BUIES CREEK, N.C. – Campbell will be back in the national spotlight on Friday night, traveling to Coastal Carolina for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN. The game will be the Camels' second straight appearance on national television.

Follow the Camels
A week after making its national broadcast debut last week on ESPNU, Campbell will take center stage on ESPN Friday night. As always, Campbell football can be found on the radio locally on 88.3 WUAW FM, and online at GoCamels.com. Live stats are also available at GoCamels.com, and follow on Twitter @GoCamelsFB for live updates.

Campbell will also be on the national TV stage at Wake Forest on the ACC Network to close its fall slate.

Ticket and game day information
With all four fall 2020 games being on the road, game day protocol, including tickets and stadium capacity, will be at the discretion of the home institution and its state guidelines. For up to date game day information for each date, please visit GoCamels.com/Tickets.

Last time out
Georgia Southern rallied from a 14-point deficit; then withstood a late two-point conversion attempt to defeat upset minded Campbell 27-26 Saturday at Paulson Stadium. The FCS member Camels led 20-6 early in the third quarter before the FBS Eagles scored three unanswered touchdowns and survived a late CU rally.

Hajj-Malik Williams connected with Jalen Kelsey on a 20-yard scoring pass with 14 seconds remaining to bring the Camels within 27-26.  Head coach Mike Minter elected to go for the lead, but Williams' pass to Julian Hill on the ensuing two-point conversion was incomplete.

Williams threw for 237 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 73 yards and another score. A sophomore from Atlanta, Williams completed 17-of-27 passes while averaging 6.6 yards on 11 rushing attempts. Kelsey finished with six receptions for 66 yards, including the late TD and Jai Williams hauled in four catches for 72 yards and another score.

Georgia Southern quarterback Shai Werts ran for 155 yards and completed 7-of-13 passes for 53 more and another as the Eagles escaped Campbell's upset bid.

Campbell outgained Georgia Southern 369-346, including a 237-62 edge in the air.  CU finished 3-of-3 in red zone opportunities against the Eagles.

Williams, Camels earn top FCS weekly honors
Campbell QB Hajj-Malik Williams has been tabbed Stats Perform FCS Player of the Week, while the Camels earned FCS Team of the Week for games ending on September 12. This is the first national player of the week honor for the sophomore QB, who was named honorable mention FCS Freshman of the Week five times in 2019. Campbell also picked up honorable mention FCS Team of the Week accolades twice last season (Week 5, Week 9).

Camels face former squads
In three of four games this fall, Camels will be facing off against their former schools.

Redshirt junior defensive end Joshua Johnson will take on his former squad in CU's opener at Georgia Southern. Johnson played two seasons at Georgia Southern, redshirting as a freshman before playing in eight games in 2018, transferring to Highland Community College for the 2019 campaign. Johnson posted two tackles, assisting on a stop for loss against his former team.

Jai Williams, a redshirt sophomore wide receiver, played in 10 games, making two starts for Coastal Carolina last season. Williams notched nine receptions for 136 yards and two touchdowns in 2019 for the Chanticleers.

After making 12 tackles with an interception and four pass breakups in his first season in the Orange & Black in 2019, cornerback Malik Grate will head back to his initial college choice in Wake Forest. Grate last played for the Demon Deacons in 2018, posting two tackles and a touchdown, recovering a blocked punt in the end zone against Boston College.

Although he did not appear in a game for Wake Forest, with injuries costing him both of his seasons in Winston-Salem, offensive tackle Mike Edwards will also take on his former team on October 9.

Scouting Coastal Carolina
The Chanticleers will make their home debut on Friday, coming off a convincing 38-23 win at Kansas in their 2020 opener. Coastal, who also defeated the Jayhawks 12-7 last year at Memorial Stadium, used three takeaways and scored the game's first 28 points on the way to the road win.

In his first career start, redshirt freshman quarterback Grayson McCall went 11-of-18 for 133 yards and three touchdowns via the passing game, connecting with six different receivers. He also rushed 11 times for 73 yards and two scores. CJ Marable ran for 75 yards on 21 carries.

