Despite bowl loss, Charlotte 49ers’ season a successful wrap. Time for the sequel.

Charlotte 49ers football coach Will Healy was asked to describe his team’s recently completed season.

“A movie,” Healy replied.

It was late Friday afternoon and Healy’s 49ers had just lost 31-9 to Buffalo in the Bahamas Bowl at windy Robinson National Stadium.

Any college football season’s plot has its various twists and turns. The 49ers, as Healy hinted, had more than their share.

In Healy’s first season, the 49ers (7-6) put together the first winning season in the program’s seven seasons of existence and went to their first bowl.

It began with some hope — two victories in their first three games.

Then came a four-game losing streak during which Healy questioned how he and his team had handled that early success.

“He really got into us,” recalled safety Ben DeLuca, who missed the final 11 games of the season with a shoulder injury.

Message received, the 49ers reeled off five consecutive victories, their post-game “Club Lit” locker room victory celebrations going viral.

Then came the Bahamas Bowl, where the 49ers fell flat against Buffalo, a team on its own mission to win its first-ever bowl game.

That’s how the movie ended.

Now it’s time to start thinking about the sequel.

The 49ers will lose several key players off this team, including All-America defensive end Alex Highsmith, all-Conference USA running back Benny LeMay, all-conference offensive tackle Cameron Clark and linebacker Jeff Gemmell, the program’s all-time leading tackler.

But the 49ers appear set up to absorb those losses.

Quarterback Chris Reynolds will be back, along with an entire group of talented receivers, led by Victor Tucker, Cameron Dollar and Tyler Ringwood. That doesn’t include Rico Arnold, Charlotte’s third-leading receiver in 2018 who missed this season with an injury.

At running back, grad transfer Tre Harbison, a former Shelby Crest High star, ran for more than 1,000 yards in each of the past two seasons at Northern Illinois. Aaron McAllister, who’s been LeMay’s backup the past two seasons, returns.

Two all-conference caliber defensive players who missed most or all of the season with injuries — DeLuca and defensive end Tyriq Harris — have said they plan on returning.

Defensive end Markees Watts played opposite Highsmith and had 9.5 sacks. His nine unassisted tackles were a Bahamas Bowl record for that event. Jaison Williams, a former Football Championship Subdivision All-American for Healy at Austin Peay who sat out this season, will get his shot.

At linebacker, Derek Boykins, who started his career at South Carolina, has transferred to Charlotte and will be immediately eligible. True freshman Prince Bemah, who showed promise earlier before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the season’s third game, will also be back.

The secondary loses corner Marquill Osborne and safety Marquavis Gibbs, but everybody else returns (assuming safety Nafees Lyon is granted a final year of eligibility). DeLuca’s return will only help and Healy thinks juco transfer Lindarious Strange will contribute immediately at safety.

There will be holes to fill on the offensive line (where three starters graduate) and the defensive line (which was vulnerable all season to the run).

“We are losing a bunch of great leaders in Jeff Gemmell, (offensive tackle) Cam Clark, Benny LeMay and Alex Highsmith so we are going to have to step up in our leadership roles,” said Reynolds. “We are going to be hungry. This is not how we wanted the season to end. We are going to work harder than we have ever worked before.”

Healy said that, however memorable this season was, it’s not a standard for which future 49ers teams should strive.

“This was an unbelievable ride with a great group of young men, but we’re not even close to where we want to be,” Healy said. “They’ve now set a foundation and broken a barrier that hasn’t happened before. The standards and expectations here are to win conference championships and win bowl games..

“So the standard is still higher than what we were able to accomplish.”

The 49ers open the 2020 season on Sept. 5 at Tennessee.

Grab the popcorn.