is ending. That’s sort of where we put ourselves. Now that we have lost and now we don’t think we’re invincible, hopefully those little things that get us, we’ll get them corrected and move forward.”

Coastal had outscored its opponents by more than 33 points coming in with only one close game – a 28-25 victory at Buffalo on Sept. 18

“This is no disrespect to Coastal Carolina, but they have not played four quarters all season long,” Clark said. “And we have. We have been battled tested. I do believe we have played a tough schedule, a very tough schedule.”

McCall threw for 291 yards and one touchdown for Coastal Carolina. It had a 11-game Sun Belt winning streak snapped.

When asked what he liked best about Brice’s performance, Clark laughed and said, “D, all of the above.

“I thought he had great poise in the pocket,” Clark said. “He had great touch on the football and he made good decisions when he pulled the ball (and ran). We’re glad he is on our football team. He’s a true Mountaineer.”

UP NEXT

Coastal Carolina: Return home to face Troy in another mid-week night game Oct. 28.

Appalachian State: Host Louisiana-Monroe on Oct. 30.