Hawaii Bowl Pick: Coastal Carolina vs. San Jose State

The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers take on the San Jose State Spartans on Saturday in the Hawaii Bowl. It’s a faraway location, more so for the Chanticleers and also more unfamiliar for Coastal Carolina, with San Jose State having beaten Hawaii on this field, 35-0, in late October. Both teams are coming off 7-5 seasons, having gotten there in different and dramatic ways. With two teams that fought through a lot to make it to this point, who should we get behind in the Hawaii Bowl?

The Power of Momentum

Not to paint Coastal Carolina as a team that didn’t have a strong second half of the season to get here, but it’s hard to top the dramatic reversal of fortune for the Spartans or the drastic way they shifted the direction of the season. But again, with five straight wins, the Chanticleers emerged from a 2-3 start to become bowl-eligible, faltering down the stretch with a loss to Army and then a bad defeat to James Madison, 56-14, on November 25, in their last game.

Things looked to be a wrap for the Spartans following a 1-5 start. Those who looked closely, however, saw a team that was close and covering spreads. Soon, those covered spreads became wins and the Spartans peeled off six straight to end the season. Their last might have been the most impressive, going into Vegas to pin a 37-31 loss on a good UNLV team. Coach Brent Brennan, with a disaster of a season staring him in the face, has a chance to put a ribbon on a season turnaround that has been awe-inspiring.

Granted, a lot of this is baked into a point spread that seems fairly charitable to San Jose State, but once you reach this point in the season where a month elapses from the last game, morale counts for a lot. And not that the Chanticleers are in any position status-wise to poo-poo a bowl game, but coming off 31 wins in their last three seasons, this was a letdown year for them. On the other sideline will be a San Jose State that can’t possibly be flippant about this spot after going on the run they did against all odds to get to this game.

Tough to Get Behind the Chanticleers

On top of all the good things San Jose did well at the end of the season and the sour finish to the season for Coastal Carolina, the Chanticleers now face the prospects of soldiering on without a lot of their best players. Starting QB Grayson McCall and second-stringer Jarrett Guest have entered the transfer portal, as has top receiver Jared Brown. Add in some defensive players from a unit that looked suspect to finish the season and you’re left with a shadow of a team that might be taking on its toughest opponent since facing UCLA in the first week of the year.

Again, Coastal Carolina is not a team that has enjoyed such rampant success, despite some really good seasons coming out of the Sun Belt Conference, that they’re going to phone in a game like this. But year after year, we see the element of team trajectory resonate in this particular bowl game. And with a Coastal Carolina team that will be dragging the vestiges of their team thousands of miles to this spot, is it crazy to think in the back of their head this is maybe more a vacation? To end the season in a conference game losing by 6 TDs, seeing a bunch of talent leave the program, and then travel 5000 miles, what would be a realistic expectation at this point for this team?

Can the Spartans Pounce in Honolulu?

The Hawaii connection runs deep in this game for San Jose State, with QB Chevan Cordeiro a former starter with the Rainbow Warriors. With a 19/4 TD-to-INT spread, he has been efficient and while nothing is written in stone, it appears he will have the bulk of his supporting cast, good receivers like Nick Nash and running backs Kairee Robinson and Quali Conley. While not one of the more explosive offenses, they’ve gotten better and more consistent to close the season. I’d look for San Jose to be in a mood to punctuate this season with a big showing here against a CCU defense that was ragged to end the season and may even be more compromised now.

The question is whether San Jose can put together the emphatic double-digit kind of win their backers will need to get over the hump against the spread. On one hand. They’ve recently gotten the measure of what might be some better teams by a margin that would equal success this week. But this is a bowl spot following a month layoff and you can’t be totally sure how they’re going to shake out of all that. Was the heater they were on cooled by the break?

Lay the Number

Laying a number like this on the Spartans might provide a bit of discomfort. And it’s not like the Chanticleers haven’t thrived at times this season with backups in key positions, so maybe QB Ethan Vasko can extract something out of an offense that still has some pieces that were part of that second-half surge to the season. It just seems like a higher-end version of the Spartans is more likely to surface in this game and I see San Jose St. getting the win and cover. I’ll take the Spartans in this one.

Loot’s Prediction to Cover the Point Spread: I’m betting on the San Jose State Spartans minus 10.5 points. Rough week? Boost your bankroll with a massive 100% bonus up to $500 at one of the numerous top tier bookies on our sportsbook bonuses page!