2025 Charlotte 49er Football šŸˆ

Charlotte 49er Football šŸˆ
103

Itā€™s not that much different than the situation Albin faced in Ohio. Ohio has a lot of talent, but the entire state is heavily recruited. It is recruited not only by Ohio State, but by every B1G school, and countless others. When off-campus player camps were allowed, Ohio held one every year in both Cincinnati and in Cleveland, as well as one in Athens. I believe that they absolutely will host one in Charlotte every year. In Ohio, they also hosted clinics every year for high school coaches, and I believe they will do that as well in Charlotte.

The other thing that I believe is that they will not put down some sort of line in the sand. They will simply try to build ties to the players and to the coaches, and take whatever talent they can get that is high enough for them to use. They will make offers to the 4-stars, etc, too, but if they donā€™t get them, they donā€™t. At the other extreme, they wonā€™t be a safety net, and take talent they donā€™t want.

In the end, I believe they can have favorable contacts with both players and coaches, and that they will get some talent. There wonā€™t be a ā€œring around Charlotteā€, but merely good relations. Even that will take time. It wonā€™t happen overnight, nor will it happen with a single effort. Instead it will take persistence. It will take an effort to give to the coaches, training for the coaches, and coaching for their players, and that effort will need to continue for the foreseeable future. Still, thatā€™s a lot easier than traveling the country trying to build relationships with coaches in 100 cities.

If I was going to pick the one huge difference in potential between Charlotte and Ohio, itā€™s that Ohio has virtually no talent located within 50 miles of campus. Perhaps 2 players per year from that area get scholarship offers from all FBS schools combined. That is exactly why I think Charlotte has far, far more potential upside. They donā€™t need all the local talent, just some of it, and they can be a very successful, winning program.

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104

I think the aspect of this that you also may not be familiar with is how the media plays into the recruiting politics here.

A perfect example is how much coverage Belichick got for visiting some of the Charlotte area high schools last week. Of course there is some novelty there, but suffice to say the media loves to make a big deal about it. But you wonā€™t see a single article about Albinā€™s brand new staff doing the exact same thing (and maybe even visiting more of the area schools). Same battle we have been fighting for decades, as it feeds into the ACC bias that these coaches love to trade on (why be a starter at Charlotte when I can be 2nd string at Cheatā€¦ err Chapel Hill and tell everyone Iā€™m at an ACC school, even if it doesnā€™t help my career to not start).

Also I want to disabuse the notion / set expectations for targeting those 4 star (and even high 3 star) level players. We absolutely expect not only to offer them, but to land a few. We have done so in the past. That is the expectation for every serious AAC program. The problem is when you go to recruit a kid and his HS coach doesnā€™t even want to let you talk to him because ā€œhe is going to the ACCā€ā€¦ Coaches playing gatekeeper. Itā€™s hit and miss as far as that goes, from what Iā€™ve been told. Some do it. Some donā€™t.

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105

OK, thank you. The first part is similar to Ohio, where the media was only interested in what OSU was doing. Here, itā€™s going to be compounded by the fact that Belichick is a well-known entity, while Albin is a relatively unknown commodity, having only been a head coach for a few years. Still, I expect Albin to play the long game, and weā€™ll have to see what progress he makes over time.

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106

By the way Carl, I really enjoy your contributions.

Thereā€™s a little salt in my tone when I discuss some of this stuff, but itā€™s 100% directed at the media / local biases (not you!). Niner fans have long suffered from being given 2nd tier (or worse) status.

Even when we regularly had a top 25 basketball program, for about a decade, we always had to deal with the bias. It doesnā€™t go away when we are trying to build a football program. Iā€™m sure Ohio fans have had to put up with that same crap (tOSU) forever.

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107

No worries. I knew exactly what you meant, and why. Ohio has had the exact same experiences, so youā€™ll find the same salty tone regularly on Bobcatattack. The only place it differs, really, is that Ohio is in a very small town, and has very little local talent to recruit, which limits how far the program can go, and it also makes it easier for the rest of the state to simply ignore them. Charlotte does not have that problem. They do have local talent. I canā€™t predict how successful Albin will be with the local coaches and players. I can only predict that he will never stop trying to build a good relationship with them.