The defense totaled three turnovers, five sacks and 12 tackles for loss, led by linebacker Teddy Gallagher with nine tackles, including a TFL.

Campbell vs. Coastal Carolina history
This will mark the second meeting between the Camels and Chanticleers in Campbell's modern era of football (since 2008) and their first trip to Brooks Stadium, with CU hosting Coastal in 2018. The game was originally scheduled to be played at CCU in Conway, S.C., but was moved up three days (to a Wednesday) and to Barker-Lane Stadium due to Hurricane Florence.

The 2018 meeting was the first time an FBS program visited an FCS school in a true road game since Army traveled to Yale in 2014. Since 1978, when the divisional classifications were made, FBS schools have traveled to FCS (or I-A and I-AA) 255 times, but only twice since 2008.

Prior to joining the FBS ranks in 2017, the Chanticleers made their home in the FCS from 2003, when the program was launched, until 2016 as a member of the Big South Conference. Campbell and Coastal both helped charter the Big South in 1983, along with Armstrong State (now merged into Georgia Southern as its Armstrong Campus), Augusta, Charleston Southern (then Baptist College), Radford and Winthrop.

The Camels and Chanticleers were conference opponents from 1983 until 1994, when CU left to join the Trans-America Athletic Conference, which is now the Atlantic Sun Conference. Campbell later returned to the Big South in 2011, and the two rekindled their rivalry until CCU's departure to the Sun Belt in 2016.

Campbell vs. the FBS
The Georgia Southern was Campbell's fifth overall, and third game against a full FBS member, following last season's trip to Troy and a 2018 matchup against Coastal Carolina. Campbell previously played at Old Dominion in 2013 and at Appalachian State in 2014 while both were in the final year of the transitional phase from the FCS level. ODU played a FBS independent schedule in 2013, squaring off against five FBS members, while the Mountaineers played a full Sun Belt slate in 2014, going 6-2 in league play while winning its final six games of the year. When Campbell played Charlotte in 2013 and 2014, the 49ers were in the beginning stages of their transition to FBS, playing an independent FCS schedule.

Looking ahead
Next up, the Camels will head to Boone, N.C. to face Appalachian State on Saturday, September 26. Kickoff is set for noon at Kidd Brewer Stadium. The contest will mark the second meeting between the two North Carolina programs in Campbell's modern era of football (since 2008), with the Camels also making the trip to Boone in 2014.

Campbell will close 2020 at Wake Forest on October 9, taking on its first Atlantic Coast Conference opponent.

The road back to football
Campbell stepped foot on the field at Barker-Lane Stadium for the first time as a team in 260 days on August 7, opening its 2020 preseason camp. The team had not practiced as a team since November 23, 2019, a day before heading to Big South foe Charleston Southern for their 2019 season finale. Following its winter workouts, the Camels lost their spring practice period due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though not able to practice as a team, Campbell began a multi-phase return to campus action plan on June 15, enabling the majority of the team to safely return to Buies Creek for summer workouts and any rehab/treatment needs for injured student-athletes.

On August 12, the Big South Conference voted to allow up to four nonconference games in the fall at institutional discretion, after delaying its fall sports seasons and championships with the intent of playing in the spring, including league championships.

Of seven Big South affiliated squads, only Campbell and North Alabama are scheduled to play games this fall, two of 15 FCS programs in the country fielding a 2020 schedule.

Campbell is also playing four FBS opponents, the most in the country by an FCS program. CU is one of eight programs playing at least three FBS foes, including Central Arkansas, which is scheduled to play nine times this season, the most in FCS.

And then there was one
Georgia Southern is the only opponent on the Camels' fall schedule that was originally on the 2020 calendar. The Camels were originally set to open the season on September 5, hosting in-state and former conference foe Davidson, one of six home dates scheduled at Barker-Lane Stadium, before heading to Statesboro.

