We are very fortunate to have the SB Nation network of team-specific sites to work with during game weeks. Sometimes, however, the teams we cover are faced with an opponent whose fans have not yet created an SBN page. We are not here to say anything derogatory about these fans. It is not their fault that they have yet to see the glorious light that is the SB Nation brand, and I would not dare to label them backwards because of it.
On a completely unrelated note, and certainly not as a last-ditch fallback, your guest this week is your intrepid author and noted Charleston FCS school expert, DKfromVA. We are here to prove to you again that the lack of a Chuck Town foreign correspondent is nothing that a can-do attitude and working internet connection can’t fix. Let’s get to it. AND OH YOU’D BEST BELIEVE WE’RE DOING A QUIZ AGAIN.
Charleston Southern University was founded in 1964 and sits in North Charleston. It is a private school with a current student population of about 3,600. It looks very nice, as you can see. CSU is a baptist college that is located on 300 acres of former rice and indigo plantations. It’s when your Wiki page reads this blandly that a serious journalist, such a member of your trusty TN crew, knows that something has been whitewashed. Sure enough, I have a story to tell you.
Al Parish was Charleston Southern’s celebrity economics professor. He was known for spending lots of money in Charleston and offering advice and investment fund services to others to make them rich. He had a pen collection reportedly worth thousands of dollars and dubbed himself “Economan.” As it turns out, one of his investors was Charleston Southern University. The school reportedly invested around $10 million of its reported $13-18 million endowment in one of its star professor’s funds. Well, you might be surprised to learn that Al may not have been the economics superhero he claimed to be. In fact, in 2007 the SEC (not that one, Pawl) found out that his investors’ $134 million, including CSU’s endowment money, was almost all gone. When the SEC attempted to question Professor Parish, he claimed to be suffering from amnesia and checked himself into a local hospital, straight out of PFT Commenter’s PR 101 playbook. Ultimately, Parish was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months in prison for losing $66 million.
Moving on. The athletic teams at Charleston Southern are named the Buccaneers. The football team plays at the logically, if none-too-creatively-named Buccaneer Field. It is not very large.
However, the football program has become successful at the FCS level. After being founded as a club team in 1989, CSU moved to Division III status in 1991, and then to Division I in 1993. As you might expect, things didn’t go very well for a while after this rapid ascent. The Bucs did not achieve a winning season until 2005, which was quite a momentous year. Their chief rival is Coastal Carolina, and y’all have to read this entry about the 2005 matchup:
In November 2005, Charleston Southern hosted nationally ranked Coastal Carolina, in what was an unofficial conference championship game, as Coastal Carolina had 0 conference losses, and CSU had only 1, thus making the winner of this game the champion due to the possible head-to-head tie breaker should CSU win. CCU led for most of the game, and in the 4th, when punting and up 17-10, current NFL RB Mike Tolbert took a fake punt 60 yards for a TD to extend the score to 24-10 with less than 5:00 to play, seemingly sealing the win. However, CSU struck quickly with QB Colin Drafts and WR Drew Rucks, and scored to make the game 24-17. CCU recovered an onside kick, and with 2:00 left to play, began to take a knee to run out the clock. On 4th and 10 from the 50, with 10 seconds left, Coastal Carolina had a choice of either kicking to CSU's All Conference kick returner, or, trying to run the clock out. They elected to snap the ball to current NFL player Jerome Simpson with a plan to run out the back of the end zone, take a safety, and in the process run out the clock. The CSU punt block team was able to track Simpson down inside the 5, while he tried to run the last seconds out, and forced him out of bounds at the 3 yard line with 2 seconds left, time for one play. On that play, Colin Drafts found WR Marcus Murray for a TD to tie the game and force overtime. In 2OT, Charleston Southern would hold on a 4th down to win the game 34-27, as fans and alumni rushed the field and tore down the campus-side goal post, throwing it into the infamous duck pond by the practice field.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charleston_Southern_Buccaneers_football
The 2015 Buccaneers reached their to-date zenith, going 10-3 and winning the Big South Conference on the way to an FCS semifinal loss to Jacksonville State. Their current coach is Jamey Chadwell, not to be confused with Chad Radwell. Charleston Southern runs the triple option from the shotgun, as Demarcus Walker discussed. The Buccaneers played very competitively at North Dakota State in their first contest, but lost their starting quarterback for the season to a knee injury last week, and may also be without their backup QB, as well as their starting running back and preseason conference player of the year. Their school colors are blue and gold.
Quiz
1. Charleston Southern has never defeated an FBS opponent:
A. True
2. False
2. Charleston Southern’s student center is named after Strom Thurmond to this day:
A. True
2. False
3. This game against a good FCS team off of a short week after defeating Ole Miss is going to be really ugly to watch:
A. True
4. I read this far down the page, but am disappointed that Charleston Southern appears to have no candidates for the all-name team or interesting coaches to discuss, like Al Davis, you tricked me DK-