As a reason for optimism, consider that Ohio had a winning program, and won 10 games a year the last few years, even with no local recruits at all. Well, almost none. The last local recruit was in 2020, Keegan Wilburn. Yet, despite that, they managed to find enough talent to win. Now, consider that it can only be better in Charlotte, where there is local talent, so there is every reason to be optimistic.

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108

I think Will would have done better with local staff if Covid hadnā€™t blown their plan up. Him hosting local staffs in the football center just to talk football was working from what I understand. Also in that note the Ratliff tragedy also blows up recruiting early in our programs life.

If it wasnā€™t for bad luck we would have no luck.

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109

This is what I show for the roster. I have divided into three groups, separated by a | mark. The first group is those that played some last year. The second group is transfers in. The third group is returning players who didnā€™t play:

QB (0+3+1) | Loftis, Harrell, WIlcke | Bushee

RB (3+1+3) Rutledge, Gainey, Stokes | Chaney | Davids, Simmons, Guenther

WR (3+4+5) Burris, Lamb, Hopkins| Hampton, Gibson, McGowan, Mason | Green, Eley, White, Austin, Hamliton

TE (3+1+3) Beams, McGee, Adair| Young | Rhoads, Laskey, Jeffares

OL (5+5+8) Herman, Clipper, King, Bullerdick, Gibson | Samples, Shirley, O.Davis, D.Davis, Bowers | Martinez, Adair, Jensen, Cunningham, Brinkley, Silvia, Kelly, Rockhead

DE/Edge/Jack (2+3+1) Spellman |Johnson, Mullen, Liverpool | Brown

DT/NT (5+1+2) Morgan, Martin, Coates, Shockley, Tifase | Burgess | Lambert, Davis

WLB/MLB (2+3+2) Williford, Okate | Willis, Startz, Bowman | Hayes, Simmons

CB (3+4+0) Booker, Edwards, R. Franklin | Shipman, Baldwin, Bootle, Gill

SS/FS/NB (9+2+3) McGee, Ali, Conley, Burton, Clinkscales, Breon, Cotman, Grant, Allen |
Curtain, Womack | Williams, Cannon. S.Franklin

PK (0+1+3) | Ferguson | Fotopoulos, Long, Patrick
P (0+0+1) | | Bennett
LS (0+1+2) | Garfield | Billings, Saragusa

Total Players 97

Anyone care to guess a way too early depth chart?

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110

Im definitely all for an early depth chart but a few of these guys have graduated or hit the portal, traynor, hasard, herman but our roster is really coming into shape

111

I might be having a senior moment, but didnā€™t DT Dez Morgan somehow get another year?

And Iā€™m pretty sure you missed Spellman at LB/Edge.

I think our OL and our DL / Edge rusher depth looks weak still. And I donā€™t know who our playmakers are at WR. Do we have any?

112

Hey heres the most updated roster,

A few of yours are wrong for example Booker, Culp, and Kennon all wonā€™t be here.

116

Hey, I expected to have some errors. I appreciate the help in fixing it. I deleted Kennon, Culp, Treynor, Hassard and Booker, and added Spellman, McGee, Saragusa and Allen, so farā€¦still fixing itā€¦

Then added Booker back for now. Gabe said he is not coming back, but he is in Gabeā€™s spreadsheet as returning, so Iā€™m not sure which is correct.

I left Herman as he was reported to have left the portal and returned to Charlotte. Same for Chantz Williams.

Unsure what to do with Mayes, Kelly-Lawson, Dez Morgan, Charlie Jackson, Stone Handy, Stephen Sings, Jalar Holley, Ositadinma Ekwonu, Jaavan Mack, and CJ Burton. Are they all out of eligibility? If Sings and Kelly-Lawson are gone, DE is still very thin, and if Chantz Williams is also gone, thinner still.

1 Like
117

I spent some time looking at the individual returning players, and Iā€™m startled by what I found in terms of player retention. Here is what I found:

2024 recruiting class: 17 players, 12 remain

2023 recruiting class: 17 players, 2 remain (Kelly, Coates)

2022 recruiting class: 15 players, 2 remain (Brinkly, Williford)

2021 recruiting class: 21 players, 1 remains (Rutledge)

2020 recruiting class: 23 players, 2 remain (Morgan, King), 1 has returned (Garfield)

Nearly the entire team is made of transfers. I understand that some people leave every year, and that transfers come in, but this is way more turnover than I was expecting to find. The good news is that there are a lot of players who were originally very highly rated. That means there is some core athletic ability here, if the staff can unlock it, and focus it into a team. The bad news is that building a team culture may be a challenge.

