Update: Is Grayson McCall injured? What CCU coach Jamey Chadwell said about his QB

Coastal Carolina quarterback Grayson McCall was impressive in the first half of Saturday’s 59-6 win over Louisiana-Monroe, completing all 13 of his attempts for 212 yards and a pair of touchdown passes to tight end Isaiah Likely.

The redshirt sophomore has 15 consecutive completions going back to his final two passes against Massachusetts last week, which is one shy of the school record set by Zach MacDowall in 2010 at VMI and matched by Kilton Anderson in 2018 at UAB and against Campbell.

But will he be healthy enough to have a chance to set the record at Arkansas State on Thursday night for the 16th-ranked Chants (5-0)?

McCall returned from the locker room for the second half out of uniform with a protective boot on his left foot. He was walking around on it rather freely without crutches, but CCU’s lofty season goals rest with him.

CCU coach Jamey Chadwell said McCall’s left ankle was rolled on by another player, and he could have continued playing if it was necessary.

Chadwell said Monday that McCall is fine and will play Thursday. “He’s ready to rock and roll. Everything is good to go,” Chadwell said.

After the game Saturday, Chadwell explained, “Grayson was taken out at halftime from a precautionary standpoint. He was not going to come back in the second half anyway. ... If he had to play, he would have played there in the second half. It was more of a preventative thing more than anything, because of the short week just making sure we’ve done everything possible there for his health.”

Chadwell said the boot was used as protection against someone stepping on his foot on the sideline and to keep any potential swelling down.

“If we were playing next Saturday, he would have come right back out and been normal and nobody would have known anything,” Chadwell said. “But since it’s a Thursday and a quicker turnaround, we just wanted to take the extra precaution to make sure if that injury is worse than what we think, we’ve done everything possible to let him be able to play Thursday.”

The coaching staff has made a concerted effort to keep McCall, who leads the nation in passing efficiency and completion percentage (80.23 %), healthy this season.

He ran the ball 111 times for 569 yards in 2020 for an average of 10.1 rushes per game. This year, he has run the ball just 27 times for 69 yards for an average of 5.4, and the coaching staff has been reluctant to call designed quarterback runs, though McCall often makes that decision himself on options.

The opponent has also determined how much he has run. He has run a combined 16 times in CCU’s four blowout wins over Citadel, Kansas, UMass and ULM, and he ran 11 times for 12 yards in a more difficult three-point win over Buffalo.

McCall has completed 69 of 86 passes for 1,113 yards with 10 touchdowns and 1 interception this season.

This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Update: Is Grayson McCall injured? What CCU coach Jamey Chadwell said about his QB."

Alan Blondin

The Sun News

Alan Blondin covers golf, Coastal Carolina University athletics, business, and numerous other sports-related topics that warrant coverage. Well-versed in all things Myrtle Beach, Horry County and the Grand Strand, the 1992 Northeastern University journalism school valedictorian has been a reporter at The Sun News since 1993 after working at papers in Texas and Massachusetts. He has earned eight top-10 Associated Press Sports Editors national writing awards and more than 20 top-three S.C. Press Association writing awards since 2007.