Coastal Carolina–Liberty football rivalry
The Coastal Carolina–Liberty football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers football team of Coastal Carolina University and Liberty Flames football team of Liberty University[1].
| First meeting | November 15, 2003 Liberty, 38–21 |
|---|---|
| Latest meeting | December 26, 2020 Liberty, 37–34OT |
| Next meeting | September 9, 2023 |
| Stadiums | Brooks Stadium Williams Stadium |
| Statistics | |
| Meetings total | 15 |
| All-time series | Liberty, 8–7 |
| Largest victory | Liberty, 58–13 (2009) |
| Longest win streak | Coastal Carolina, 3 (2004–2006) Liberty, 3 (2007–2009) |
| Current win streak | Liberty, 1 (2020) |
| Locations of Coastal Carolina and Liberty |
Notable Dates
2002-2003
The two teams met for the first time in Lynchburg, VA at the home of Liberty University. This was the first year that Coastal Carolina fielded a football team. Liberty was in their second year in a FCS conference. At least a share of the conference title was won by one of the two schools nine times between the years 2004 – 2014 (2011 was won by Stony Brook outright). They shared the title 2010, 2012-2014.
2014
With Coastal leading the series by one game, Liberty was looking to even it up on the road. Liberty blocked what could have been a winning field goal for Coastal. This win against a previously undefeated, FCS ranked team on the road clinched Liberty's first bid to a FCS playoff.
2016
In their first year as a FCS independent school, the Chanticleers kept a few of their former conference foes on the schedule. The Flames last game of the regular season was played South Carolina, as the Flames suffered their worst loss (35pts) in this rivalry.
2020
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, many teams had games cancelled. The Chanticleers and Flames were to meet up for a game on December 5th in South Carolina reviving a rivalry, as both had holes in their schedules. [2] Including from this game, the schools are scheduled to play each other five times between 2023 and 2030.[3] ESPN was scheduled to broadcast College GameDay between the 25th ranked and one loss Flames against the undefeated 14th ranked Chanticleers. This was to be the first meeting between these former FCS conference foes as FBS teams. A few days before the game, Liberty had to back out due to COVID-19 issues with their team. This allowed BYU to fill the slot matching two undefeated teams in what was called by some Mormons vs. Mullets.
The two teams did finally get to meet a few weeks later in the 2020 edition of the Cure Bowl. This was the first time the Chanticleers were in an FBS bowl game. This was the second straight year for the Flames. The Chanticleers head coach stated that the importance of the game “means more than the Sun Belt Championship to a lot of people” [4] The Flame were able to prevent the Chanticleers from having an undefeated season by blocking a punt that would have sent the game into double overtime.[5]
Game results
| Coastal Carolina victories | Liberty victories |
| No. | Date | Location | Winning team | Losing team | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | November 14, 2003 | Lynchburg, VA | Liberty | 38 | Coastal Carolina | 21 | ||
| 2 | October 23, 2004 | Conway, SC | Coastal Carolina | 21 | Liberty | 14 | ||
| 3 | October 22, 2005 | Lynchburg, VA | Coastal Carolina | 27 | Liberty | 213OT | ||
| 4 | October 28, 2006 | Conway, SC | Coastal Carolina | 28 | Liberty | 26 | ||
| 5 | October 27, 2007 | Lynchburg, VA | Liberty | 37 | Coastal Carolina | 24 | ||
| 6 | October 4, 2008 | Conway, SC | Liberty | 43 | Coastal Carolina | 38 | ||
| 7 | October 17, 2009 | Lynchburg, VA | Liberty | 58 | Coastal Carolina | 13 | ||
| 8 | November 13, 2010 | Conway, SC | Coastal Carolina | 45 | Liberty | 31 | ||
| 9 | October 15, 2011 | Lynchburg, VA | Liberty | 63 | Coastal Carolina | 27 | ||
| 10 | October 27, 2012 | Conway, SC | Coastal Carolina | 36 | Liberty | 12 | ||
| 11 | October 19, 2013 | Lynchburg, VA | Coastal Carolina | 55 | Liberty | 522OT | ||
| 12 | November 22, 2014 | Conway, SC | Liberty | 15 | Coastal Carolina | 14 | ||
| 13 | November 19, 2015 | Lynchburg, VA | Liberty | 24 | Coastal Carolina | 21 | ||
| 14 | November 17, 2016 | Conway, SC | Coastal Carolina | 42 | Liberty | 7 | ||
| 15 | December 26, 2020 | Orlando, FL | Liberty | 37 | Coastal Carolina | 34OT | ||
| 16 | September 9, 2023 | Conway, SC | ||||||
| Series: Liberty leads 8–7[1] | ||||||||
References
- "Winsipedia – Coastal Carolina Chanticleers vs. Liberty Flames football series history". Winsipedia.
- "Liberty revives Coastal Carolina rivalry in season finale". WLNI Radio.
- Kelley, Kevin. "Coastal Carolina, Liberty add three games to future football series". FBS Schedules.
- "CCU, Liberty renew rivalry in Cure Bowl". MSN Sports.
- Sordelett, Damien. "Liberty's Cure Bowl triumph another chapter in blocked kick saga of Coastal rivalry". The News & Advance.