Charlotte 49ers lose overtime heartbreaker to top American Athletic Conference foe Memphis

The Charlotte 49ers lost a heartbreaker Saturday evening.

With a chance to make a statement in the American Athletic Conference, Charlotte gave the visiting Memphis Tigers (8-2, 5-1 AAC) everything they could handle, falling 44-38 in Charlotte’s second-consecutive overtime game.

In a game that was chaotic from the second quarter on, Charlotte’s best offensive performance, on the legs of walk-on tailback Hahsaun Wilson’s 198-yard, hat trick performance, faltered when it mattered most.

In the final seconds of regulation, walk-on quarterback Trexler Ivey’s fourth and final interception sealed Charlotte’s opportunity to close-out a game in which they led by 10 in the fourth quarter.

After winning an overtime thriller on the road just seven days ago, Charlotte was on the flipside at Richardson Stadium when kicker Kyle Cunanan’s 37-yard overtime attempt sailed wide right — leaving the door open for quarterback Seth Henigan and the Tigers.

Despite throwing the ball 48 times for 329 yards in regulation, it was all ground game in extra time for Ryan Silverfield’s Tigers. Memphis handed the ball to their workhorse Blake Watson on five consecutive snaps, pushing the pile into Charlotte’s end zone to score the victory — marking Memphis’ fourth straight win, and fourth straight game with 44 or more points.

Following a game that the 49ers felt they had multiple opportunities to win, head coach Biff Poggi elaborated on the growth of his team.

“It’s heartbreaking. Memphis will be playing for the league championship, and we gave them everything they wanted, that’s for sure. Our football team is getting better every second. Every second. Am I (upset) we didn’t win? Yeah, I am. My gut is ripped open about it,” Poggi said. “But I’m proud of our team, and I’m proud of our coaches. We’re building something here that matters.”

While there are no moral victories in football, the gut-wrenching defeat showed the direction of the program under Poggi — and offensive coordinator Mike Miller believes that this isn’t just a flash in the pan.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to win games, and that’s why we’ve got a bad taste in our mouths,” Miller said. “That’s a game we should win. We know it as a program. We know where we’re heading. We’re not going to be a flash in the plan. We’re going to build something that has sustained success. This is a part of the journey. This is a part of building it the right way. I can’t wait to see what happens when we really have time to build this thing because it’s going to be special.”

Miller put the lack of late-game execution on himself: “I’ve got to do a better job. It starts with me and no one else.”

Following a game-tying 41-yard field goal from Memphis walk-on kicker Tanner Gillis with 35 seconds to play, a squib kick that landed in the hands of Joachim Banga gave Charlotte the ball in Tigers’ territory with two timeouts and a chance to kick a game-winning field goal.

On the second play of Charlotte’s drive, Ivey took a crucial sack, setting the 49ers back to mid-field, facing a third and long in the waning seconds of regulation. Ivey did precisely what you can’t do in that situation: tossed his fourth turnover of the evening directly to the defense, which had the makings to result in a game-sealing pick-six. Charlotte escaped regulation by forcing a fumble on the return, but the momentum had shifted.

“We had opportunities to win the game, and we didn’t do it,” said defensive coordinator Ryan Osborn. “Before you start winning, you’ve got to learn how to not lose.”

Charlotte went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the American. So, how does Charlotte get over the hump? Osborn and Poggi have ideas.

What’s missing?

While there isn’t an official stat for college football, there have only been 102 NFL games in which a team won with a quarterback tossing four interceptions or more. The most recent was Trevor Lawrence with the Jacksonville Jaguars in last season’s playoffs. For perspective, there have been 15,790 games in the NFL’s history, meaning that there’s a 0.006% chance that a team can overcome a four-interception performance from their signal caller.

And Charlotte was as close as you can get to completing that feat Saturday.

“We had plenty of chances to win the game. Plenty of chances — that’s the bottom line. Obviously, four interceptions are unacceptable,” said Miller. “We’re going to get that fixed and cleaned up between me and the quarterback.”

