Charlotte 49ers

The spring football period has come and gone, marking the end of Tim Albin’s first spring with the Charlotte 49ers after getting hired away from Ohio last off-season. After two disastrous seasons under Biff Poggi, Charlotte is looking for stability on and off the field as they try to establish themselves as contenders in the […]

Bryce Young is set to enter his second season as an NFL QB and is looking to solidify himself as the QB of the future for the Carolina Panthers. If Young's struggles from last season continue, it'll likely force the franchise to go in a different direction, to find the franchise QB they've been looking for since Cam Newton. 

In today's college athletics, there isn't much of an off-season for major sports like football and basketball, which makes for a busy spring on and off the field. For Charlotte, while they failed to make the NCAA Tournament, they've been busy trying to rebuild their roster for 2024-25. Biff Poggi completed his second spring, as Charlotte's head football coach, as he looks to guide the 49ers to their second-ever bowl appearance, and Charlotte softball made the NCAA Tournament, after winning the American Conference tournament, their first season in the conference. 

When you don't have a baseball team, and your NBA team isn't playing deep into the postseason, the late spring, and early summer months can be lean for a sports radio host, or even a sports columnist. Except in Charlotte, where there always seems to be something worth writing, or talking about, going on. This week hasn't been any different, with the Panthers taking the field for the start of OTAs, the 65th running of the Coca-Cola 600 is this Sunday, and that's right, Hornets guard LaMelo Ball is in the news again, this time facing a lawsuit, after allegedly running over an 11 year old's foot. 

Dave Canales was the only head coach of a local football team that stopped by with the Mac & Bone Show earlier this morning. For the first time this offseason, the guys were joined by Charlotte 49ers head coach Biff Poggi as they discussed a variety of different things. The guys started off by talking […]

When Mike Hill left Florida for Charlotte, he was motivated to build one of the top athletic departments at the Group of 5 level, and after a long wait, combined with a lot of hard work, it appears his vision is coming to fruition. The men's basketball team finished third in the American this past season, they just hired an accomplished coach to guide the women's program, and after an uneven first season of the Biff Poggi era on the football field, Charlotte could contend for a bowl game in 2024. The icing on the cake happened over the weekend, as Charlotte's softball team won the American Conference tournament, clinching a spot in the NCAA Tournament. 

Charlotte's 8-1 start to conference play is as big a surprise as anything we've seen in local or national college basketball this season, and tonight they put that record on the line at South Florida, who is also 8-1 in the AAC. Unlike FAU or Memphis, the only way Charlotte will hear their name called on Selection Sunday is if they win the AAC Tournament next month after a slow start in non-conference play eliminated any chance at being an at-large bid. A win tonight would further help their chances of being the #1 seed in that event, making the path easier to winning three games in three days. 

Last summer, former 49ers head coach, Ron Sanchez resigned from his position as head coach, to return to Virginia as an assistant. Sanchez, who was going to enter the 2023-24 season on the hot seat, didn't wait to be fired, but in the process left the Charlotte program in disarray. There is never a good time to walk out on your program, and the kids you recruited, but in today's era, of the transfer portal, along with NIL, it put the future of the program in even further danger. 

There wasn't a coach that talked more than Charlotte head football coach, Biff Poggi did last year in the preseason, entering his first season on the job. Poggi made bold proclamations that the 49ers would finish top-15 nationally defensively, and would compete to win the AAC, in their first year as a member. None of those things happened, as the 49ers finished 3-9 on the season, and they were 89th in scoring defense. 

The 2023 college football regular season has come and gone, with Championship Weekend just a few days away, and the Charlotte 49ers won't be featured in the AAC title game. After the preseason was highlighted by first-year head coach Biff Poggi, making bold claims about his team, and challenging his fan base to give more money, all the talk, didn't translate onto the field, as Charlotte went 3-9. Had Poggi not made headlines all preseason long, this wouldn't have been seen as a major disappointment, but when your head coach talks the way that Poggi did, it doesn't help. 

The Charlotte 49ers entered last weekend at 2-6, needing to win out to qualify for a bowl game, in the first year under Biff Poggi. That possibility looked bleak, when Charlotte found itself down 17-0, on the road to the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Instead, for the first time really all season, they responded well to adversity and would force overtime, eventually winning 33-26.

Believe it or not, we are in the final month of the college football regular season, as the calendar has turned to November. Back when the season began, 49ers fans were dreaming of making a second-ever bowl game, after an off-season, headlined by the hire of Biff Poggi, followed by the new head coach, making bold claims about how competitive his program would be. Instead, Charlotte finds itself at 2-6, needing to win their remaining four games, to qualify for a bowl game. Those remaining four games, come against Tulsa, Memphis, Rice, and South Florida, with Tulsa being the only team on the schedule with a losing record, making it hard to envision them qualifying for a bowl game.