The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers take on the Delaware Blue Hens in Newark, DE. Kickoff is set for 11:30 a.m. ET on CBS Sports Network.
Delaware is favored by -4.5 points on the spread with a moneyline of -205. The total is set at 57.5 points.
Here's my Coastal Carolina vs. Delaware predictionand college football pick for Saturday, September 19, 2026.
Coastal Carolina vs. Delaware Pick: Coastal Carolina +4.5 (Play to +3)
My Delaware vs. Coastal Carolina best betis on the Chants to cover the spread as a road 'dog. Find the best line available on our live NCAAF odds page .
Coastal Carolina vs Delaware point spread: Delaware -4.5 (-110), Coastal Carolina +4.5 (-110)
Coastal Carolina vs Delaware over/under: 56.5 (-110o / -110u)
Coastal Carolina vs Delaware moneyline: Coastal Carolina +168, Delaware -205
Coastal Carolina is better than you probably think. In two games, we've seen the Chanticleers legitimately hang with West Virginia (they were nearly split on Success Rate and dead even in EPA per play, plus they clawed back to only lose by a score) and decimate an overmatched Fordham team.
QB Deuce Bailey has been phenomenal, throwing six touchdowns against no interceptions and adding 76 non-sack rushing yards. He spreads the ball out (five players have between six and 11 targets) and extends plays with excellent pocket navigation.
OC Nick Petrino runs a fast tempo (23.5 seconds per play ranks 16th), and the offensive line has held up enough to get the job done.
There's room for offensive improvement, as Coastal only gained 54% of available yards against West Virginia and 60% against Fordham, but the playmakers are, well, making plays.
Defensively, the Chants have been gashed for a few big plays — for evidence, look no further than its first snap of the season where Cam Cook took a left-side run 72 yards and, on the next play, punched in the touchdown.
But on a down-to-down basis, the defense has held up (West Virginia only logged a 40% Success Rate). Ibrahim Diawara and Mitchell Toney have been great off the edge, combining for 13 pressures and a pair of sacks.
But DC L.D. Scott's defense is multiple and rotates players frequently; nine players on the defensive line have 25+ snaps this season, and nobody has more than 88.
Preseason expectations were pretty low for Coastal, and the adjustment to power ratings might come slowly given that the Chants have pretty thoroughly exceeded those projections through two weeks.
This is a team I'm willing to back in the near future. The upcoming slate against Delaware, Liberty and Georgia Southern presents as tough, but there's real opportunity for Coastal heading into October.
Conference USA is atrocious. Favorites Liberty and Western Kentucky have looked poor so far, leaving Delaware as the lone "top team" beyond league play.
The Fightin' Blue Hens rolled FCS Merrimack in the season opener and led Vanderbilt at halftime, 17-14. But that score was fairly misleading — Vanderbilt's expected win rate never dipped below 73%, and Delaware never exceeded Vandy in EPA after Play 10.
It's a fun box score to analyze, but Vanderbilt was more in control of that game than the final score indicates (and Vandy benched its starting QB in favor of five-star Jared Curtis).
QB Nick Minicucci hasn't been excellent so far, completing just 50% of his passes with an even number of touchdowns and interceptions. Even adjusting for drops and throwaways, his adjusted completion rate is at 61.4% and peaked at 67.6% against Merrimack.
He hasn't tried to push the ball down the field, instead acting as a game-manager. As a big underdog, that's not really what you want to see and, as a big favorite, he wasn't overly effective at it. Minicucci is a good quarterback; he's just been muzzled to start the year.
Jo'Nathan Silver picked up a steady 109 rushing yards against Vanderbilt after only playing eight snaps against Merrimack. He'll continue to be a focal point for the offense, especially against upcoming run defenses like Coastal Carolina and Liberty.
We have two programs that both dominated FCS opponents and hung with power-conference opponents on the road as sizable underdogs. Both have excelled offensively, while the defense has given up occasional big plays to some of the more explosive athletes in college football.
Through two games, the team profiles are quite similar, even if each squad took vastly different routes to get there.
Though Delaware plays at home — and Delaware Stadium garners lots of fans, sellouts aren't irregular there — the Blue Hens' true home field advantage is average at best. Last year, it went 1-3 ATS in Newark, though five of its six wins came at home.
I have two major concerns with Delaware. First, the 3-3-5 with three high safeties simply gives up too many chunk plays. If you don't have excellent edge defenders, it puts a ton of stress on the two extra high safeties and the corners underneath to stop the perimeter game.
Second, the offense is very methodical. So, when Delaware has to kick up the urgency, it's hurt schematically by what the program has been built on — giving up chunk plays and not having enough gas offensively to make up ground.
Bailey is a playmaker and Ryan Beard's roster is underrated to start the season. Power ratings improved (on a neutral, composite rankings favor Delaware -2), but I don't think it's enough for Coastal to be steamrolled as a team, particularly on offense.
This is a program that's recently picked up a few key wins away from Conway, and this is a spot where the Chants could steal one in the non-conference.
This is Coastal Carolina plus the points for me.
Pick: Coastal Carolina +4.5 (Play to +3)
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