EasyPost Hawai’i Bowl – Coastal Carolina vs San Jose State

Honolulu hosts a bowl game that features San Jose State and Coastal Carolina on 12/23/23

EasyPost Hawai’i Bowl
Coastal Carolina vs San Jose State
Honolulu, HI
12/23/2023 – 10:30 PM EST

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The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers fly out to the opposite side of the 50 states to face off against the San Jose State Spartans in the Easypost Hawai’i Bowl on Saturday evening. This time slot is one you may be used to betting for or against Hawai’i as college football Saturdays come to a close, but this time we get a quite one-sided bowl game on multiple fronts as we get one day closer to Christmas. Coastal Carolina are sitting at 10-point underdogs as they traverse across the country, and also face an obnoxious amount of opt-out’s compared to their opponents from the Mountain West Conference.

If you are not super familiar with San Jose State, you may remember them from their Week 0 matchup against the USC Trojans where they were only down 21-14 at halftime against Caleb Williams and company. The Spartans also faced off against Oregon State in their second game of the season, before rounding out their five losses this season against Toledo, Air Force, and Boise State to finish up the first half of their season. This squad then completely turned this around, rattling off a six game winning streak to close out the season. If it weren’t for their most recent loss on October 7th against Boise State, San Jose State would’ve taken their spot against UNLV in the Mountain West Conference Championship, but were held out due to the tiebreaker and thrown into the Hawai’i Bowl instead.

The Spartans’ bread and butter is their dynamic run game, led by Kairee Robinson who is their senior runningback that was a scoring machine for San Jose State. Robinson ended up tying for third place in the FBS this season in rushing touchdowns with a total of EIGHTEEN! Fellow runningback Quali Conley and quarterback Chevan Cordeiro also combined for 1,184 rushing yards gained, barely edging out Robinson’s total of rush yards gained this season at 1,155. San Jose State ranked 8th in the country in yards per rush at 5.4, and averaged 178.8 rushing yards a game which was good for ranking in the Top-30 nationwide.

San Jose State only had one receiver eclipse 700 receiving yards this season in Nick Nash, but pale in comparison to Coastal Carolina when it comes to airing the ball out. Sam Pinckney and Jared Brown both led the Chanticleers efforts in the air, with 904 yards and 740 yards receiving respectively. Unfortunately for Coastal Carolina, Jared Brown has hit the transfer portal along with several other wide receivers, leaving the Chants with just Pinckney to lead the way at receiver. On top of that, Grayson McCall and Jarrett Guest are both headed to the transfer portal, although McCall has not played for Coastal since October 21st. Ethan Vasko starts in their stead, with four touchdowns and a pick to his name this season along with 580 passing yards.

Coastal has had quite opposite luck to San Jose State this season with their quarterback carousel rotating through McCall, Guest, and Vasko, while also ending the season on losses to Army and James Madison. Coastal’s attack this season was built off of a strong pass game, but with the quarterback situation and several receivers transferring out along with several offensive linemen, I am not sure we will see that same successful air attack. Vasko proved to be a solid runner, rushing for 341 rushing yards gained in his seven games played this season, but will only have Braydon Bennett with him as CJ Beasley and Jared Brown are on their way out who proved to be some of their other above average rushers. San Jose is weak against the run, so we could see Coastal try their hand there, but if the Chants decide to throw they’ll be met against a pass defense that only allowed 191.5 passing yards a game and 7.0 yards a pass, good for #20 and #43 in the nation.

Spartans quarterback Chevan Cordeiro is not only familiar with Hawai’i, but the man thrives there. Cordeiro transferred into San Jose State from Hawai’i University, and the squad flew out there earlier this year in a matchup they smoked Hawai’i in winning with a score of 35-0. There is a lot of familiarity in regards to travel, what to do, and where to go for the San Jose Spartans who are red hot in form heading into this matchup. Cordeiro and his partners running the ball face a pretty favorable rushing matchup against Coastal’s run defense, as the Chanticleers allow 167.5 rush yards a game and 4.6 yards per rush this season. On top of this, San Jose State has hardly the amount of transfers and opt-out’s as Coastal, with a ratio of 6-to-1 for Coastal’s exiting players as opposed to San Jose State’s.

For Coastal Carolina there is anything but certainty for a side that has seen close to the most transfers and opt-out’s in all of college football ahead of their bowl game. Distractions surrounding Coastal’s head coach posing with the dance team on the beach could also play a factor, if two quarterbacks, four receivers, and twelve defensive players all transferring among others wasn’t distraction enough. Give me San Jose to win BIG in this one as we look to build a strong bankroll for the Christmas Eve NFL slate on Sunday. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the Sharpen the Public NFL betting podcast where we break down every single game on Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Week 16 trends you should be looking out for!

The Play: San Jose State -10 (-110) – 1.5 Units

THIS IS AN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY ANDY CHASE