Frustration mounting as UNC transfer has yet to play for Charlotte 49ers football
Charlotte 49ers defensive back Ja’Qurious Conley — who transferred from UNC and has yet to play — is ineligible.
“The NCAA should protect and uplift students like (Conley),” head coach Biff Poggi said as part of a lengthy statement released Thursday afternoon. “His story should be a headline on the NCAA website. Instead, his continued success and well-being are at risk because of a technicality.”
Conley’s ineligibility is a decision from the NCAA and is out the Niners’ control, an athletic department spokesman confirmed Tuesday.
Conley was the first true freshman to start for UNC’s football program. Now a redshirt junior, he was expected to play an even bigger role on Charlotte’s defense.
“We were told he was eligible all spring, all summer, all camp, and 24 hours before the first game, I get a call from our athletic director saying: ‘He’s not eligible.’ This kid has absolutely done everything that the University of North Carolina has asked him to do, and Charlotte has asked him to do,” Poggi explained Tuesday in his weekly news conference.
“This is really an incredible injustice, and I’m on the war path.”
Conley hasn’t played in the first four games for Charlotte (1-3), which visits Rice to open American Athletic Conference play at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday in Houston. He played 23 games over three seasons at UNC, where he recorded 81 tackles, including a career-best 46 tackles during the 2021 season.
Poggi: ‘No comment’ on starting QB
After redshirt junior Trexler Ivey returned behind center, Poggi said that Deshawn Purdie is back from his injury.
Purdie, the 18-year-old true freshman, made his first career start in the Niners’ most recent home game and exited with an injury late. He tossed passes during the Niners’ practice on Tuesday morning alongside the other quarterbacks.
Max Brown, the standout signal caller whom Charlotte landed from the Florida Gators, didn’t appear to don the cast on his injured throwing thumb on Tuesday, and was even involved with light conditioning. Poggi said Brown is out, but remains week-to-week.
Which quarterback will start on Saturday against Rice?
“No comment,” Poggi said.
Running back Terron Kellman to return; CJ Stokes out for season
One of Charlotte’s tailbacks sustained a season-ending injury at Indiana.
CJ Stokes barreled into the end zone with a 13-yard rush — his longest in the early goings of his Niner career — in what was expected to be his first full game in a Charlotte uniform. But the Columbia, S.C., native who transferred after winning the national championship at Michigan broke his shoulder while diving through the Hoosiers’ defense.
Poggi confirmed Tuesday that the injury to Stokes — an explosive tailback who hadn’t been seeing much action early on while recovering from another injury — is season-ending.
Terron Kellman, though, will return on Saturday. Among Charlotte’s top returning tailbacks, Kellman rushed for 76 yards in its season opener and has been out since Week 2.
“Henry (Rutledge) is a great kid, first of all, and is a very unique player with a special skill set,” Poggi said. “Kellman’s coming back, and (Cartevious) Norton played great Saturday against Indiana. That’s what we saw when we wanted him from Iowa State. (Hahsaun) Wilson is a really dangerous guy — and we like our freshman, Rod Gainey Jr., he is a good player too.
“We can’t have any more season-ending injuries. I really feel bad for the Stokes kid, because he just got over an injury, he comes back, starts the game at Indiana. And he’s explosive, so we’ll get him fixed. We’ll get him put back together. He’s kind of an erector set. We’ll put a couple screws in there and get him back, but it won’t be for this year.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2024 at 2:01 PM.
