Who will be the Charlotte 49ers’ next head football coach? A look at 8 candidates
A bunch of names have circulated since the firing of Charlotte 49ers coach Will Healy became official.
And most have substantial ties to the Carolinas.
In a 30-minute press conference on Monday, 49ers athletic director Mike Hill explained that while a timeline for hiring Healy’s replacement isn’t solidified, time is of the essence considering the transfer portal opens in early December. Hill also indicated that Healy’s merits coming into the job — his youth and relative inexperience coaching at the FBS level — won’t mar the program’s search for its next coach.
“Whether it’s a Group of 5, FCS, Power 5, assistant, head coach, young, old — we’re not going to rule anybody out,” Hill told local media on Monday. “It’s way too early in this stage. People will often say, ‘Well who’s on your short list?’ And of course, you keep your eye on people throughout the year in multiple sports, and so we got some names that are intriguing to us.
“But our goal is to first develop a really quality large pool of candidates.”
Here’s who could be Charlotte’s next coach. Attached also is a poll: Tell us who you think should be next to lead the 49ers.
Candidates who could emerge as Charlotte 49ers coach
Pep Hamilton: A Charlotte native, Hamilton is in his second season with the Houston Texans and his first as offensive coordinator after serving as quarterbacks coach for the team in 2021. Hamilton began his coaching career at his alma mater, Howard University, and also worked with the offensive staffs at Stanford and Michigan as well as with the NFL’s Chargers and Browns. His lone head coaching job came with the XFL’s DC Defenders.
Mike Minter: A member of the Panthers’ first Super Bowl squad and two national championship teams at Nebraska, Minter is in his 10th season as head coach at Campbell. He led the Camels to three consecutive winning seasons from 2017-19 and guided the team through a transition to the Big South in 2018. A former assistant at Liberty and Johnson C. Smith, Minter also coached First Assembly Christian in Concord to two state titles in three seasons.
Joe Cox: Cox joined Alabama as tight ends coach in February after spending one season in the same position for Charlotte. He was previously on staffs at South Carolina and Colorado, and before that, he was on the Mallard Creek HS staff when program won back-to-back state championships. He was the starting QB at Georgia and is regarded as one of best high school football players in Charlotte history, winning NC Gatorade Player of the Year while playing QB for Independence.
Gene Chizik: North Carolina’s defensive coordinator and a 26-year college coaching veteran, Chizik has a pair of national championships to his name — one as the head guy at Auburn (the gloried Cam Newton year!) and one as an assistant at Texas.
Josh Gattis: A standout defensive back at Wake Forest, Gattis is in first season as the University of Miami’s offensive coordinator. He’s the reigning Broyles Award winner — given to the nation’s top assistant coach — and spent the previous three seasons as Michigan’s offensive coordinator. Before Michigan, he was on staffs at Alabama, Penn State, Vanderbilt and Western Michigan. Gattis was a candidate for the Charlotte position before Healy’s hire in December 2018.
Skip Holtz: Head coach at Louisiana Tech from 2013-21, Holtz went to seven consecutive bowl games while at the Conference USA team’s helm. He was fired after his first losing season in eight years and has since been coaching in the USFL. The 58-year-old was also the head coach at East Carolina from 2005-09.
Tony Gibson: N.C. State’s defensive coordinator has spent the past four years in Raleigh and was a nominee for the 2021 Broyles Award. The Wolfpack have been consistently among one of the best defenses in the ACC: In 2021, the program finished second in scoring defense (only allowing 19.7 points per game) and third in total defense (331.6 yards per game).
Chris Hampton: Hampton is in his sixth season with Tulane and his second serving as the team’s defensive coordinator. (He took a hiatus in between his run in Tulane to serve as the cornerbacks coach for Duke in the 2020 season.) Hampton has robust experience in the American Athletic Conference and would be a change of pace from Healy’s offensive priority. Hampton also played safety for four years at South Carolina.
Vote for who you want to see take over the 49ers
This story was originally published October 24, 2022 at 6:35 PM.