My expectation is that the coaching staff wonā€™t treat these players like professionals. Instead, they will focus on teaching them basic skills. Some players may reject that, I donā€™t know. In the end, I hope that all the players will find that they wish to stay in Charlotte so as to continue to grow, and to win.

118

Prob pretty common stats after a coaching change. And add in not having to sit a year to transfer.

119

Actually, those numbers donā€™t surprise me at allā€¦if one thinks about the fact weā€™re on our third new staff in four years.

120

It seems the HS Coach we hired didnt do much HS recruiting or wasnt successful at itā€¦. Another odd conclusion of our last two years.

1 Like
121

OK, thanks. I guess that makes sense. Poggi either didnā€™t like/want Healyā€™s recruits, or at least, didnā€™t make a special effort to retain them, so they left. Then Poggi focused primarily on replacing them via the portal. He brought in some very good talent, but the culture must have been eclectic, and the team cohesiveness must have been weak.

Albin did make an effort to retain players, and talked a bunch of them into coming back from the portal, but he got a late start, so there is virtually no high school class this year (currently stands at 2 recruits, Fergusen and Womack), and he had to hit the portal hard. That leaves him in the same situation, with no culture. However, rather than looking for raw talent, he looked for leaders, and I think that will make all the difference in building a cohesive team. If things go as I hope/expect, only 4-5 players will go into the portal next year, and Albin will get a good start on 2026 recruiting, and then the class will look like a more normal 20-25 Freshmen and 10-15 from the portal.

Really, to develop a consistent culture, one where the winning expectations remain the same from year to year, you need a significant portion of players who stay for 4-5 years. Since the 2025 class will be tiny, that will have to fall on those 12 players from the 2024 class, and the 14 walkons left from 2024. Those must be the anchor for the years ahead, and thatā€™s true whether they ever see the field or not. The only ones that have played are Gainey, Burris, Allen, and Adair, but the others are just as important. Those 26 players need to step up now, and welcome the newcomers, and work their asses off in the weight room, showing them that Charlotte is all about winning.

1 Like
122

Winning is definitely not what we are all about, some places yes, not here.

123

Poggi tried to do the same thing Coach Prime did at Colorado, wholesale remaking the roster with transfers to win early.

The mistake Poggi made was pulling so many of his former St Francis players from wherever they were. It created a divide in our locker room which killed any chance at cohesion or culture.

The preseason mags predicted this happening - they said he would bring in a ton of talent but still only expected us to win 2-3 games. Said it all.

124

Doing it the ā€œCoach Primeā€ way will definitely not be Albinā€™s strategy. This year, he has had to use the portal heavily, or there would be no team. His focus will be on building a culture, because it is culture and work ethic that makes a team win year in and year out. Albin will use the existing players, supplemented with players from the portal. The people who work the hardest, and practice the hardest, will rise to the top. That could be people from the portal. It could be scholarship players from Poggi. It could be walkons.

My guess is:
QB: One of the three from the portal

RB: Rutledge, Gainey, Stokes and Chaney will all get carries, and 1 or 2 will rise to the top. One or more might move to WR

WR: Most of the old leaders are gone. Burris and Lamb will play, as will some from the portal, but some others, such as Hopkins might rise up the charts

TE: Beams will probably start

OL: probably will be mostly existing players, with 1-2 from the portal. The OL from the portal are mostly JUCO, so they will be the future more than the present

DE: could be old or new players, depends on who plays hardest and best

DT: existing players will be inside

LB: could be old or new players

CB: again, could be old or new. There is a lot of talent now. Who will be the best? Idk

SS/FS/NB: will be mostly existing players, I expect

In the end, I expect the starters to be 2/3 existing players, 1/3 new players. I also expect them to win, though I expect the first half of the season to be difficult. Iā€™d like to see them win 5 of the last 6.

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125

Bearnes is a FB who converted from TE. Id be extraordinarily surprised if lamb starts.