Charlotte 49ers football could be short 10 starters in season finale at South Florida

Senior days, homecomings, playing spoiler and ending year one on a positive note — Saturday’s season finale for Biff Poggi’s Charlotte 49es has more storylines than usual for a team searching for its fourth victory of the year. But Poggi and Charlotte’s staff only care about one thing in Tampa against South Florida on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. — winning.

While “personal pride” is still the team’s rallying cry, Saturday will close the chapter on Poggi’s first year as head coach. It will also serve as a tryout for a roster that is sure to be in flux from around midnight on Saturday to late August of 2024. Likely down 10 starters due to the spreading injury bug, Charlotte is continuing to dip into its scout team to fill in at crucial moments to round out their first season in the American Athletic Conference.

And if you’ve been following the 49ers through this adventure of a season, you know that performances by the walk-on trio of quarterback Trexler Ivey, center Isaiah Bullerdick and tailback Hahsaun Wilson have provided some of the peaks, resulting in promised scholarships for two of the three to this point.

“Every game is a tryout. Every day at practice is an audition. We will make personnel decisions, as every school will, after the season. This will play into it, for sure,” said Poggi. “For a lot of these guys who haven’t had a chance, it’s a great opportunity. This could be like a Hahsaun Wilson redux for a lot of guys. And for guys that aren’t meeting the challenge, there will be consequences for that, too.”

Injuries, lack of discipline, scholarship distribution, and learning on the fly have also provided some of the valleys, which is a matter of “band-aids and brain surgery,” according to the 63-year-old head coach.

“As much as we love coaches, coaches don’t win games. Players do. We have to really improve the roster, and we’re working on that,” said Poggi. “There are band-aids, and then there’s brain surgery. And I’m a believer in brain surgery. I don’t like doing band-aids.

“This year, I wanted to try and do a quick fix. When I got here and got rolling, there were a lot of things that band-aids wouldn’t fix. So, we have to overhaul a lot of the systems, processes and units. We’re playing in the American Conference — it’s big-time football. It goes through nutrition, budgeting, the training room, rehab, prehab — all of these things really matter. You can just kind of put a band-aid on them, or you can go in and do surgery on them. My job as the head football coach is to make folks a little uncomfortable so that we can get to where we all want to be, which is happy on Saturday afternoons and very comfortable.”

While Poggi didn’t have walk-ons leading game-winning drives, nearly breaking rushing records and filling in on an injury-depleted offensive line on his bingo card, he says it “doesn’t matter.” What matters is leaving Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium with a victory, and Charlotte has a tough test with the Bulls (5-6, 3-4 AAC) vying for their first bowl appearance since 2018.

Road matadors

While Charlotte’s defensive improvements have been a bright spot this season, climbing 75 spots in total team defense rankings under Ryan Osborn, the 49ers’ offense must bounce back from their one-touchdown performance last week to give Charlotte a chance.

In five of the Bulls’ six losses this season, they’ve allowed an average of 52.2 points per game. The other was a 17-3 loss against the No. 10 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. South Florida’s defense is surrendering an FBS-worst 36.8 points and 313.6 passing yards per game on the season. For reference, Charlotte’s troublesome defense from a year ago under Will Healy surrendered 39.4 points and 278 passing yards per game.

Ivey and Mike Miller’s offense will have their opportunities, and Charlotte must turn in its fifth 21-plus point performance of the season to leave South Florida with a victory. As far as Osborn is concerned, Charlotte’s defense is on the post-Thanksgiving feast jeans button mindset.

Bend, but don’t break. Nobody wants to see that.

“Talk about the tale of two tempos — we just played the second slowest in college football, and now we’re playing the second fastest,” Osborn said. “I told the defense that the only chance we’ve got is to limit points. I don’t care about their yards; they’re going to get their yards. I gave them a number (of points). I told them if we hit that number, we’ll win the game.”

The Bulls are led by redshirt freshman Byrum Brown, a former finalist for North Carolina’s 2021 Mr. Football award and a member of The Charlotte Observer’s North Carolina super team. Brown has accounted for 3,527 combined yards, 29 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in his first full season at the helm. The Raleigh native has rushed for 702 yards on the season, which ranks second on the Bulls’ roster and eighth in the AAC.

Brown’s best game of the season came against Rice’s defense in late September, when he shredded the Owls for 520 total yards (435 passing) and three touchdowns. That same defense held Charlotte to just 158 yards of total offense less than seven days ago.

“Let’s talk about Byrum Brown. He wasn’t recruited by Charlotte. It’s the craziest thing how many good players in our conference are from this region and aren’t here,” Osborn said. “This kid is a stud. He’ll be just like (Michael) Pratt and (Seth) Henigan in two years; just wait. Very dynamic. He can beat you with his feet and can throw the ball really well.”

Boding well for Charlotte, Brown has tossed an interception in four straight games, including two in a lopsided loss against Texas-San Antonio last Friday. The 49ers have recorded six interceptions and 16 pass breakups in the last four games alone, led by Dontae Balfour’s team-best 10 pass breakups.

Brown’s favorite target is Sean Atkins, who has 43 more catches than the next-highest Bulls receiver. Atkins has reeled in 79 catches for 900 yards and four touchdowns this season, doing 92.2% of his damage from the slot, according to Pro Football Focus. Nearly half of Atkins’ production has come after the catch, adding 424 of his 900 yards with the ball in his hands. The 5-foot-10 wideout also serves as the team’s punt returner.

How do the Charlotte 49ers win?

South Florida runs nearly 84 plays per game — the most in college football. If Charlotte is to win, it will be generating long, clock-eating drives to give their defense a breather. Charlotte is 16th in the nation in time of possession, holding the ball for over 32 minutes per game.

Whether it’s Wilson, Joachim Bangda, or another running back that Charlotte fans may not know, Miller’s offense must dominate the line of scrimmage and get ahead of the chains. This is a battle of the most penalized teams in the AAC, with Charlotte surrendering 57.9 yards and South Florida 67.5 penalty yards per game.

The more disciplined team will leave Raymond James Stadium with a victory, and Charlotte’s chance to play spoiler starts with a fast start in the game’s opening quarter, where the 49ers have scored just 20 total points all season.