Coastal Carolina slams door on BYU’s College Football Playoff hopes at 1-yard line

Coastal Carolina improved to 10-0 and handed BYU its first loss of the season.

BYU-Coastal Carolina delivered on its hype and it came down to one yard.

On a day when Alabama played LSU, it was Coastal Carolina and BYU that was the college football game of the week. The two 9-0 teams scheduled their game against each other on Thursday morning after Liberty had to back out of their game with the Chanticleers due to COVID-19 issues.

That left BYU to slide in and replace the Flames and give Kelani Sitake’s team a chance at a signature win as they hope to give some life to their College Football Playoff hopes.

Those hopes are dashed now after Coastal came back in the second half to hold off Zach Wilson and the Cougars.

The first half ended with a benches-clearing brawl after a Wilson interception left him being pile-driven into the turf by Coastal Carolina. That clearly motivated both sides for the second half but it was the Coastal Carolina defense that played the best ball in the second half to remain undefeated.

Coastal smothered the BYU offensive line and swarmed to the ball all night as Wilson had one of his worst games of the season. And at that, he came up one-yard shy of a comeback win in the final seconds as Coastal Carolina stopped BYU on the precipice of the goal line to preserve the win.

So what does it mean for the College Football Playoff?

Despite the magnificent show put on in Conway, South Carolina, it doesn’t mean much in terms of the College Football Playoff committee.

Neither team had much of a prayer even if they won out, but it means Coastal Carolina scored a massive win as their young program is doing something special. For BYU, they challenged themselves and traveled across the country to come up one yard short.

Coastal Carolina will play for the Sun Belt Championship vs. Louisiana, but will likely remain out of the mix for a New Year’s Six at-large bid with undefeated Cincinnati at No. 7.

That said, Coastal Carolina should move up a handful of spots and perhaps take BYU’s No. 13 ranking while BYU may take Coastal’s No. 18 ranking.

Both teams played well but it was Coastal that made one more play to remain undefeated.

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