Getty Sergio Bailey II of the Eastern Michigan Eagles celebrates with teammates.
Eastern Michigan and Coastal Carolina meet up for the first time in program history as both teams look to get themselves off to a strong start in non-conference play.
The game (3:30 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on regular TV anywhere, but you can watch it right here on ESPN+, the digital streaming service from ESPN that has exclusive coverage of most MAC football games every week, other college football and live sports, all the 30-for-30 documentaries and additional original content (both video and written) all for $4.99 per month.
You can sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch Eastern Michigan vs Coastal Carolina live on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.
Eastern Michigan vs Coastal Carolina
Despite coming off a bowl appearance last season, Eastern Michigan looks to be in the midst of a minor rebuild after losing some serious talent from the defensive side of the football. While they lost the most talent from their defensive line, the line actually seems to be the least of Eastern’s concerns. Having lost almost a number of offensive linemen along with the injury concerns surrounding signal-caller Mike Glass, EMU has some serious question marks on the offensive end. If Glass can stay healthy, Eastern should boast an exciting offense as Glass is excellent at creating plays with his feet when things break down.
As mentioned above, Eastern loses some elite talent on defense and while their line looks capable of sustaining such a deep hit, the rest of their defense might not be as well equipped. They have an elite defensive back in Vince Calhoun, though he will need some help in the secondary if the unit wants to routinely lock down opposing wideouts. It would be hard to expect Eastern to repeat the performance of last year’s stellar defensive unit, though they should still remain an above-average unit despite the concerns.
Coastal Carolina finally made the long-awaited jump from the FCS to the FBS where they have struggled so far. With a coaching change in effect and an electric offense in place, Coastal is hoping to finally crack through and earn themselves the bowl berth they narrowly missed out on last season. While the offense features a number of new faces, Coastal oozes talent at nearly every skill position and looks to have the talent to gauge defenses either in the air or on the ground. In spite of their youth, it isn’t unrealistic to expect a strong step forward in terms of offensive production this season.
Defensively, Coastal is an entirely different beast. After jumping out to a 5-3 start last season, the defense suffered an epic collapse and proved incapable of stopping a nosebleed. Allowing 23, 44, 41, and 31 points in a row to end the season, the Chanticleers need to see some major improvement to take the step to a bowl team in 2019. The defensive line should be a bit better with some added experience and if the secondary can stay healthy, they should be able to improve on a dismal 2018. Things SHOULD be better for the Chants in 2019, though after last season’s collapse, this unit shouldn’t be trusted until proven otherwise.
Despite Eastern entering the game the favorite, don’t be surprised to see Coastal come out and turn some heads despite a questionable defense and sizeable turnover on the offensive side.
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