I think that most of the things you mention were factors. To the factors you mention, Iād add that the quality of the returning players was lower than I expected. The top players for Charlotte last year were clearly good, but they almost all left. Apparently there was a big gap between those players, and the ones who stayed. I expected more than half the starters to be returning players, with the portal players used to plug gaps and to provide depth. Other than the defensive secondary, there were few returning players who were key players.
As far as the injuries, injuries are always pretty random, with some good years, and some bad years, but I agree that conditioning can play a big part. The most critical injury, the one that hurt the most, was obviously Harrell. When he went down, it looked like a routine tackle, but in an instant he was gone for the season, and was just a fluke, not a conditioning issue.
Looking at the rest of the injuries, one sizeable group stands out, and that is the returning players. Carryover players with injuries include Olson, Rockhead, Laskey, Tifase, Bullerdick, Kelly, Adair, Rutledge, Wallace, King, Brinkley, and Bearns. Is that an indictment of the current conditioning staff? Or the prior one? Or, perhaps that the players who were already injured didnāt go into the portal as they figured no one would want them with their injury? I suspect the latter. A few others who have been hurt came in late, after spring practice, so they missed all the off-season conditioning. That would include the defensive tackles, Kaba, Irving, Solomon, and Williams.
Other than those two groups, that leaves Harrell, O. Davis, McGowan, Burgess, Bowers, and Johnson who have been hurt. Unfortunately, some of those were critical players, but I donāt think the number is large enough to point fingers at the conditioning staff. If I was going to point fingers at the conditioning staff, it would be, not because of injuries, but because the team obviously ran out of gas against N. Texas.
We all agree that there are issues that need to be fixed. In the end, It is Albinās job to make changes. He will be judged based, not on whether he makes the changes that fans think are needed, but on the results he produces. Whether he makes a lot of changes, or none at all, it is results, results, results that will matter.