Yet again, Charlotte returned to the two-quarterback system with Jalon Jones returning to action. After a scoreless first quarter, Charlotte elected to stick with Ivey despite multiple turnovers and yet another slow start. Poggi stated that Jones’ thigh injury held him back, electing to stick with the walk-on quarterback for the game’s final three quarters.

But for Charlotte to reach the heights that it desires — playing for AAC championships, playing in bowl games, and earning national relevancy — the 49ers must find a quarterback to lead the way.

“What’s missing is that we play in a league where there are elite quarterbacks. We need to get better quarterback play,” Poggi said. “Trexler played well last week but (is) inconsistent. He’s young. We need to get better in that department, and we will.”

While Poggi didn’t clearly state that Charlotte will scour the transfer portal this off-season, it’s clear that this team is missing a consistent option that allows Miller’s offensive scheme to operate at a high level with regularity. On the other side of the ball, Ryan Osborn wasted no time pointing out Charlotte’s “elephant in the room.”

“There are some positions that we have to do a great job at the end of the year evaluating and find out where we need some more quality depth. I would say the safety position is that position. That’s the focus — that’s the asterisk. That’s the elephant in the room. We have a couple of games left, and we’ll handle those accordingly. Then we’ll get to work and bring in some good quality players for next season.”

Poggi said that Charlotte’s defensive performance — allowing 430 yards and a season-worst 44 points — was “disappointing.” The 49ers created four turnovers, intercepting Henigan twice as linebacker Demetrius Knight and safety Marcus Robitaille made big plays early in the action, and forced two fumbles – one of which came inside the five-yard line.

But yet again, the big play bit the 49ers. Charlotte’s defense allowed 10 plays of 15 yards or more, totaling 208 of the Tigers’ 430 yards on chunk plays. And in a game that featured everything but a deep-ball touchdown, Charlotte matched blow for blow. The 49ers added nine chunk plays of their own, totaling 242 of their 391 total yards. Five of those chunk plays came from a name that the 49ers hadn’t called on all season.

Wilson’s big day

If you’re looking for a bright spot following the loss, look no further than Wilson.

The redshirt sophomore joined the program in 2021 under Will Healy and had just one career carry coming into Saturday’s game — a four-yard run against Rice in garbage time of Charlotte’s blowout victory over the Owls last season.

In Charlotte’s toughest conference test, Wilson’s name was called with Charlotte’s top three running backs all nursing injuries. He responded with the program’s second-highest rushing total, coming just six yards from Kalif Phillips’ program record of 204 yards set in 2015.

“He earned a scholarship today,” said Poggi. “He’s a walk-on player, and he’s going to get a scholarship in December.”

Wilson poured in 198 yards on the ground and found the end zone three times in the loss, scoring from 2, 3 and 23 yards out. With four-star freshman Durell Robinson out for the season and Shadrick Byrd and Terron Kellman both nursing ankle injuries, the combination of Wilson and Joachim Bangda — who also scored two touchdowns on the ground in the loss — could be the 49ers’ backfield duo moving forward.

What’s next

With the loss, Charlotte (3-7, 2-4 AAC) was eliminated from bowl eligibility. The 49ers will host Rice (4-5, 2-3 AAC) for senior day next Saturday at 2 p.m., and finish the season with a road trip to Tampa to take on South Florida (5-5, 3-3).

Poggi knows that Charlotte has to learn to finish games in crunch time and that excelling in the kicking game is part of winning football. And he believes that Charlotte has their guy.

“I told the team that we’re learning how to finish games. That’s not something you talk about; you’ve got to learn how to do it,” Poggi said. “As far as the field goal in overtime, Kyle (Cunanan) has done so much good stuff as a freshman. He’s going to be a great player. Over the next three years, he’ll win us many more games than he will ever miss kicks in.”

Notes

▪ Tight end Colin Weber reeled in five catches on seven targets for a career-best 117 yards, the most for a tight end in Charlotte history.

▪ Defensive back Dontae Balfour tied a program record with four pass breakups in the loss.

▪ Ivey finished the game 14 of 25 for 168 yards.

▪ Charlotte has now scored 30 points in consecutive games.