CU was set to play five Big South opponents, including nationally-ranked Monmouth and Kennesaw State, which both advanced in last season's FCS playoffs. The Camels were also slated to host Mercer, Presbyterian and North Alabama in nonconference action, while heading on the on the road to Elon.

Six Camels named Preseason All-Big South
Six Camels have been named to 2020 Preseason All-Big South teams, while Campbell has been picked fourth in the league's coaches' poll, as announced at the conference's virtual football media day.

2019 freshman All-American quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams has been named 2020 Big South Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. A 2018 first team all-conference wide receiver, Caleb Snead joins Williams on the preseason All-Big South offensive squad.

On the defensive side, returning First Team All-Big South performers Justice Galloway-Velazquez and Darion Slade, as well as 2019 second team all-conference defensive end Brevin Allen were all named to the preseason team.

Tyler McLellan, a 2019 Second Team All-Big South offensive lineman, was also named honorable mention preseason all-conference.

Campbell voted fourth in 2020 Big South Preseason Poll
Although there will not be a Big South schedule played this fall, Campbell was voted fourth in the conference's preseason poll with 42 points, just one point shy of Charleston Southern, which picked up one first place vote. Kennesaw State topped the poll with 68 points and eight first place ballots, while 2019 Big South Champions Monmouth came in second with 57 points and the remaining three first place nods.

Hampton (23 points) and Gardner-Webb (19) rounded out the poll. Points were based on a weighted system, with first-place votes receiving six points, followed by five points for second place, and so on.  North Alabama was not eligible for preseason poll due to its transition to Division I.

Names to know
Hajj-Malik Williams, the 2020 Preseason Big South Offensive Player of the Year, was tabbed First Team FCS Freshman All-America by HERO Sports as a rookie in 2019, as well as the Big South's Offensive Freshman of the Year. The Atlanta, Ga. native was a four-time Big South Freshman of the Week and five-time honorable mention FCS Freshman of the Week last season, earning a spot as a finalist on the STATS Jerry Rice Watch List.

The QB became the second Camel and first CU freshman to pass for more than 2,000 yards in a single season, throwing for 2,042 yards and 17 touchdowns, while rushing for a team-high 664 yards and nine more touchdowns, ranking third in the Big South in total offense (2,686), and standing in the top-six in rushing yards, rushing TDs, passing yards and passing TDs.

Caleb Snead is a preseason All-Big South pick for the second straight season, coming off an injury shortened sophomore campaign where he still led the Camels and ranked 11^th in the Big South in receiving yards with 554, playing only nine games. Catching at least one pass in each game, Snead added six touchdown grabs in 2019.

Tyler McLellan was named honorable mention preseason all-league after garnering Second Team All-Big South accolades in his first season of game action in 2019. McLellan started all 11 games at right tackle as a redshirt sophomore last season, helping Campbell rush for 200-plus yards six times, as well as six individual 100-yard rushing performances.

An honorable mention Sophomore FCS All-America (HERO Sports) and First Team All-Big South performer in 2019, Justice Galloway-Velazquez set a Campbell single season record with 111 tackles last season, recording 10 or more tackles six times, including a career-high 18 against Kennesaw State. He was a two-time Big South Defensive Player of the Week, also earning a FCS Defensive Player of the Week honorable mention nod.

Darion Slade was also named First Team All-Big South last season, recording 70 tackles in just nine games, adding 1.5 tackles for loss with a forced fumble, an interception and two pass breakups. Averaging 9.5 stops per game in Big South play, the defensive back posted 10 or tackles four times on the season, including a season-high 12 stops three times (Presbyterian, Monmouth, Charleston Southern).

Brevin Allen, named "The Best Player Who Wears No. 97" in the FCS by HERO Sports, totaled 54 tackles with a forced fumble and a fumble recovery, adding three QB hurries and two pass breakups in his first season as a starter. He earned Big South Defensive Player of the Week honors after posting 3.5 tackles for loss, including 1.0 sack, to go along with eight tackles in a win over Presbyterian.