2018 College Football Team Previews: Charleston Southern Buccaneers
Charleston Southern Buccaneers
Location: Charleston, SC
Coach: Mark Tucker (6-5)
Stadium: Buccaneer Field (Capacity: 4,500)
CSJ Projections:
3th: Big South
7th: South Carolina
55th: FCS
177th: Division I
2017 In A Sentence: The Buccaneers have a reputation for having a brutal schedule every year, and this season Charleston Southern was pretty beat up by the time they entered Big South Play, though a season-ending win against Liberty 20-19 was a sweet conclusion to the season that gave them a winning record.
Biggest Shoes to Fill: DE Anthony Ellis ended his Buc football career in expected fashion: making Big South All-Conference, leading the team in sacks (9), and being a monster on Charleston Southern’s defensive line. No. 8 will be missed.
Key Player: The good news for Bucs fans is that there is plenty of terrific talent returning on Charleston Southern’s D line, including DE Solomon Brown. Last season he notched more tackles than Ellis (58) and was just behind Ellis in tackles for loss (Brown had 8). He may need to fight through some more double teams, but he is poised to push through and have a terrific senior campaign.
Fearless Prediction: Rather than the traditional “three” FBS teams on the schedule, the Bucs “only” have to play Florida this year, though a semi-road game vs. The Citadel and a home game vs. Elon will also be very challenging asks for this team. If they can pull off an upset in one of those three games, they have a soft run of games until they host the bigger names in the Big South. Their defense will keep them in games – they just need an offense that can take them over the top in order to compete.
Chuck has been writing about Lehigh football since the dawn of the internet, or perhaps it only seems like it. He’s executive editor of the College Sports Journal and has also written a book, The Rivalry: How Two Schools Started the Most Played College Football Series.
Reach him at: this email or click below:
