Grading the Charlotte 49ers: Is head coach Biff Poggi’s seat heating up? He thinks so

There are tough losses, and then there are embarrassing losses.

Charlotte saw the latter spoil homecoming, magnifying questions of job security for head coach Biff Poggi and the program’s direction amid yet another failed season.

Any hopes that Charlotte (3-7, 2-4 AAC) still had to run the table and qualify for bowl eligibility came crashing down Saturday in a 59-24 loss to South Florida, with the visiting Bulls (5-5, 3-3 AAC) putting on a clinic and capitalizing on a disaster-class performance by Poggi’s team.

Charlotte struck first, and trailed by just four at the halftime break, but a tumultuous third quarter saw Poggi’s team completely unravel. Three turnovers, two of which were returned for touchdowns, resulted in 31 points in fewer than 15 minutes for the Bulls, turning what had been a competitive game at the half into yet another lopsided loss in front of Charlotte’s home crowd.

With 16 days to prepare for the matchup, Poggi’s team suffered its most embarrassing loss when it mattered the most. South Florida ran for 425 yards, gashing Charlotte repetitively and putting the finishing touches on the second losing season of Poggi’s tenure.

And while these grades have followed the team all season, The Observer asked Poggi to grade himself through 10 weeks, and his response highlighted his seat that is heating up.

Coach Biff Poggi’s grade

“Terrible. It all starts with me,” Poggi said Saturday. “The entire organization looks like it looks because it’s the way that I chose it to look. All the blame squarely needs to go on me. These are the kinds of games that you have as a coach when your team is three and (seven), things don’t end well sometimes. I’m fully aware of that. I’d say my grade has been not good.”

With a 6-16 record since taking charge in 2023, Poggi’s tenure has been marred by lopsided losses and heartbreakers where the team couldn’t finish in late-game situations. Highlights include two victories over in-state conference rival East Carolina.

Four of Poggi’s six total wins have followed the ground-and-pound mentality he preached in his introductory news conference, recording 150 rushing yards or more in those instances. But the “run the dang ball” mentality that Poggi hangs his hat on has been absent as of late and was nowhere to be found in the second half of Saturday’s loss.

Rushing offense

With Cartevious Norton kick-starting the scoring with a 6-yard touchdown early in the action, it seemed Charlotte could yet again feed off its ground game, with the quarterback position continuing to be a question mark. But after posting 57 rushing yards in the first quarter, Charlotte failed to match that total the rest of the game, rushing for just 91 yards on 35 carries (2.6 yards per carry). For reference, South Florida didn’t have a single player with a worse average per carry, and nine Bulls players carried the ball.

Charlotte rushed for just 18 yards on 14 carries in the second half, abandoning the run as South Florida began to pull away.

Despite totaling just 30 rushing yards, Norton found the end zone twice, the first coming on Charlotte’s second possession, and the second pulling the Niners within four points early in the second half.

Grade: D

Passing offense

For just the fourth time in 10 games, Poggi stuck with one quarterback for the full 60 minutes — and the first signal caller to get multiple full games at the helm was true freshman DeShawn Purdie. It wasn’t pretty, but Poggi wants Purdie to stick around, and it sounds like there’s mutual interest with two games remaining this season.

“We’re going to go with Purdie. We think he gives us the best chance to build a program here. I do believe he’s a very rare talent. Being a freshman quarterback is a hard job,” Poggi said of Purdie. “I want him to know that we have confidence in him, and he’s all in for coming back. He and his (dad) have a great relationship with me and Mike Miller. He told us recently that he wants to come back, and you build programs around guys like that.

“We’re going to let him prosper and learn when he makes mistakes and try to build this kid up. You don’t have to go out and get a (quarterback),” Poggi continued. “When you have a quarterback like that, players know who has a chance to be a guy that can lead to a really high place, so it helps you retain and recruit (players). It’s good to have him. We have to play better all the way around.”

Despite a career-best 259 passing yards in the loss, Purdie was responsible for four turnovers — two fumbles and two interceptions — three of which came in the third quarter.

Purdie completed 17 of 39 passes, including a 15-yard touchdown to sophomore wideout Zay Myers in garbage time. Myers reeled in four catches for 82 yards and the score, easily playing his best game at Charlotte. Despite Purdie dealing to eight different receivers, the rhythm was nowhere to be found in Miller’s offense.

And 12 penalties for 103 yards will do that, with two offensive pass interference calls, multiple pre-snap procedures, and continuous self-inflicted wounds.

What has been a solid offensive line this season struggled Saturday night, allowing Purdie to be pressured on 40% of his dropbacks and surrendering five sacks — warranting Poggi to make a complete platoon swap of the line, sending in five backups in the third quarter who played “OK,” to his standards.

Grade: D

Rushing defense

While last season’s defensive improvements provided optimism for this season, and even kept Charlotte afloat at times this year, the floodgates opened Saturday. Entering the evening, South Florida averaged 161 yards per game on the ground, and it took just one half for the Bulls to match that total against Ryan Osborn’s reeling defense.

It was a free-for-all for Alex Golesh’s Bulls team, with nine separate skill players seeing carries. And it worked from start to finish.

The Bulls totaled 425 yards rushing at 8.9 yards per carry, with four different backs finding the end zone a total of six times. Kelley Joiner’s 140 yards and two touchdowns on just nine attempts (15.6 yards per carry) led the Bulls’ onslaught.

South Florida outgained Charlotte’s offense on the ground alone, facing just nine third downs. It was chunk play central, with 12 of the Bulls’ 15 big plays coming on the ground — making up 260 of the 425 total yards and three of the six touchdowns.

And it felt like more than that.

Grade: F

Passing defense

Charlotte started the game with its first and only takeaway, with linebacker Cam Burden recording the first interception of his career to halt the Bulls’ opening drive.

But with the ground game resulting in 19 first downs, South Florida rarely needed to put the ball in backup quarterback Bryce Archie’s hands, throwing just 16 times on the game for 126 yards and the interception.

Only four Bulls wideouts caught passes, with slot receiver Sean Atkins reeling in six of his seven targets. Burden led the way on defense with nine tackles, but Charlotte recorded just one tackle for loss and didn’t hit or sack Atkins a single time.

For the second year in a row, it was total domination from the Bulls. And giving up a combined 108 points to South Florida in the past two matchups, Poggi didn’t want to talk about a coaching change on the defense.

“No, I’m not going to talk about that,” Poggi said.

“It was a really bad defensive effort,” Poggi added. “When you look at it, we just haven’t played great on defense. I don’t think we set the world on fire on offense, either.”

After just one loss of 30 or more points in Osborn’s first season as defensive coordinator, Charlotte has surrendered four 30-point losses this season, seeing eye-popping totals of 59, 52, and 51 points culminating in an average of 34.2 points per game, good for 116th in the FBS.

Grade: F

Special teams

Henry Rutledge was named an All-AAC kick returner in the preseason, and has made multiple big plays in the return game this season, but was nowhere to be found on the kick return team Saturday night.

And it cost Charlotte.

Tailback Hahsaun Wilson, who is typically the off-back with Rutledge as the primary returner, got the opportunity to lead the charge Saturday night. And he made the biggest non-quarterback mistake of the game, attempting to draw a flag as the South Florida kick sailed out of bounds down Charlotte’s sideline.

Wilson caught the ball as he stepped out of bounds — and he’s coached to do that, according to Poggi. But instead of drawing a flag to advance the ball to the 40-yard line, Charlotte took over at its own 9-yard line trailing by 14. Two plays later, Purdie tossed a pick-six while backed up in his own end zone.

And although a little too late for it to matter this season, Charlotte’s found its kicker for the future in Michigan State transfer Stephen Rusnak, who on Saturday became the third kicker in program history to connect on multiple 50-plus yard field goals.

Rusnak connected from 51 yards out to give Charlotte its last lead midway through the second quarter.

Grade: C-

Overall grade

Poggi knew that the Bulls were 9-0 in games under Golesh where they ran for over 200 yards on the ground, and even with 16 days to prepare against a backup quarterback, with starter Byrum Brown sidelined, Charlotte gave up more than double that. South Florida totaled 551 yards of offense, outscoring Charlotte in the third quarter alone.

With bowl hopes crushed, the 49ers are playing for pride now, and Poggi knows that he is coaching for his job. Up next is a trip to Boca Raton to take on Florida Atlantic (2-8, 0-6 AAC), and the season concludes with senior day against Alabama-Birmingham (2-7, 1-4 AAC) in two weeks.

It will be Purdie at the helm moving forward and expect to see various personnel groups as the final two games will serve as an audition for next season’s iteration of the 49ers.

Overall Grade: F